City travel to North Wales on Tuesday 26 November as they take on high-flying Wrexham at the STōK Cae Ras (7.45pm KO).
Catch up on important match information and read the thoughts of both head coach Michael Skubala and wing-back Tendayi Darikwa in this preview.
Skubala’s thoughts:
“Wrexham are very mature in the way they play. They know what they are, and how they want to defend and attack. They’re very aggressive, and a lot older, and they know how to manage games. We’re going to have to be mature in the way we want to play, but we’re also going to have to use our youthfulness as well to push the game and affect the game as much as we can. Playing the top two teams in the league back-to-back is never easy, but we’ve got to do the best we can.
“I’d like to see my players be more greedy in the final third and test the ‘keeper. Sometimes we want to make the extra pass when we don’t need to, but then sometimes we do need to make the extra pass so it’s about finding the balance. The hardest part of the game is scoring goals, but we’ve been scoring from a variety of players which is really good. We’ll keep working on it every day, and we’ll get there. It’s not like we’ve not created chances, we just need to see if we can take more of them in open play.
“We know what the atmosphere is going to be like, we know they’re going to chuck it on us to start and put us under pressure. We have to make sure we’re ready for that and come out of the blocks fighting for everything, and then when the game settles hopefully we can get some control. It’s going to be a tough place with a lively crowd, and they’ll want the three points because they know that pushes them up. Hopefully we can make it very tough for them and get something out of it.”
Darikwa’s take:
“I don’t get many goals to be fair, but it opened up to me twice and it was two decent finishes. I’d rather not score and win the game though so it was a little bittersweet for me, but it’s always nice to get a goal.
“With the way the gaffer sets us up to play, when you play wing-back he wants you to try and get in the box as much as possible. We have a bit more of a license to get forward rather than playing in a back four, I do my best to try and chip in.
“We know Wrexham are a good team, they’ve built a lot of momentum over the last couple of seasons. They’ve got an experienced manager and players, so we know about their threats, but for us it’s about doing what we can do as well as possible and hopefully that’ll be enough to win the game.”
A look at the opposition:
Wrexham’s have enjoyed their time in Sky Bet League One since promotion from the fourth division last season.
Owned by the Hollywood pairing of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the Red Dragons have had a quick rise through the leagues, and have adapted to life in the third tier well, currently sitting in the automatic promotion places.
Phil Parkinson’s side are a fearsome prospect on their own patch, having not lost a competitive game there since the 16 March against Tranmere Rovers in Sky Bet League Two.
Wrexham’s last fixture saw them beat Gary Caldwell’s Exeter City side 3-0 and they will be looking to make it back-to-back home victories with a win against the Imps.
Match information:
City will sport their white away threads in Wrexham, you can get yours HERE.
Jacob Miles will be the match referee for Tuesday’s fixture, and he will be supported by his assistants Mark Cunliffe and Paul Stonier. Matt Corlett will be the designated fourth official.
