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Wrexham look set to continue their charge up the leagues

Wrexham look set to continue their charge up the leagues

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For a match that had been hyped up beforehand as a local derby, it all ended up a little one-sided at The Racecourse Ground this past Saturday afternoon.

By Ian King

Wrexham beat Shrewsbury Town 3-0 to stay clear at the top of League One with goals from Ollie Palmer, George Dobson and Jack Marriott in front of another capacity crowd of over 13,000.

Of course, it’s hardly as though this story needs a great deal of publicity. The arrival of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McIlhenney at the club in 2021 has irrevocably changed the fortunes of Wrexham AFC, and with the club having already secured two successive promotions from the National League to League One, it’s worth asking the question of how far they can go. 

Because if the Shrewsbury win confirmed anything, it was that this particular journey hasn’t started losing momentum yet. This was Wrexham’s fourth win in five league games so far this season, a run of wins only interrupted by a goalless draw away to Bolton Wanderers in August, and they’ve kept four clean sheets in a row. 

By any standards, it’s been a spectacular three seasons. After missing out in the National League to Stockport County in 2021/22 they were beaten in the play-offs by Grimsby Town. But the fuel from that season’s disappointment has gone a long, long way. In the two seasons since then, Wrexham have run up 199 points, winning the National League title two years ago and finishing as runners-up in League Two, again to Stockport, last season. 

With the international break now coming to a close, all eyes now turn to their next match; and to be fair it is a big one. On Monday night, under the watchful eyes of live television cameras, Wrexham travel to St Andrews to play the similarly high-flying Birmingham City, who themselves have only dropped two points this season and who would join Wrexham on thirteen points were they to win this match. 

Birmingham’s journey hasn’t quite been the same as Wrexham’s; not yet, at least. They came under new ownership in July 2023 when the Shelby Group bought into the club. The implication that American footballer Tom Brady was part of the group proved to be considerably overstated. Brady owns only 333 ‘B’ shares in the club and has no voting rights. 

The sense that perhaps Blues fans had not quite got the deal that Wrexham fans had a couple of years earlier only felt all the more exaggerated when the club rattled through five managers throughout the course of last season, their campaign collapsing to an ignominious relegation. 

When the manager with whom they’d started the season, John Eustace, was sacked on the 9th October they were in 5th place in the Championship table. By the time Wayne Rooney, Steve Spooner, Tony Mowbray, Mark Venus and Tony Mowbray (again) had tried and failed to level their sinking ship, they were in 22nd place in the table and facing third tier football for the first time in thirty years. 

Former Spurs assistant Chris Davies is now in charge of the team, and the club made a big statement in the summer in signing Jay Stansfield from Fulham for around £15m. Their start to the season suggests that they have turned to a new chapter following last season’s relegation. 

By contrast with this sort of big spending, Wrexham’s ongoing success has been powered by people that have been on this adventure since the beginning. Manager Phil Parkinson and attacking duo Ollie Palmer and Paul Mullin have all been with the club since those National League days, and while they were big names to be joining a club at that level of the game, League One certainly feels more like their more natural home. 

The squad has been supplemented with experience. Steve Fletcher is 37 years old now with a career behind him which has taken in Burnley, Wolves, Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke among others. James McClean has 600 career appearances in this country going back almost a decade and a half. Both have been bit-part players on the pitch this season, but the experience they bring at a club which hasn’t experienced this level of the game in a very long time may well turn out to be invaluable.

How far can they go? The challenge is huge. Eight of the clubs starting this season in League One – a third of the total – have previous Premier League experience. Big names such as Bolton, Charlton, Barnsley and Huddersfield are just a small sample of those chasing promotion places, while another name to have stalked Wrexham these last couple of years, Stockport County, are a place behind them in the table with a game in hand. Where Wrexham’s adventure ends up remains anybody’s guess, but for now it still reads more than a little like a Hollywood script.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from League One on FotMob – with in-depth stat coverage including xG, shot maps, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Wrexham look set to continue their charge up the leagues

For a match that had been hyped up beforehand as a local derby, it all ended up a little one-sided at The Racecourse Ground this past Saturday afternoon.

