Wrexham Vs Portsmouth — Smith header and Cleworth corner settle 2-1 as illness-hit Wrexham tighten play-off grip
Wrexham beat Portsmouth 2-1 in a Sky Bet Championship match at the Racecourse Ground in a contest that tightened their push for the play-offs. The wrexham vs portsmouth result matters now because a sickness bug in Wrexham's camp, a hamstring injury for John Swift and a forthcoming FA Cup trip to Chelsea all frame the immediate outlook for both teams.
Match setting: Racecourse Ground, Stok Cae Ras and the scoreline
The Sky Bet Championship fixture was played at the Racecourse Ground on Tuesday night, with the first half action described as taking place at Stok Cae Ras. Wrexham won 2-1 thanks to first-half strikes by Sam Smith and Max Cleworth, while Zak Swanson pulled one back for Portsmouth in the 49th minute.
How the goals fell: Smith at 23 and Swanson at 49
Wrexham opened the scoring after 23 minutes when Sam Smith leapt high in the box to head home from a Callum Doyle cross. Smith then went close to a second with a superb long-range strike that Portsmouth goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid did well to turn over. Max Cleworth doubled Wrexham's lead from the resulting corner, rising to turn in George Dobson's cross. Portsmouth's Zak Swanson curled an effort wide before the break and then pulled one back in the 49th minute, latching onto Regan Poole's pass and beating Arthur Okonkwo with a shot that took a deflection off Doyle.
Pompey response, injuries and squad concerns
Portsmouth dominated much of the second half and won a series of corners as they pressed for an equaliser, but they struggled to carve Wrexham open. The defeat was described as "one game too far" for Portsmouth in one assessment, with criticism that they paid for a very poor second quarter and again failed to defend a near-post corner. Portsmouth also lost John Swift to a hamstring injury, though Conor Chaplin is fit again; observers noted this run of games would likely challenge Pompey's thin squad. One succinct verdict offered: "Keep playing like this and Pompey should survive. "
Key moments beyond the goals: chances, pressure and late nervy moments
The match featured a bright early spell when George Dobson fired wide in the first minute and Josh Windass dragged a shot wide from distance as Wrexham began to take control. Pompey's Millenic Alli put in a couple of dangerous low crosses and Gustavo Caballero had a shot blocked before leading another charge that broke down on the edge of the area. In the closing stages Wrexham could have made the victory more comfortable: Oliver Rathbone hit a post and George Thomason tested Nicolas Schmid in a late flurry, but Portsmouth's pressure was not converted into an equaliser.
Illness at Wrexham, Parkinson's assessment and the wider context
Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson revealed his side had been hit by a sickness bug in the lead-up to the game and said energy levels "weren't quite where we needed to be. " Parkinson named Sam Smith among the players who had been struggling and said Smith was "one of the lads who had a stomach bug and he was struggling at half-time. " Parkinson said he told Smith, "Come on, Sam, another 15 minutes, " and hailed Smith's header as "a real old-fashioned striker's header, a great finish. " Parkinson added that he thought Wrexham were "excellent" in the first half and that second half they "didn't quite get the control we wanted, " but that the team had "found a way to win. "
Results, recent form and the FA Cup tie
The victory followed a frenetic 5-3 win over promotion rivals Ipswich that had moved Wrexham back into the play-off places, and the win at the Racecourse Ground tightened their grip on a play-off place while also being described as tightening their grip on the top six in the Championship and helping to cement a Championship playoff spot. An FA Cup fifth-round draw has paired Wrexham away to Chelsea, a development reacted to by Mario Melchiot, Archie Rhind-Tutt and Jermaine Beckford.
