Archive for April 24, 2023
Forget about Richmond, Wrexham is back!
I loved the first and second season of Apple TV series “Ted Lasso” about the character of a well-meaning US coach coming to London to manage fictional Premiership “soccer club” AFC Richmond, but I have to admit that I fell asleep in front of TV during the latest episode of the third season. I think I will switch back to Disney and watch more of “Welcome to Wrexham” as reality can be more entertaining than fiction!
On Saturday AFC Wrexham have won automatic promotion from the National League back to the Football League after 15 years with a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood. Wrexham fought back from 1-0 down after 43 seconds and Paul Mullin (above) scored two goals, his 37th and 38th league goal of the season.
Wrexham’s win secured winning the National League and sparked a joyous pitch invasion at the Racecourse Ground, with the club’s owners – Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney – tearfully hugging in the stands.
Thanks in large part to a Disney+ documentary that followed the Deadpool star Reynolds and his fellow actor Rob McElhenney taking over and trying to transform the then struggling Welsh team, the club has acquired legions of fans across the world.
And unlike its predecessor “Sunderland til I die”, the Netflix documentary about the events around AFC Sunderland of which the first season ended with relegation to League One and the second one with defeat in the play-offs, “Welcome to Wrexham” now has a happy ending to its second season!
According to The Guardian, the north Wales team has undergone a momentous transformation since Reynolds and McElhenney bought the club in 2020 for £2m, after it had finished the 2019-20 National League season (cut short due to the Covid pandemic) in the lowest position in its 150-year history.
Joe Russo, part of the American director duo the Russo brothers, was one of a number of Hollywood celebrities pictured at the Racecourse Ground for the historic game on Saturday, along with the actor Paul Rudd.
Club’s co-owner, Ryan Reynolds, paid tribute on social media to his beloved team, which will be returning to the EFL after a 15-year absence:
“Everything I own smells like champagne, beer and grass. I’m still somewhere between giggling and sobbing,” he said. “This town and this sport is one of the most romantic things on Earth. Thank you, Wrexham AFC.”
The Guardian writes that former England captain David Beckham posted a photo on Instagram of Reynolds and McElhenney holding the National League Trophy and said: “This makes me very happy. What a story and what an achievement.”
The Prince of Wales, who is president of the FA, also praised the club after their 3-1 win over Boreham Wood. He said: “Congratulations Wrexham AFC! A club with such amazing history, looking forward to a very exciting future back in the Football League. Doing Wales proud.”
American singer Joe Jonas said the win was “incredible”.
Fans had endured years of heartbreak with the club, which in 2011 was issued a winding-up petition over a £200,000 HMRC debt, which it paid off through donations and loans. With its A-list owners and Disney+ documentary, the team now counts among its supporters a new following of US fans, some of whom made the trip to north Wales on Saturday for the match.
Wrexham painfully missed out on its Hollywood ending last season, when they lost 5-4 to Grimsby Town in extra time in a dramatic playoff semi-final of the National League, the fifth-tier in the English football league. But now they have won the league and clinched promotion to Football League Two with an incredible tally of 110 points, and the Robins or the Red Dragons (as their nicknames go) now cannot be leapfrogged anymore by runners-up Notts County in the ultimate round of the season when they play away at Torquay.
What a HAPPY END for Wrexham!
EXTRA TIME 
Recent Comments