By Ian King

Wrexham beat Shrewsbury Town 3-0 to stay clear at the top of League One with goals from Ollie Palmer, George Dobson and Jack Marriott in front of another capacity crowd of over 13,000.

Of course, it’s hardly as though this story needs a great deal of publicity. The arrival of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McIlhenney at the club in 2021 has irrevocably changed the fortunes of Wrexham AFC, and with the club having already secured two successive promotions from the National League to League One, it’s worth asking the question of how far they can go. 

Because if the Shrewsbury win confirmed anything, it was that this particular journey hasn’t started losing momentum yet. This was Wrexham’s fourth win in five league games so far this season, a run of wins only interrupted by a goalless draw away to Bolton Wanderers in August, and they’ve kept four clean sheets in a row. 

By any standards, it’s been a spectacular three seasons. After missing out in the National League to Stockport County in 2021/22 they were beaten in the play-offs by Grimsby Town. But the fuel from that season’s disappointment has gone a long, long way. In the two seasons since then, Wrexham have run up 199 points, winning the National League title two years ago and finishing as runners-up in League Two, again to Stockport, last season. 

With the international break now coming to a close, all eyes now turn to their next match; and to be fair it is a big one. On Monday night, under the watchful eyes of live television cameras, Wrexham travel to St Andrews to play the similarly high-flying Birmingham City, who themselves have only dropped two points this season and who would join Wrexham on thirteen points were they to win this match. 

Birmingham’s journey hasn’t quite been the same as Wrexham’s; not yet, at least. They came under new ownership in July 2023 when the Shelby Group bought into the club. The implication that American footballer Tom Brady was part of the group proved to be considerably overstated. Brady owns only 333 ‘B’ shares in the club and has no voting rights. 

The sense that perhaps Blues fans had not quite got the deal that Wrexham fans had a couple of years earlier only felt all the more exaggerated when the club rattled through five managers throughout the course of last season, their campaign collapsing to an ignominious relegation. 

When the manager with whom they’d started the season, John Eustace, was sacked on the 9th October they were in 5th place in the Championship table. By the time Wayne Rooney, Steve Spooner, Tony Mowbray, Mark Venus and Tony Mowbray (again) had tried and failed to level their sinking ship, they were in 22nd place in the table and facing third tier football for the first time in thirty years. 

Former Spurs assistant Chris Davies is now in charge of the team, and the club made a big statement in the summer in signing Jay Stansfield from Fulham for around £15m. Their start to the season suggests that they have turned to a new chapter following last season’s relegation. 

By contrast with this sort of big spending, Wrexham’s ongoing success has been powered by people that have been on this adventure since the beginning. Manager Phil Parkinson and attacking duo Ollie Palmer and Paul Mullin have all been with the club since those National League days, and while they were big names to be joining a club at that level of the game, League One certainly feels more like their more natural home. 

The squad has been supplemented with experience. Steve Fletcher is 37 years old now with a career behind him which has taken in Burnley, Wolves, Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke among others. James McClean has 600 career appearances in this country going back almost a decade and a half. Both have been bit-part players on the pitch this season, but the experience they bring at a club which hasn’t experienced this level of the game in a very long time may well turn out to be invaluable.

How far can they go? The challenge is huge. Eight of the clubs starting this season in League One – a third of the total – have previous Premier League experience. Big names such as Bolton, Charlton, Barnsley and Huddersfield are just a small sample of those chasing promotion places, while another name to have stalked Wrexham these last couple of years, Stockport County, are a place behind them in the table with a game in hand. Where Wrexham’s adventure ends up remains anybody’s guess, but for now it still reads more than a little like a Hollywood script.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from League One on FotMob – with in-depth stat coverage including xG, shot maps, and player ratings. Download the free app here.