Wrexham’s Akil Wright has started the new Vanarama National League season in style and he’s been voted player of the month.
Wright has played every minute of the Dragons’ season, he is a crucial cog in midfield and manager Sam Ricketts says: ”This is fantastic for Akil.
“He’s been excellent for us so far this season. He is a young, honest and hard working player who is constantly looking to improve his game.
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“Maybe much of the work he does for the team goes under the radar. Maybe the flair players like the goalscorers or someone getting more assists will grab all of the immediate plaudits so it’s excellent that Akil has been given this recognition. The work he does in the middle for us is vital.
“Well done Akil. Keep it up.”
Wrexham, who are third in the table on 18 points, travel to play bottom of the table Braintree at Cressing Road in Essex on Saturday (3pm) and Wright is certain to start in midfield.
“We need to be as prepared to go to Braintree as we were for a really organised Halifax Town side,” he said.
“Our mentality has to be that we need to go there and perform at a really good level to take the three points.
“I’m expecting a hard game – no game is easy. They are bottom of the table, they’ve got nothing to lose.
“We’re towards the top and they will play with freedom and we need to make sure we respect them but also impose ourselves on them and get the goals.”
Top scorer Mike Fondop is on five goals from nine matches, but he hasn’t scored in his last three appearances.
“Mike’s game – and anybody’s game in football – is that it’s important to be effective whether you are scoring or not,” Ricketts said.
“You need to be helping the team, holding up, winning flick-ons, running the channels, setting others up. If you are scoring on top of that then brilliant.
“He hasn’t scored for a few games, but is still on five goals from nine games, which is a fantastic start. He’s a player who’s probably ahead of schedule from where I thought he was going to be.
“A player with fantastic potential. I can see the improvement in the first nine games, from Dover to now.”
The trip to Braintree, which is Wrexham’s 10th fixture in five weeks, ends a hectic start to the season. After the long trip to Braintree, the Dragons play Ebbsfleet at home next Saturday and then Sutton united away a week later.
“I’m looking forward to two weeks to work with the players and trying to work on a few things, and getting the goals we need to,” he said.
“It will just be nice to get some training time rather than just preparing for a game, recovering from a game, preparing for a game and so on.”
