Morrell: A Centimetre Away From Victory

Wrexham player-manager was full of praise for the work-rate and endeavour of his Wrexham side, after they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Macclesfield.

The stalemate at the Racecourse has seen the Dragons drop to fourth in the table, 10 points behind Mansfield and 11 behind leaders Kidderminster.

But Morrell could not fault his players, despite stretching their barren run in front of goal in the league to a third successive game, and was left to rue fine margins.

“I thought the lads were excellent on a tough pitch against tough opponents,” enthused Morrell. “Their endeavour and work-rate is second to none for me. It’s just fine margins at the minute. You’re talking a couple of centimetres for an offside on Saturday, and another couple today for a header off the bar. It’s just not going our way at the minute in front of goal.”

“But we defended resolutely today, even when we were trying to get the goal at the end. The lads did brilliantly and I can’t fault them. We’ve just got to keep going, stay in and hang in there because our luck in front of goal will change if we keep playing like that.”

Morrell, starting for the first time since Wembley last weekend, thought he had broken the deadlock early in the second-half when his thunderous header come off the underside of the bar and onto the line, but the referee adjudged it not to have crossed the line.

When asked if it had indeed crossed the line, the player-manager conceded “I’m not so sure, I haven’t seen it. Billy says he’s not so sure, but he thinks it’s tighter than what they’re saying. We’ll have to look at a video from about 400 foot away. But the ‘keeper got a little fingertip on it and that’s all it takes. Another centimetre and it goes in off the bar and you’re laughing.”

Morrell also believes that Adrian Cieslewicz’s honesty denied Wrexham a second half penalty, “Cis as well, he was through, and he’s so honest because he wants to score himself. He could have gone down for a penalty, it would have been a sending off as well and a game-changing moment. But he tried to score himself and maybe been a bit too honest.”

With Wrexham having failed to score in the league since a victory at Lincoln City last month, Morrell preferred to praise the opposition goalkeepers, rather than lay the blame at a misfiring strikeforce.

When asked if it was simply not Wrexham’s day, he replied “It seems that way at the minute.”

“In front of goal, last three games we’ve played, we’ve come up against three ‘keepers who’ve played really well, tipping things onto posts and turning them round. But that’s their job, that’s what they’re meant to do. We’ll keep going, we’ve got six games left and you never know. We’ll get as many points as we can and see where we’re at.”

With the remainder of the top 5 – Kidderminster, Mansfield, Newport and Grimsby all winning – Wrexham’s pursuit of the league title looks set to fall agonizingly short yet again. But Morrell is not giving up.

“It’s obviously going to be really tough, but we start here on Thursday and you never know. We’ve got to look after ourselves and try and beat Mansfield, who are flying. A team that wins 12 on the spin are obviously doing something right, so we’ve got to make sure that we compete with them. If we do nick it, then who knows, it’s a cat amongst the pigeons.”

With Mansfield travelling to the Racecourse for a rescheduled game on Thursday night, Morrell believes their disappointing form can be rectified, and in turn their league-standing.

“We’ve just got to try and win the game like today. I thought we’d done everything we can to win the game bar putting the ball in the net. We’ll see what happens Thursday.”

With Wrexham forced to cram their six remaining league games into a 17 day period, starting on Thursday, Morrell will be forced to shuffle his pack, especially considering an injury list that is starting to mount up.

“I think I’ll have to again, because the pitch… I don’t know if I’d have rather it had snow on it! Everybody has done fantastically to clear it, you’ve seen the amount of it around the pitch. It was fantastic, but it’s still heavy under there and it takes a lot out of the lads. We’ve got a couple of days recovery and then we’ll go again.”

Danny Wright was forced to miss the game with a neck spasm, but Morrell is confident that he will be available for the visit of Mansfield.

“It just takes longer than we thought, I’m hoping he’ll be right for Thursday. We’ll just have to take it day by day, Neil Ashton and Dave Artell are the same. They’re all quite close but are they close enough I don’t know.”

You can read our full match report by clicking here.