TT No.118: Andy Gallon - Sun 28th December 2008; Wrexham v Woking; Blue Square Premier;       Res: 1-1; Att: 4,803 (85 away); Admission: £16; Programme: £2.50 (68pp); FGIF Match Rating: ****

It's hard to believe Wrexham are playing non-league football. The term 'big club' is often bandied about rather thoughtlessly by fans and pundits, but the Red Dragons, certainly in Football League lower division terms, could be described accurately as such. Wrexham are located amid a huge catchment area, boast excellent attendances, and play in a stadium, which, though in parts rather faded and requiring titivation, remains impressive, and hints at a more glorious past than the relatively impoverished present would suggest.   Whether the North Walians, now under the managership of former international striker Dean Saunders after the unexpectedly disastrous reign of Brian Little, can make an immediate return to the Football League remains to be seen. Judging by Saunders' comments in the simply superb programme, and after the game, the pattern of this fixture was frustratingly familiar. Wrexham dominated for long periods, but failed to make the most of their chances, while looking sufficiently hesitant at the back to raise fears fairly moderate opposition could score whenever, and wherever, they attacked. The Red Dragons, 14-2 winners on the corner count, would not have been flattered by a 5-1 victory, but, equally, might have lost 2-1 or even 3-1. It's a funny old game, as my new travelling companion, a football rookie, is discovering. Not that Saunders is laughing. He claimed Wrexham had made 55 goalscoring opportunities during the last four games, but converted just nine. Dark mutterings and veiled threats about the January transfer window followed.      Driving along Mold Road from the direction of the Wrexham bypass, it feels as if you're going to a 'proper' football match. The 15,500-capacity Racecourse Ground, two of its three imposing stands prominent, looms large on the left, and its traditional corner floodlight pylons add to the sense of occasion. This isn't, by any measure, a non-league set-up. Wrexham, four seasons excepted, have played here since formation in 1872, and their pride is the unusual Mold Road stand, which opened in 1999, thanks to grant aid and sponsorship, and dwarfs the adjacent semis. Its elliptical design allows room at the town end for the historic, if tatty, Turf Inn, together with the name, a relic of when this venue hosted racing. The stand's red-brick base, featuring, inevitably and at a price, the names of lovestruck fans, gives way to elegant sweeps of light metal panelling for a clean, slick and sleek look. The curving roof, in three sections and reaching its apex above the halfway line, is even more futuristic, though the exposed breeze block in the spectator concourse and the poor cover afforded to fans in the front rows of the seats, indicates a budget production. I'm betting the banqueting and conference facilities squirrelled away within the club's inner sanctum are rather plusher. The single tier of 3,500 red plastic tip-up seats contains white examples which, together, spell out the name Wrexham. Hospitality boxes line the rear, where there is also a television gantry.   From here, to the right, is The Kop - sculpted into its present form in 1952, and as old fashioned an end as they come. Out of bounds at present, its steps of terracing and uneven rows of crush barriers, painted red and white, accommodate 4,900 and are covered only at the rear third by a traditional cowshed shelter,  whose appearance takes you back to the 1970s in an instant. Anyone for Watney's Red Barrel? Several poles are arranged along the roof, but only one bears a flag. The club have plans for a 5,000-seat stand to brighten up this forlorn and dated end, but relegation from the Football League has put them on hold. To the rear is a modern, and fairly ghastly, building containing the well-stocked club shop and ticket office. Beyond that can be found Wrexham General railway station, its dog tooth canopies in green and cream a delightful artefact of Victoriana. The club shop is worth a look because of the roof-mounted posters which carry, in words and pictures, Wrexham's historical timeline.    The Yale Stand, opposite the Mold Road side, has acted as Wrexham's main stand since its construction in 1972 for the club's first venture into European football. How distant those days must seem now. Named after the college located to its rear, the stand is a child of its generation - functional and plain. There are two tiers of seats, 4,200 of them, beneath a gunmetal grey 'goalpost' roof. Most are a faded red, though the top right and left sections are in navy. The players' tunnel, one of those 'concertina' affairs, is off centre to the left as you look at the stand, with the modern dugouts, of perspex over red metal frames, positioned on the halfway line.   To the left, the Eric Roberts (Builders) Stand is of a similar design and vintage as the Yale, and opened in 1978 to celebrate the club's promotion to Division Two. Equally plain and timeworn, it gets the job done, but no more than that. Its two tiers again feature faded red seats, 3,800 this time, and the upper section now houses Wrexham's Kop, with a drummer stirring up some lively chanting. Not a feature common in the Blue Square Premier. Can you keep the noise down, please? An electronic scoreboard, hopelessly under-used, is suspended from the mid-section of the 'goalpost' roof girder and, presumably, spoils the view from the rearmost rows. The spectacularly chunky floodlight pylons, once common, but a rarity these days, date from 1959. Long may they survive. Behind what used to be the Border Stand at this bypass end is what appears to be a sixth form college, but is, in fact, something called the Glyndwr University. Words fail me.   It's not cheap to watch Blue Square Premier games, and two of the best seats in the house set me back £32; inclusive of a £4 reduction for booking before the day of the game. But I couldn't complain, for this was a cracking match. Wrexham began breathing the sort of fire you'd expect from dragons, and looked as if they were going to sweep aside below-strength strugglers Woking, who opted for a defensive 4-5-1 formation and a containment mindset. Chances came and went before the hosts went ahead in the 24th minute, when an unpoliced Marc Williams met a Wes Baynes corner to guide a glancing header into the bottom corner for his 11th goal of the season. It was a laser-guided effort because Williams noted the Cards had failed to position a full-back on the goalline at the far post. Had the defender been there, he would have cleared comfortably. Why have teams started doing this? I can't work it out. Woking, helped by Wrexham's inadequacies at the back, were dangerous on the break, and Delano Sam-Yorke wasted a great chance to equalise when he volleyed over first time from 12 yards after athletic keeper Gavin Ward had denied lone striker Wilfried Domoraud in a one-on-one.   After the break, Woking came more and more into the game, and Ward had to race off his line to thwart giant substitute Tom Denton, who almost scored with his first meaningful touch. Wrexham went straight up the other end, and Jefferson Louis saw Cards keeper Simon Eastwood claw his looping header on to the underside of the crossbar. But the home fans, no strangers to disappointment in recent years, were left holding their bobble hat-covered heads in frustration with 18 minutes left when the visitors grabbed an equaliser straight from a pantomime script. Frenchman Domoraud, who had a fair turn of pace for a big fella, did well to keep the ball in on the left side of the pitch. His low cross was missed by two home defenders attempting to execute balletic clearances, and Denton, all alone at the back post, showed remarkable deftness to poke a rising shot past the exposed Ward. In a stomach-churningly tense finish, Matt Pattison could not find a way past the Wrexham keeper when through on the left side of the box, and Williams' smart shot on the turn from 18 yards brought a magnificent diving parry out of Eastwood. So, deadlock.   I last saw Wrexham almost 12 months ago when they drew 2-2 at Morecambe in another lively contest. Such was their spirit, I couldn't see them going down. But they did. I'll stick my neck out again, and predict them to win promotion. If they can add a cutting edge to their neat pass-and-move football, and tighten up in defence, the Red Dragons should have enough in their locker, though elevation will have to come via the play-offs. And, of course, the Football League would welcome back with open arms a club with such facilities and potential.

contributed on 29/12/08