The battle for the title continues, as the Red Dragons seek to maintain our 100% home record against Aldershot. Saturday's match at the Racecourse Ground kicks off at 3pm.
Wrexham surrendered top spot to Notts County last Saturday, drawing at Wealdstone while The Magpies picked up an impressive three points at Eastleigh.
Phil Parkinson's options were limited by a lot of defensive absences at Grosvenor Vale: Aaron Hayden, Bryce Hosannah, Anthony Forde and Jacob Mendy were all absent from the match day squad at Wealdstone, although there was good news on the bench where Reece Hall-Johnson was able to make his first appearance of the season, coming on for the last six minutes.
Further up the pitch, Jordan Davies' lively cameo after he came on for James Jones will give the manager food for thought when he contemplates his starting line-up.
Visitors Aldershot arrive in 18th place, four points above the relegation zone and without a manager. The Shots suffered a poor start to the season, which came to a head when, despite fighting back at Glanford Park to claim a 3-3 draw against Scunthorpe United, they found themselves bottom of the league.
Their next match, a damaging loss on the road in the FA Cup Qualifying Round at Chelmsford, led to First-Team Manager Mark Molesley and Assistant Manager Tom Prodomo being dismissed. Molesley had arrived with a promising reputation as a coach with a modern outlook on match preparation, but ultimately he was unable to take his side away from the bottom end of the National League, where they have languished for far too long considering their status as an ex-Football League club.
Club legend Terry Brown was part of an interim management team, with Ross McNeilly - the Club's Academy manager - stepping up to take temporary charge. The groupd has improved matters during a lengthy spell in temporary charge, which opened up superbly with a run of three victories at the end of October against Yeovil, York and Dorking, but two consecutive losses have prevented them from establishing more breathing space between themselves and the bottom four.
Their last away game resulted in a stunning 6-1 loss to struggling Torquay United, and they followed that result with a home defeat to Maidenhead United. Before that worrying brace of defeats, The Shots had been unbeaten in five league games.
They've not had a problem finding the net though: only Dorking have scored more in the bottom half of the table, and Dagenham are the only other side outside the play-off spots to have outscored them, and with three away wins, their record on the road is good.
HEAD TO HEAD
Since Aldershot dropped down to the National League in 2013, they’ve not tended to get much from their trips to The Racecourse. In 9 games they’ve won two, drawn one and lost six.
Last season Aldershot, having already lost 5-0 at home to us in a rearranged fixture, held us at bay until the 35th minute, when Paul Mullin scored the first of two goals. Jordan Davies and Ollie Palmer struck in the second half to secure a 4-1 win, with Aldershot’s consolation coming in the third minute of added time.
The season before Aldershot also returned home empty-handed, after a typical strike by Luke Young was the only goal of the game.
Their wins came in January 2020, when two goals midway through the second half settled matters. A neatly-taken goal in added time by JJ Hooper came too late to influence the outcome.
They also won in 2017, when they earned a 2-0 win with both goals coming in the last 20 minutes.
Their first National League match in Wrexham was settled in dramatic fashion. Joe Clarke gave the home team an early lead, which was swiftly wiped out.
Wrexham dominated but couldn’t get the breakthrough until the 87th minute when Jay Harris, fresh from a glorious long range goal against Barrow which won the Steve Edwards Goal of the Season Trophy, launched another shot from distance which, helped by a handling error by the goalkeeper, looped into the net!