DEAN SAUNDERS has accepted full responsibility for Wrexham’s FA Trophy second round defeat at the hands of Salisbury City.
Wrexham were beaten 1-0 by Salisbury, who play two tiers below the Reds in the Southern League Premier Division, at The Raymond McEnhill Stadium on Saturday.
Saunders made eight changes to the side that registered a 2-0 victory over Grimsby Town in the previous outing as he opted to rest a number of regulars, and several players were also missing through illness and injury.
Although naming a side he felt was good enough to beat Salisbury, Saunders, who placed greater importance on tomorrow’s Conference clash at Southport, took the blame for defeat: “As far as I am concerned, I am disappointed but the disappointment is not going to last long,” he said.
“I have got my mind on tomorrow’s game at Southport.
"I am going to be disappointed because I never like losing, I don’t want to get beat.
But this game has got in the way of tomorrow’s game for me, if I am being honest.
“I have to take full responsibility for us not getting through because I picked that team.
“Obviosuly we came into the game with an understrength team and that is down to me, I picked that team.
“We had a few players who didn’t show up. You could see the team I put out there, it is my reponsibility, but I thought we had enough there.
“Some of it was forced on me. I made eight changes, Chris Blackburn and Dean Keates were not well.
“Andy Morrell and Frank Sinclair were probably the two that could have played but I didn’t want to take them four hours on the bus, play a game and then expect to have them fresh as daisies at Southport.”
Saunders, who adopted the same ploy in the previous round against Kidderminster Harriers by fielding a number of fringe players, admitted many failed to make the most of their opportunity at Salisbury.
“They definitely never,” he said. “It was a chance for them to say ‘I want to play on Tuesday and be part of your plans’.
“I said to them, I can’t tell you how to beat people and get shots off, I put you out there and you have got to go and produce.
“Not enough of them produced. I am a little bit disappointed for them because they don’t mean to play like we did. But they had a chance to show me what they can do and they haven’t taken it.”
Conceding that Wrexham lacked shots on goal and failed to test goalkeeper Tommy Smith enough, Saunders said: “Obviously we were on the wrong end of the result, we just didn’t do enough today.
“I said to them before we went out don’t do anything daft, give away a penalty or get sent-off, and really their goalkeeper should have been making save after save against us.
“I have learnt a bit today about some of our players.
“As an attack minded player in that game you have to be getting shots in, and we never got enough shots in.
“No disrespect to Salisbury but the players we had out there have got to be getting shots at goal and making the goalkeeper work – and we never."
Debutant midfielder Lee Fowler, who has joined Wrexham on a short term deal, conceded a first half penalty that led to Salisbury taking the lead.
It turned out to be the winner and Saunders admitted Wrexham’s delivery into the area was poor.
“I thought Lee did really well on the ball, he controlled the game and we had all the possession for the whole game,” added Saunders.
“Salisbuy played with one striker and just sat back, they weren’t really threatening a goal but we gave them one.
“They were slowing the game down as well because we weren't able to get the ball past their midfield in behind their back four.
“Curtis Obeng got there a few times but the final ball into the box from all of them was terrible.”
While former Wales under 21 international Fowler has signed, another midfielder, Christian Smith, has joined Barrow on loan until the end of the season.
And striker Kevin Gall, who has only made five appearances since moving to Wrexham last summer, has had his contract cancelled by mutual consent.