WREXHAM defender Ashley Westwood, who might have broken Eastwood Town hearts with what proved to be the last kick of the game, admitted the Unibond Premier League outfit deserved their draw at the Racecourse.
But the recent Dragons recruit reckons the part-timers won’t be so fortunate in tomorrow night’s replay.
He said afterwards: “Obviously on paper the result is disappointing but the main thing is that we didn’t lose, we kept a clean sheet and we have it all to do in the replay.
“We are totally confident we can go there and get a result. These things sometimes happen in football but we didn’t lose and that takes us to four games unbeaten.
“I had a chance right at the end, but I was stretching to be fair.
“It will look like it was a good chance but if I hadn’t have kicked it when I did, the defender would have cleared it. So I just poked my leg out and it missed, which just about summed up the game for us.
“You have to give them credit because they also kept a clean sheet.
“They ran around and they worked their socks off and deserved the replay.
“Now we have to be professional to go there and get the result.
“If somebody had given us the draw before the game and said we’d have to win at Eastwood to go through we’d have taken that.”
Disappointed Wrexham manager Dean Saunders admitted that his players failed to reach the standards he has set since coming into the club just over three weeks ago, and praised goalkeeper Gavin Ward for some vital saves.
“It wasn’t the best of games, the wind was a bit of a leveller and that is the worst of conditions,” said Saunders.
“But we didn’t play very well in the first half, although I thought we were a bit better in the second.
“In the first half I thought they stopped us playing and Wardy has made a couple of good saves. But if you add up the open goals we missed it must have been six or seven. If you don’t keep the ball systems don’t work and we couldn’t keep the ball long enough to impose ourselves on them.
“But I thought Eastwood did really well because they came and had a go. They shut up shop, played five in midfield and had one up front and created maybe three chances in the game.”
Looking for positives, the Racecourse boss pointed out that his side were now unbeaten in four matches and would have a chance to atone for Saturday’s poor display in tomorrow’s replay.
“This is half-time in this tie and we’ve won our last two away games so there’s no reason why we can’t go there and win,” he said.
“Although they played well and we put ourselves under pressure by giving away silly free kicks around the box, we’ll go there Tuesday night with the same aim which is to win the tie, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”
Saunders added: “I said at half time it was not good enough and we got a reaction, which was pleasing, but there will be plenty more days like this one. I’m not kidding myself.”
