Notts County boss Stuart Maynard has praised Wrexham whilst drawing attention to the performance of goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo.
Wrexham v Notts County was always going to spark attention after last season’s battles in the fight for promotion.
Phil Parkinson’s men have been the dominant force this season though, beating County 2-0 away from home earlier this season and now 1-0 this weekend.
Steven Fletcher bagged the only goal of the game, volleying home inside the box to hand Wrexham all three points.
County dominated possession but didn’t do enough with it, handing Wrexham a second victory in a matter of days.
Wrexham praised by Notts County boss
Stuart Maynard’s side had 75% of possession, 11 shots on goal and three on target whilst completing more than three times as many passes as Wrexham.
It didn’t count for much in the end and Maynard has now given his verdict on Wrexham’s display.
Speaking to BBC Radio Nottingham, Maynard highlighted the performance of Wrexham stopper Arthur Okonkwo, believing that he was the Man of the Match solely on his first-half display.
Maynard paid tribute to Wrexham’s defensive abilities, believing that Parkinson has built a ‘very solid team’.
“I thought, in the first half, we were outstanding as a group of players, to come here to Wrexham and dominate the game totally… I think their goalie probably ends up with Man of the Match just on his first-half performance alone.”
“They’re a very solid team. If you look at the structure through the whole team, they’re set up to defend their 18-yard box and they’ve done it brilliantly today,” he added.
Okonkwo made a smart save to deny Scott Robertson in the second half will be delighted with the clean sheet.
This was a strong defensive display though, not just from Okonkwo.
The back three of Max Cleworth, Eoghan O’Connell and Will Boyle were superb throughout and protected Okonkwo brilliantly.
Wrexham will need to show it all to win promotion; attacking excellence and the battling nature to dig out results.
We saw the latter on Saturday and whilst Maynard’s disappointment is understandable, his frustration is because Wrexham were so good defensively.