Wrexham took a giant step towards promotion on Saturday afternoon, coming from a goal down to beat Colchester United 2-1 away from home.
Wrexham’s away day record has been patchy at best and Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat at Doncaster Rovers left supporters fearing another difficult outing in Essex.
Those fans probably had a sinking feeling on Saturday as John Akinde smashed home a bouncing ball, firing Colchester ahead as Wrexham failed to clear the ball.
Wrexham needed a big response in order to avoid another away day defeat and Paul Mullin stepped up, powering a header in from Ryan Barnett’s cross.
Phil Parkinson needed one more big push and Wrexham found a winner with just five minutes of normal time to play.
George Evans hurled a long throw into the box and Max Cleworth rose highest to head home his first ever league goal – and it handed Wrexham all three points.
Danny Cowley on Wrexham
This could have been another disaster on the road for Wrexham but that fight and determination to turn the game around bodes well for the final weeks of the season.
Three wins from the final four games would send Wrexham up and Parkinson should be encouraged by that second-half fightback.
Colchester boss Danny Cowley has now offered his view on the game to The Daily Gazette and suggested that his side were superb for 60 minutes but then really fell off.
Cowley added that Wrexham players were actually ‘fighting between themselves’ at half-time, arguing about the first-half performance as Colchester were simply better.
Cowley thinks that Wrexham have two ways to win – either through sheer physicality or by a moment of quality – and Colchester just couldn’t keep their performance up.
“Playing football for 60 minutes is not enough,” said Cowley. “If you want to win, you have to play for 90 minutes or however long they want to add on these days. We were 1-0 up in front of a full house and the atmosphere was bouncing and you just need to step up and keep playing and we didn’t do that.”
“Do you know what – at half-time, they were fighting between themselves in our tunnel, because we stood up to them. We’d really competed with them and they had no answer and they’re a good team with really good players.”
“But they win two ways – they win through bullying you or through individual brilliance. That’s the two ways that they win. We just needed to keep playing but we didn’t,” he added.
Parkinson won’t mind a bit of passion
We have seen Wrexham players arguing in the dressing room before.
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ once captured Ben Tozer slating Paul Mullin against Notts County last season.
That campaign ended with promotion and boss Parkinson will be hoping that this term ends in a similar fashion.
Players holding each other to account won’t worry Parkinson – just as long as they don’t end up like Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer.
That internal frustration may well have helped Wrexham step it up after the break and Colchester just couldn’t match up as Cleworth secured a priceless, crucial victory.
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