Below are the 14 most recent journal entries recorded in stattowrexham's LiveJournal:

Saturday, December 17th, 2005
9:59 pm	Wrexham FC For the first time in my adult living memory I haven't looked at the League Table on a Saturday! Is this a symptom of malaise or the realisation that I've developed other interests outside of the beautiful game? I could have been one of the superfans traipsing up to Brunton Park a week before christmas, spending god knows how much money watching the "lads" and coming away thinking "what the fck was all that about" at least £35 lighter in the pocket and wondering how I could pay next weeks Phone Rental :) But thankfully I made the right choice to stop at home and do some long overdue christmas shopping, a week before christmas eve and with pay day still 4 days round the corner! Therefore all I got was the score at 3.30 off BBC "lets keep the Wrexham fans waiting for an update while some valleys fckwit talks about pontlottyn rugby v meat cleaver heads fiften" WALES. 1 - 1 at Carlisle, nice one I thought that will do. And with Chester losing 2 - 1 to bums Rushden & Diamonds even better! So I headed home from the mother in laws thinking yes a nice point away will do for me. A journey often mentioned by Les Chamberlain in his weekly Terrace Talk column about coming home from "Shrewsbury" and finding we had won 3 - 0 away at Rochdale in a promotion decider! Anyhow in I go and turn on the SKY, Carlisle 2 Wrexham 1 a stream of expletives coming from the air. That's why I am no longer a superfan! Wrexham till I die and all that but imagine how some of the "mugs" who had travelled up to Brunton Park must feel. Loyal fans and all that, money no object etc but I've said a few times with the away record that we have some of them might have been better off saving their money and giving it to the Trust or failing that hiring a hit man! Preferably one who can hit the target away from home :) Surely in the long term all that matters now is the dastardly Hamilton away from our club. Not going to Carlisle a week before christmas trying to eke out a win from somewhere. Just having Wrexham FC in the football league next season is going to be a massive bonus whether we are in this division or the one above. I just wonder what 2006 is in store for our great club, will we win promotion or not. Will be out of existence? Thousands of people in Wrexham and North Wales won't really care that much if we are or not and that's the sad part. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 12th, 2005
10:10 pm	Chester City And Their Troubles It wouldn't surprise me to see Chester City playing in Widnes next season, they are the likeliest candidate to be MK Dons Part Two. Talking of MK Dons I found it very satisfying seeing Steve Roberts' goal for Doncaster against the Dongs on the highlights earlier today, and also more satisfying seeing Craig Morgan's misplaced back pass which led to another Doncaster goal. A relegation foursome involving MK Dongs, Tranmere, Blackpool and Rotherham would bring whoops of delight in this household :) (Comment on this)
9:45 pm	Hamilton's A Looney I've just recovered from the shock that someone actually reads this journal apart from me! Lou Ferrigno is still on the scene at Wrexham FC, it's incredible how this sorry saga still hasn't been resolved, almost into 2006 and we are waiting to hear news on whether Ferrigno's appeal has been rightly chucked out. I don't hold out any hope, I can see it dragging on until next summer and then the inevitable worry of whether Wrexham are going to get kicked out of the league or not. It seems like we are destined to suffer. There's no point in self pity though as there are plenty of people about who will say that The Racecourse is better off with "houses on it". I've had that sort of chit chat last week with a work colleague, whereas a year or so ago I would have burst my top like Mount Vesuvius now I let it all wash over me :) Then by chance an advert popped up on MFM highlighting Wrexham's excellent Football In The Community scheme involving youngsters at risk of offending, my message to these non community spirited people who love to slag Wrexham FC off would be. Where else are these people going to get this kind of attention and guidance? It's bad enough having to listen to dreary James Blunt/Coldplay/ type songs in work on MFM without having to listen to these cynics prattle on about Wrexham FC! They will be the first in the queue to complain if the club and the ground don't exist! It's like flogging a dead horse with some, the club just can't win and unfortunately there are many excuse makers who will continue finding excuses not to support their local team while spending the same amount of cash pissing it up against a wall every week!!! Current Mood: busy Current Music: Anything apart from dreary radio music (Comment on this)
Monday, June 20th, 2005
5:08 pm	Life Itec's going okay. It's my third week there and although today was a bit boring at least it's better than sitting at home either waiting for the telephone to ring or going into the Job Centre looking for work and then enduring boring conversations from people that I vaguely know asking me "What are you doing with yourself these days?" Most of the time I feel like saying just for the sake of it "Well the first word begins with F and the second word ends with L!" If only to wind these people up into a "Your on the dole and you don't want a job" type of frenzy :) Current Mood: amused Current Music: My Girl - Madness (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005
