Wrexham captain Luke Young has now been praised for his performance in the 1-1 draw against MK Dons on Tuesday night.
Phil Parkinson made several surprise changes to the side that beat Notts County 1-0 on Saturday, and one of those was starting Luke Young.
The Wrexham captain played alongside Andy Cannon and James McClean in midfield and put in a solid shift despite hardly playing this season.
This was just Young’s eighth start of the campaign and he marked it by supplying an inch-perfect delivery for McClean’s headed opener.
Opportunities to impress have been few and far between for the 30-year-old with Parkinson preferring to use George Evans at the base of midfield and Elliot Lee more advanced.
However, in a match where the Wrexham boss opted to rest some of his key players, Young showed he still has so much to offer and took his chance.
Luke Young ‘set the tone’ v MK Dons
Wrexham were without the ball for large spells but Young demonstrated his ability to win possession back brilliantly and constantly looked to play forward.
On his 250th appearance for the club, he created two big chances, made four key passes and accurately placed four long balls.
Subsequently, Young received an abundance of praise for how he performed on his return to the side with journalist Nathan Salt waxing lyrical about his display on the Rob Ryan Red podcast.
“He deserves an immense amount of credit for not only getting his head down and sticking with it, but he’s come back and delivered some real captains performances,” Salt said. “He came on against Sutton and changed the game, I felt like with Palmer and Mullin he was really really good there.
“It was a slide tackle that really set the tone early which is what he does, reminding me of that tackle he made against Coventry in the final stage.
“Corner, straight off the training ground that one James McClean near post, brilliant delivery. He offers you so much from corners, he deserves an immense amount of credit.”
Young deserves to start v Gillingham
Young was one of Wrexham’s standout performers at the Stadium MK, alongside Arthur Okonkwo and McClean, and now deserves to start against Gillingham.
Not only does he bring a real amount of leadership expertise, but his ability on the ball was there for all to see as he dictated proceedings in midfield.
And although he lost possession a whopping 23 times, that was largely down to him trying to take risks in an attempt to unlock the Dons’ defence.
In what has been a difficult time for the captain having rarely played in League Two this term, he deserves an immense out of credit for showing such professionalism in the face of adversity.
As a result, a place in the starting XI against the Gills would be just a reward for his recent resurgence.