By Nathan Jackson
June 23 2011

Wrexham are familiar foes to the Imps following the clubs having spent four of the last ten seasons in League Two together. The Welsh club were relegated in 2007/8, that despite beating City 4-2 at Sincil Bank on the final day, and have had an average record in the Conference since, other than last year's Playoff years.

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Back in 2006/7 Wrexham survived with a last day win over Boston United. Wrexham had looked down and out for most of the season but a brilliant end to the season, including a 3-0 win at Sincil Bank that effectively ended City's interest in the chase for automatic promotion, saw them save eventually. Due to this end of the season, some of their fans proclaimed that they would challenge for the Playoffs. One fan in particular posted on "The Football Forum" that he was confident Wrexham would dominate the division, scoring well in excess of 100 goals. I thought he was joking at first but he did give a breakdown of how many each player would score.

Skip forward twelve months and despite beating City 4-2 at Sincil Bank on the last day, the Welshman were relegated, finishing rock bottom of the division. Their life in the Conference couldn't have started any easier, recording a massively impressive 5-0 win over Stevenage at the 15,500 capacity Racecourse on the opening day. Despite this, inconsistency was their main problem during that first season and it was little surprise when current Gainsborough boss Brian Little was sacked and replaced by Dean Saunders. They finished the season with just two wins in seventeen games, finishing fifteen points off of the top five.

2009/10 was a pretty similar story, winning at home convincingly on the opening day before then plodding through the season, never looking like finishing anywhere other than midtable. They also managed to win back to back games just once during the year.

Last season started with yet another opening day home win, this time 1-0 over Cambridge, just one of two wins in their opening nine games. Midtable looked like a likely finish for them again before seven straight league wins midway through the season saw them launch and unlikely Playoff bid and despite a spell of dodgy form, including a strange 7-2 home defeat to Gateshead, three wins in their final four games secured their Playoff place. The joy didn't last long through as three goals in 35 minutes for Luton ended the Playoffs pretty early on, with Dean Saunders' men eventually losing 5-1.

Wrexham have made arguably the biggest coup out of any of the Blue Square teams so far, securing the services of one of the most successful lower league defenders in history. Chris Westwood made 251 appearances for Hartlepool between 1999 and 2005, finishing as Division 3 (as it was known then) runners up in 2002/3 as well as featuring in five Playoff campaigns for them....they were relegated in the season after he left for Walsall. He won League Two whilst with the Saddlers before joining Peterborough United and won promotion twice with them in two seasons. Last season saw him win promotion with Wycombe. In 12 years as a first team professional, his overall record stands at winning one division, finishing as runner-up on three occasions, one third place and a massively impressive five appearances in the Playoffs.

The Imps and Wrexham have shared a few players over the last few years. Drewe Broughton was relegated with both sides (amongst many others that the goalshy striker has relegated before arrogantly claiming it's not his fault) and Dean Keates, Frank Sinclair, Kevin Gall and Nat Brown have all played for both in the last few years.

Wrexham have been rated as potential Playoff challengers by the bookmakers.

Getting to know the Blue Square Premier : Wrexham

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 23/06/2011 21:55

theimps.ka
23/06/2011 21:55

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