4:02 am	WREXHAM V COLCHESTER UNITED I blame that reptilian half wit Lou Ferrigno look alike Alex Hamilton for my recent out of synch sleeping patterns I really do! Most people probably go to bed at a reasonable time but I can't remember the last time I went to bed before 12.00. Probably while I was working at Sainsbury's in a "seasonal" capacity, Wrexham speak for "shite job prospects". Mind you it would help to have a regular job to get up for to help get out of this mad routine I am currently in. Wrexham played a football match last night. Or footer in old speak. It's all about opinions and this was a classic "six pointer". A win for Wrexham (Wresham in Zaragoza) would mean giving themselves a slight chance of avoiding relegation while also giving Colchester a bit of a scare themselves and dragging them slightly into the relegation threatened area of League One. Sadly for Wrexham's dwindling band of supporters Wrexham didn't win this "must win" match yet in my opinion for them to be able to field a team of 11 fit professionals for this fixture could be classed as an achievement. Denis Smith must go down as one of the most positive men in football, he's battled a 10 point deduction, lost half of his already threadbare squad and now a flu virus has laid low a few others. He hasn't had the plague of locusts just yet but at the moment he is a quote writers dream. So I say to any half wits who will now slag Wrexham off and say they are going down. "Go and **** off and support someone else!". So there. We aren't Manchester United or Arsenal or Liverpool, you just have to assume in a 46 game season that it's likely we are going to lose between 10 - 20 games most seasons. Okay it's a bit extreme but lets be fair here, Wrexham have been dealt a shit hand this season and without wallowing in to much Rossettesque self pity as Denis Smith wouldn't have it, it will be really against the odds if we can manage to survive in this division. This will be the greatest of great escapes if Denis can rally the troops for a 12 game push to stay up. Surely though the most important item on the agenda for everyone is Wrexham FC surviving in some shape next season whatever league we are in. It's a mantra being parrotted by many of us on the Internet and rightly so. We'll still be here in some shape or form whatever happens, if your Wrexham Till You Die then you'll fight for the club whatever league it's in, you can't just switch it off. The match was a bit dire though to be fair. I can't remember much about the first half, to tell you the truth I can't remember a lot about many home games this season as I've been trying to divert my eyes away from the pitch it's been a bit depressing in all honesty. Ugarte wasn't playing, Roberts wasn't playing, Darren Ferguson looked as if he wasn't playing and Mark Jones was at least having a go to create something. As soon as something happens though it livens a few cut outs up I suppose. Mark Jones scored one of the luckiest goals I can remember (for once the luck was on our side this season) and Hector Sam equalised a typically shite opposition goal (patented every bleeding season) with a header with 10 minutes to go to give us some hope that we will win this game and start climbing out of trouble. But it didn't happen and to be honest we didn't really deserve to win, we didn't play well enough to win. Colchester weren't a bad side but they weren't a great side either. These are teams we need to beat and to be honest with our full strength team on the pitch we probably would have beaten them. But that's life and no point moping about it, I believe it's best to try and ignore the doom mongerers and keep at it. 12 games to go, if I had a crystal ball I would say Wrexham will probably go down. But I haven't and they might not! The thing with football is there are many opinions but there are many supporters who just try and predict the future. I can't be doing with that, just take it one game at a time and try and enjoy what you can. It's not life or death losing a football match but if I lose my football club I won't be happy. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Rock Me Amadeus (FALCO) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 8th, 2005
10:08 pm	FA CUP DAY Marvellous. Fa Cup Third Round Day, jumpers for goalposts etc etc! Was great to see little Exeter City a Supporters Trust run club hold the mighty Manchester United to a 0 - 0 draw at Old Trafford. At least there is some justice in football. It's been a shite couple of weeks for Wrexham Football Club in all honesty although supporters from the 1980's will be able to stomach it as it's no different on the pitch to those days. It's just now off the pitch is a bit more bleaker to say the least. BUT we are told there is a saviour off the field in the name of Andy Smith a Surrey based businessman. There doesn't appear to be enough information about Andy Smith at this moment and he is keeping cards close to his chest. Some supporters believe him to be another stooge, just someone who will run down the clock and mess us about leaving Hamilton to just turn the ground into one big retail park. Other supporters are saying "Give them a chance" "Anything is better than Hamilton and Guterman". We will just have to wait and see. Red Passion seems to have gone absolutely barmy with people arguing points with each other, myself included. I think some of the main people helping the Save The Racecourse Campaign are looking for a boost from somewhere, where it will come from no one knows. After the Bristol City game I was fairly confident that that sort of emotion and atmosphere would result in Wrexham Football Club's future being secured. But it hasn't and we are still playing a waiting game. WST are doing all they can, the Dismal Jimmy's are doing all they can and I just hope the whole Wrexham community can give one last push to try and save the club and the ground. At least if we try and fail we can look in the mirror and say we've done our best. Then you've got the terrible Tsunami tragedy which has caused so much devastation over in Asia. Things like this put trivial issues into perspective thats for sure. It's just a shame people try and make political capital out of it. And instead of fighting useless pointless wars in Iraq over capitalism that our Western governments can't practice what the preach about humanitarian aid. Yet the British public once again has shown their true colours, a great fundraising effort. