SOLIHULL Moors began the New Year with a 2-1 defeat away at Wrexham as Neal Ardley’s side continue to slide down the National League table having won just one of their last eight matches.
Bartosz Cybulski came off the bench to score his first Moors goal in the narrow defeat at the ARMCO Arena as the Welsh side completed a league double over Solihull having thumped Moors 5-0 on Boxing Day at the Racecourse Ground.
The results mean Moors have dropped to 11th in the National League table but remain just two points outside of the play-off places.
Ardley said: “I asked the lads for a performance and a response, we came in with a lot of players unavailable for different reasons but I thought we gave it a right go.
“I asked them to dig in and fight for each other, you can look at form, the games that got cancelled killed us, it looks worse than it is.
“We’ve got several games in January and February where our season needs to be defined, by the end of February we need to be in a position where we’re challenging in and around the play-offs.
“We’ve got to get these players in a place where they’re playing well and they’re confident and they’re scoring and they’re winning games.
“We’ve got to look beyond the two results against Wrexham and the league position, we’ve got two months to put us in a position where we’re fighting for the play-offs and trying to have an exciting end to the season.
“We want to extend Bartosz [Cybulski’s] loan for another month, he would have had more game time had the games not been cancelled.
“Jamey Osborne is a big blow, he’s torn his thigh during his rehab and is going to be out for six to eight weeks and Joe Sbarra is trying everything to get fit he just needs the swelling on his ankle to settle down.”
Moors fell behind to Jordan Tunnicliffe’s goal on 11 minutes as the midfielder powered home a header at Ryan Boot’s near post from Elliot Lee’s cross.
Solihull responded well to the setback as Callum Howe’s effort was scrambled off the line after Andrew Dallas saw a close range header saved by Wrexham goalkeeper Mark Howard.
However, Phil Parkinson’s side doubled their lead on 65 minutes when Tom O’Connor curled a superb free-kick into the top right corner from 25-yards out to leave Moors stunned.
Moors grabbed a late consolation through Derby County loanee Cybulski in the final minute of regulation time when he tapped home Ryan Barnett’s low cross with Ardley’s side unable to find an equaliser in injury time.
The game was much closer than the Boxing Day clash between the two teams in Wales as Moors suffered a heavy defeat in front of over 10,000 fans at the Racecourse Ground.
Ollie Palmer opened the scoring shortly before half time as Paul Mullin doubled Wrexham’s lead early in the second period.
However, Kyle Storer’s dismissal on 62 minutes allowed Wrexham to take control as Mullin went on to complete a hat-trick with Aaron Hayden also on target as the home side equalled a club record 15 home wins in a row in all competitions.
Despite Moors already operating with a small squad the club have seen two players recalled by their parent clubs.
Defender Fiacre Kelleher has returned to League Two side Bradford City whilst young goalkeeper Louie Moulden has been recalled by Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Kelleher made 20 appearances for Moors and scored one goal in his second temporary spell with Solihull and was recalled by Bradford in light of a permanent move to another club.
Moulden returns to Wolves having made 17 appearances for Moors and provided fine cover for Boot between the sticks as the latter recovered from a long term injury.
Moors are next in action away at Southend United on Saturday, January 7 with kick-off at 3pm at Roots Hall.
