Here we are again, the rollercoaster starts for Saints when they take on newly promoted Wrexham in the second Championship match of the weekend, can we get off to a great start for once.

Saints rarely win the opening game of the season, don't ask me why, but at some point in the past 35 years we stopped winning opening fixtures very often and have never rarely got a run together of winning.

However two years ago we got off to a good start when we won at Sheffield Wednesday and hopefully we can repeat that today.

This is a hard preview to write, to be blunt no one really has a clue about either team, Wrexham are newly promoted and have done their usual trick of scrapping their promotion winning side and buying anew and Will Still has not really revealed his hand in the pre season friendlies about what his preferred formation is, let alone his first choice players and the Brighton game will have left him with a few quandaries.

In terms of the visitors, looking at their signings they have made 9 signings, but they don't excite, the likes of Josh Windass & Keiffer Moore are old warhorses, few are truly experienced at Championship level and in their prime, their top signing is Lewis O'Brien from Nottingham Forest at £3 million who at 26 has a few Championship seasons with Huddersfield.

The total spend is around £10 million and would any of these get in our team ? the answer is probably not.

Wrexham seem to have build this season's team not to take the division by storm, but to stay up & consolidate.

So we should go into this game with confidence we have the core of a very good squad still at the club as it stands.

We have 4 forwards at our disposal for this game who are proven goal scorers in the Championship plus new signing Damion Downs and of course our latest academy starlet Jay Robinson, Will Still has a lot of options going foward.

But as was shown in the friendlies the issue is about getting the ball to them and creating chances.

This is where hopefully Matteus Fernandes will come to our rescue in this game, it could well be his parting gift to us, but he is showing that he is not only a professional, but he cares for the club, unlike Dibling, Edozie & Aribo whose heads seem to be already elsewhere, that is disappointing, I can understand it with Dibling to a degree, he is a youngster being pulled in different directions and with large amounts of money being waved in his face, but Edozie & Aribo are more experienced, they should be focused on the club that employs them, not who might of for that matter might not come the end of the transfer window.

The centre of midfield is an area where we are strong but for this game exposed, Matteus Fernandes and Flynn Downes have not had ideal pre seasons because of niggling injuries, Will Smallbone is injured and Joe Aribo as mentioned not involved.

Shea Charles will be anchoring, but we are going to have to make and mend in this area.

In defence the first question to be answered will be whether we will play 4 or 5 at the back, given our lack of wide men available at present for various reasons, I would not be surprised to see us start with 3 central defenders and wing backs.

Against Brighton we played a flat back four and constantly got overrun, when we went to a 5, it changed the game and we looked a lot better, so I suspect that this could be the case and that we will utilise Sugawara & Manning or Wellington as wing backs.

The central 3 will probably include Jack Stephens and you may be surprised to see that I am not jumping up and down with indignation here, that is because at the moment we have a lack of experience in the centre of defence, ironically perhaps that gap could have been filled by Conor Coady who will almost certainly start for Wrexham, but in the absence of signing someone, Stephens is the only real experience that we have.

Joshua Quarshie is big strong and fast, but he is young and inexperienced and needs someone talking him through games, Nathan Wood at 23 essentially has only two full seasons to his name with Swansea and when you add last season and a couple of loan spells, he is still short of 100 League games to his name.

Ronnie Edwards is a year younger and has almost 150, so he is getting there, but I suspect that Will Still will go for Stephens Quarshie & Edwards as his starting 3 in the centre.

I see this as a game between a team that is looking to be in the promotion battle for the coming season and another that is perhaps accepting that as it stands at the moment it knows it has reached it's limits.

I look at the Disney channel funded club and truly fear for their long term future when the Hollywood stars have lost interest and the TV cameras have left.

The big American audiences have lapped up the promotion campaigns, winning seasons they call them, it gets bums on seat as they say, so the cynic in me says that their transfer window has been about viewing figures, they are not strong enough for promotion, a season firmly in mid table won't excite the star struck masses, but a glorious battle against relegation will keep the excitement levels going.

Cynical yes, but Wrexham is a media circus, an experiment in taking a small club and seeing how big they can make it, Wrexham is a small town of approximately 50,000 people, add on the area around it and it might get up to around 70,000, but most of them support Manchester United or Liverpool, the nearest big town is Chester which is in England and they most definitely do not like Wrexham.

So it is time that Wrexham got their wake up call, their fans will hope that the momentum from the last few seasons will overflow into this game and that is the worry for Saints, the opening game can spring some surprises.

But we should be too strong for them, this is where the Will Still factor comes in, he now needs to show that he can manage, that he is as tactically astute at this level as he was on the continent, this is going to be the deciding factor in this game.

All Photos Via Reuters

Bowlercow added 10:29 - Aug 9 Last time in the Championship we won our opening game away to newly promoted Plymouth It was the first game of the new season and played on the Friday evening It seems that the first week end relegated team play promoted team My fear is that some of our young guns may not be able to handle the rough and tumble of this division Skill wise we are definitely up there with the best Will has a steep learning curve ahead but I am confident in his quiet positive manner So good luck everyone but most of all enjoy every match day

0

WestSussexSaint added 11:13 - Aug 9 Bowlercow - first game was away to Sheffield Wednesday which was on the Friday night and we had our first taste of Russball. Plymouth was game three I think with Norwich in between. Nick, your statement that Dibling etc have had their heads turned and don’t want to play for Saints is incorrect. Certainly for Dibling and Edozie there are firm transfer discussions in progress so Saints have withdrawn the players to protect the transfer fee. I don’t doubt these players will be gone before the end of the transfer window but if they remain Saints players then they will play a full part in the campaign. While I agree that the media hype around Wrexham is absurd but think that the owners are genuine in their views about the club and town. But so far they have only tasted success. It will be I interesting to see how they and the club manage a bit of failure and how they handle fan criticism that will come with that. Hopefully that starts today!

0

WestSussexSaint added 11:13 - Aug 9 Bowlercow - first game was away to Sheffield Wednesday which was on the Friday night and we had our first taste of Russball. Plymouth was game three I think with Norwich in between. Nick, your statement that Dibling etc have had their heads turned and don’t want to play for Saints is incorrect. Certainly for Dibling and Edozie there are firm transfer discussions in progress so Saints have withdrawn the players to protect the transfer fee. I don’t doubt these players will be gone before the end of the transfer window but if they remain Saints players then they will play a full part in the campaign. While I agree that the media hype around Wrexham is absurd but think that the owners are genuine in their views about the club and town. But so far they have only tasted success. It will be I interesting to see how they and the club manage a bit of failure and how they handle fan criticism that will come with that. Hopefully that starts today!

0

StEdmund added 11:43 - Aug 9 First matches against newly promoted sides are very tricky as they are on a high and also have a full squad to call on. Later in the season when they have injuries etc, that's the time to play them!
1

Blogs 31 bloggers

Derby County Polls