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Ambient Moods (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 9th, 2004
1:29 pm	Today's Slagging Off I've heard today that two high priority guests are being pursued to headline Wrexham Business Week's business speaking events in 2005. Mr Alexander Hamilton "How I Alienated A Whole Community and made millions but now live my life in misery" Mark Guterman "How to succeed in the sports industry despite failure in business" Current Mood: crappy (Comment on this)
12:55 pm	Wrexham FC More Latest Tonight we are away at Blackpool which is usually for me one of those fixtures you think "I can't miss that one!". Providing it's on a nice sunny saturday in August or so :) For some reason Blackpool seems to be a regular fixture that's been called off over the years, obviously international call ups are a factor in this one but I can recall quite a few Blackpool away games being re-arranged due to the International call ups, one of the few must not miss away games for me and it has to be re arranged to a wet cold November night, check the record books someone and tell me how many of these fixtures have been re-arranged over the years! Anyhow following this usually attractive away fixture is our banana skin looking tie at Hayes who have quite a decent Fa Cup pedigree by all accounts, all I can remember from them is they beat Cardiff City back in 1989 and I think they took Swansea City to a draw. I am hearing very confident noises from the Hayes camp (not Chris and Dave Hayes!) but I've heard all this before from non league teams. To tell you the truth if we don't win this one (Inland Revenue permitting) it'll be one kick in the bollocks too many, it should give Denis Smith a great chance of winning his first Fa Cup match at Wrexham. Following this is Bristol City at home if we get that far and there is a big push to try and drum support up for this one. I've heard people talk about getting anything between 6 - 10000 for this game but I'll be honest now with the best will in the world I am not expecting too many more than usual, I have heard it all before and quite simply am ready to be let down on this one. How many times in the past have we appealed for support and it's fallen on deaf ears and even in such a crisis ridden time I doubt if we can get the numbers through that we hope for, I hope I am wrong I really do but the voice of reality speaks to me at the moment and not the voice of fantasy! So it's going to be a nerve wracking two weeks and all we can do is hope. I am used to this though as I've seen rejection letter after rejection letter from different jobs I've applied for over the last few months! You just have to take the punches on the chin and bounce back up, it's all part of building character and appreciating when good times do come around you are ready to enjoy them, perhaps Wrexham FC will come out of this all the better in the future. Current Mood: depressed Current Music: Chicane (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 10th, 2004
12:43 am	England V Wales In some ways I am glad this game is over and done with now. As soon as the draw was made I think the majority of Welsh fans were looking to the England games. With the first two results being poor this game took on an even added significance for Welsh supporters as a draw or a victory would put us right back in with a shout of even winning the group never mind going through as runners up! So after this defeat Wales know that they are definitely scrabbling around for the other place alongside Poland and Austria so that must be the aim now. Of more interest now is the managerial position. Should Wales appoint a "Welshman" only who can help maintain our so called passion and pride? To hear some people talk, including seasoned professionals and pundits is that Wales have some sort of unique pride and passion that other countries don't have! There was even talk from some quarters that Wales would outshine England in the "pride" stakes, our supporters would be louder etc, we care more about it than they do, the usual Celtic baloney that we like to trot out. I think that myth was dispelled today. Looking at it objectively you can't get a more proud team and country than the English. Every time a major tournament comes around their country is alive with "national pride" which normally they aren't allowed to display due to political correctness. You can't tell me players like Beckham, Neville, Ferdinand and Rooney aren't proud to play for their country? The English supporters also, they have to rank alongside any in the world for pride and passion as much as some of us want to portray them as just knucklehead hooligans who like to boo other countries national anthems! So the managerial situation is now a big talking point. The more I hear John Toshack talk the more I would like to see him take on the challenge of shaking Wales up and carrying on the good work that we've done over the last 4 years (except the last 3 games or so). I think he can knock a few egos into shape and get the squad thinking a bit more professionally and his tactical knowledge should help in situations such as today where a last minute team change seemed to throw everyone off guard. We could even go and appoint a "foreign" manager. There are plenty out there, there must be some really top class managers out of a job who would love the chance to manage an international country who play games in front of crowds of between 50 - 72000 surely! Last point on this evening is we need to look at the likes of the Republic Of Ireland, they are proud, they've got a smallish squad, arguably do they have more quality than Wales? They broke with tradition and appointed an Englishman in Jack Charlton who completely turned around their football and they've had a lot of good years where they've been turned from also rans to serious contenders. They keep grinding out results everywhere. Northern Ireland Scotland and Republic Of Ireland have all qualified for major tournaments in my life time, I would like to see Wales emulate this sometime in the future even if I have to wait until I am 80, the law of averages suggests that one day Wales will fall lucky. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 6th, 2004
12:02 am	England V Wales Match Build Up Wales V Poland -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kevin Ratcliffe stated tonight that he feels the Poland game is the much more important of the two games we've got coming up. Basically he felt that if we get a draw from the England game and beat Poland that's a good return, the Poland is a must win game more than England as England are going to win the group anyhow (they rarely @#%$ up in the group stages). Poland and Austria are Wales's main rivals for second spot so I tend to agree with him on this one, what if we beat England and lose to Poland! All for nothing really just a nice memory of beating the old enemy but memories don't get you to major championships. If Northern Ireland can nick points of some other teams then who knows? By Thursday next week it could be all academic and we are out of the running so it's a massive week for the Welsh national team. Still we will have the Euro 2008 qualifiers to build for then :) I still feel though with everything going on at Wrexham that the build up to the England game is passing me by. I suppose by the time it kicks off saturday and all the atmosphere thats when it'll become nerve wracking. Brian Flynn seemed confident Wales could nick an upset. The topic of a foreigner managing Wales came up, the panel agreed that Wales's next manager should be Welsh. I disagree myself, if it's the right person I don't care where they come from as we don't have a monopoly on pride! Gary Speed was mentioned by Brian Flynn tonight as someone who needs to be involved in the Welsh set up whenever he comes to hang up his boots. Kevin Ratcliffe mentioned that he felt Bobby Gould didn't involve people like himself and Ian Rush when their playing careers were coming to an end and that was disappointing as they felt they could offer a lot of advice to the squad at that time. He made a point that managers tended to just get rid of players and not involve them whereas Mark Hughes encouraged Chris Coleman to be a part of the Wales set up after he got injured and also is involving Gary Speed in some aspects of the coaching now. Incidentally, Flynn in the flesh is a really decent bloke who you can chat to, he came across very well. A strong point was made that all the effort in bringing Wrexham Football Club up (from it's youth policy and it's training ground) under the previous management is now going to waste under the stewardship of Alex Hamilton. As for Flynn being the next Wales manager lets be fair what are the choices? Toshack? Will he move back to the country. Chris Coleman - Won't leave a well paid job at Fulham. Tony Pulis? Dark horse who has ruled himself out of the race. Ian Rush - Too inexperienced. Flynn - Has the credentials but wouldn't be a popular choice even amongst Wrexham fans! We are starting to scrape the barrel now. Who are the genuine candidates to be the next Wales manager? (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 16th, 2004
1:03 pm	WALES So Mark Hughes has decided to leave the job of trying to lead Wales to the World Cup finals in order to take up the interesting challenge of keeping Blackburn Rovers in the Premiership. Possibly a harder job than managing Wales. I can't really blame Mark Hughes for leaving as he wants to further his career and keep up his managerial stock before the inevitable fall out from another Wales near miss. The Welsh manager's job is a thankless task, it carries the weight of a nation who are craving some form of success, just an appearance at a major championship will do us! The usual suspects are being touted as replacements, John Toshack, Brian Flynn, out of work ex England managers etc etc. When Mike England was harshly sacked back in the late 1980's Bobby Robson, Terry Venables and Brian Clough were all considered. My personal favourite then would have been Brian Clough but he was possibly too much of a loose cannon for the inept Welsh FA to deal with! At least now the Welsh FA is a lot more professional than in those bad old days even if they still treat their national league and clubs with contempt. All of this money that has poured into the Welsh FA over the last few years from massive attendances really needs to be going on getting the best possible man for this job. It's a big job and we can't afford sentiment. They need to look at it in a detached way, rather than going for the popular ex international look at all the candidates rationally. Eddie Niedzwiecki could be a candidate, although injury curtailed his promising career he has forged a good reputation as a coach at Chelsea and Arsenal and is a vital cog in the Welsh set up. It looks as if Mark Bowen will follow Hughes to Blackburn and with the recent departure of Eric Harrison it's possible Wales will have a completely new back room staff as well as a new manager. I still believe Wales have the players to achieve something in this qualifying group but they can't afford to be messed about now with talk of part-time managers etc etc. I really don't care who they appoint as long as we can rescue something from a very poor start to the 2006 qualifying campaign. Bobby Robson, Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle, if they manage to take us to Germany in 2006 then who cares! Current Mood: apathetic Current Music: Show Me The Way To Amarillo (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 12th, 2004
1:21 am	Wrexham V Bradford City (The match) Got on the kop at about 2.50. The usual sparsely populated crowd, it looked to me around the 4000 mark with 300 - 400 Bradford supporters which I thought was poor. The arrival of a Wrexham fan with a green mask on caused a bit of a stir as the first rendition of the Hamilton Rap was rolled out to the corrugated tin sheet banging posse at the top of the kop. A minute's silence was held for the inimitable David Lovett Wrexham Leader sports reporter extraordinare who had furnished us with many memorable quotes and puns over the years. This was in the main observed in an impeccable manner apart from a few buffheads to the right of me on the kop, I believe the current word may be "reality tv watchers". Wrexham were 1 - 0 up after about a minute, a classic finish by T and T defender Dennis cult hero Lawrence. No conga this time though. Basically the rest of the half was a few pot shots, a few Hector Sam runs, Dibble performing heroics and a few chants from the kop about Alex Hamilton having no friends. Largely uneventful really. Apart from someone running onto the pitch (from god knows where). Didn't he realise one man pitch invasions were so 1980's? Besides we don't give a stuff about stuff like that now as the only bloke most of us want to fight looks like Frankenstein and wears the kind of slacks my old man would wear whilst doing the garden. A bloke got sent off for Bradford in the second half, I didn't have a clue who it was at that stage as I was just hoping we could hang on to this slender lead. The referee (Roger Milford esque) blew the whistle after about 4 minutes off stoppage time to much relief. Another small irritant to piss Hammy off with, I bet when that goal went in under his breath the Manc property developer muttered "those bastard taffies are doing it again". Thanks Wrexham, the character in the squad is superb at the moment, people like Pejic and Morgan fitted in well today. Hector is Hector, Llewellyn is Llewellyn (roddy or dai who knows?) while Armstrong is Armstrong but at least he has a past to remember. It's a long way from Fribo Foods but lets hope Hammy is either flipping burgers or doing bird with Jim Fenner some day soon. San Quentin will do me! (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 11th, 2004
11:37 pm	Wrexham V Bradford City Seeing Chris with the frankenstein mask on almost reminded me of many fruitless nights spent in Scott's Nightclub circa 1999 on ladies night! Anyhow the WST stall was up and running and a few Bradford fans were putting money into the bucket. A convenient sign with "Hamilton Out Save The Racecourse" was placed on the pavement and believe it or not some Wrexham fans actually stopped by and bought things rather than walked past with vacant looks on their faces like some did in the last few weeks of our stint in the centre of town. Then came the news of our censored match programme. Someone with a penchant for ripping pages had spoiled the match programme. Surely the desecration of our award winning match programme is something to be concerned about? At about 14.30 pm I had the pleasure of meeting one of the titans of the Wrexham Internet world! Past verbal spats were quickly forgotten as the new spirit of Wrexham brotherhood is carrying us forwards towards community ownership. Then it was time for the match to start. (Comment on this)
11:30 pm	Wrexham V Bradford City Just managed to catch the back end of the heroic Holywell Reds lads who had trekked 21 miles from Holywell to Wrexham to raise funds for WST (Wrexham Supporters Trust) at 1.45 this afternoon. Myself and fellow cripple Martyn walked the last half mile with them and tried to avoid getting in Wyn Griffiths' photo as we had nothing to do with this herculean effort! Walking down the Mold Road and seeing the WST stall outside the old Centre Spot shop prompted a nostalgic moment for me. I had a vision of Tortoise and Dave Davies selling red dragons and photos of Steve Massey and Shaun Cunnington while giving out the number for Paul Dunning if you wanted to book an away day at some far flung place in the UK! As it happens WST has managed to get hold of the old centre spot as a place to store goods for now and it should be open as a shop in the future. As long as Chris Hayes doesn't thing it's the lap dancing club we'll be alright, but if we start selling beer from there for 70 p a pint we might be able to buy out Hammy and his Manc business people! (Comment on this)