FX Networks original docuseries Welcome to Wrexham premiered its second season September 12th, 2023.
#Wrexham was promoted to the Football League April 22nd 2023.
rottentomatoes: 91%
metacritic: 75
imdb: 8.2
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds continues to look after his investment in Wrexham A.F.C.
“Do you want to start, or– okay. So the King of England called. Yeah.” — Ryan Reynolds
“We bought the world’s third-oldest football club and oldest international stadium. Rob’s being polite. They were in the shitter. They had spent 14 years in the fifth tier of English football, but they had a ton of potential. We also brought in this guy… he has many female fans in addition to the men. Fuck. This is Wayne. He owns the bar that’s literally attached to the stadium and is even older than the team. Not Wayne. The bar.” — Ryan Reynolds
“We’re heavily invested in building this club, the stadium itself, and if we don’t get promoted this year, the club is completely, totally, and wholly unsustainable. So it’s really ratcheted up the pressure not just for us, I think, but for the players on the field, for the people in the community. This year, we have to get promoted. Fuck. Yeah.” — Ryan Reynolds
“This is the– well, I did read– breezy read… but I read ‘Tiffany’s Table Manners for Teens’ when I was young. Uh, yeah, yeah. We went to monarchy boot camp. It’s like the military, except your pinky’s always up. Posture. Are you ready? Okay. Just casually walking. Mm. Oh, that’s a nice chair. I feel like a serial killer. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. How you feel? Yeah, yeah. I can see the structure here is hurt– is bothering you. I want you to– I want you to feel that rage… when we’re working. Hello. How are you? Two pumps and release. Yeah. Say it. Yeah. Two… two pumps. That was an exchange. Jolly good. Jolly good. Your majesty, may I present? Yes.” — Ryan Reynolds
“The delays in funding put us at risk of falling behind schedule, so we need to have the new Kop built for the 2024-2025 season. So we decided to pay for the demolition of the old Kop ourselves and began tearing it down.” — Ryan Reynolds
“Uh, does anyone know– sorry– how to record my screen? I’m not quite sure. Oh, yeah. I think it’s recording. Okay, great. Great. Yeah. Is this, like, a political thing? Still, it’s a huge problem. I mean, this is a cornerstone of our long-term Wrexham plans. I mean, this is a cornerstone of our long-term Wrexham plans. I mean, this is huge. Uh, what is it that we can do to help see this through? Uh, I’ll sell one of my children. I have four. I mean, I don’t even know their names. Good. Um, okay– so… all right. Bye, guys.” — Ryan Reynolds
Rob McElhenney
“No, you can start. That’s the king of– yeah. Of-of England.”
“Previously on ‘Welcome to Wrexham…’ both were in need of some… attention. And a ton of very opinionated fans. So we went and got this guy. He’s very enthusiastic. We also bought in this guy. He was very expensive, but it paid off. Maybe it’s because he never keeps his shirt on. What else? Um… we lost a ton of money on the field. Oh, uh, yeah, the end of last season, this bullshit happened. I guess, uh… I guess we gotta show it? Do we have to show it? Yeah, just-just show it. You know what? Let’s just fast-forward to the end. We lose 5-4, everybody’s hearts are broken and we have to stay in the National League for the 15th straight season.”
“Come on, you reds! And if our goal from the very beginning was to– not just to win, not just to help bring some hope and optimism to the town, but to build a sustainable business something that can continue long after we’re gone, for us to put them in a position where if they don’t get promoted this year, that they are no longer sustainable in any real way, is, uh– is counter to what our original promises were. From a financial perspective, if we do not get promoted this year, we are fucked.”
“Mm-hmm. Smell. He smells great. Oh. Posture. Let’s not. Let’s not, ’cause– but we’ve established we’re both tall. Yeah. You look like you’re ready to pounce. Yeah, that’s so good. That’s great. I don’t stand, I rise. Mm-hmm. I’m having– I– I– yeah, I think I am gonna have a hard time with this. It’s not the structure. It’s the idea of bowing to somebody. It triggers something. Hi! Oh, hello. Welcome, welcome. No, that’s okay. Welcome, welcome. Should we also at the same time get– two pumps. Release. How do you do? Jolly good. A petite what?”
“Lovely. Your Majesty. I am– no, I’m from Philadelphia, but I live in Los Angeles. So it’s actually quite warm. The Kop is still there. We were supposed to have knocked it down months ago. And we keep getting emails and updates saying, ‘well, it’ll be next week. Maybe the week after, the week after.’ Where are we with the levelling up fund? We have been told the decision is next week… twice. Over many, many, many months, let alone weeks. Okay.”
“The truth of the matter is, if we don’t get that funding, we can’t build the Kop. Okay. Oh, this is quick? Thus far, we’ve been moving– this is quick? Ugh– I feel like after the show’s aired– in the UK, I notice that people were laughing about how much I was whinging. Whinging is my favorite British term now. That I was whinging about how slow everything is, because I guess they’re just so used to it from a bureaucratic standpoint. But good Lord. So what you’re suggesting to me is that because of this level of bureaucracy, that there’s a certain level of care and craftsmanship that goes into it that just doesn’t exist in the United States of America. I reject that wholesale on behalf of the American people. Yeah. All right, so we’ll know next week.”
“If you can pin yourself, Ryan, and then record your screen. Yeah, it should be down below in the center. If you just click on– there’s a little record button. It says you’re recording. You’re good. I don’t have £220 million lying around. I don’t– I don’t know if Ryan does, but I don’t think so. He might say he does but I would talk to Blake, ’cause I bet you he fucking doesn’t. Yeah, you’ve got a bunch of ’em now. Is there anything else we need to discuss besides the fact that the sky is falling? Is there anything– is there anything else?”
Humphrey Ker
“About £200,000.”
“The stakes are higher this year than they were last year. So for anyone who needs a quick reminder, of course. Wrexham are currently in the National League. That’s the fifth tier of English football. Now, we call that non-league football. Everything from the fifth tier down is organized football but is non-league. Everything above, that’s league football. So that’s League Two, which is the fourth tier, League One, which is the third tier, the Championship, second tier, and the Premier League, which is the top tier. Now, teams can move between these different tiers via promotion or relegation. So promotion tends to mean bigger crowds, bigger prize money, bigger television money, bigger interest, um, and relegation means the opposite. We’ve put more than a small amount of money into this with the objective of getting out of this division and getting into a higher league.”
“Uh, player contracts being handled at the moment. Remember this beauty? We’re about to start tearing down the Kop so we can build a new stand there, which really is gonna be a lynchpin of everything that we’re trying to do here. For us to achieve promotion, we obviously have to put the best possible team on the pitch, and that means investing in high-quality players. Benefits of that are obvious. You got great players from a higher level. The potential pitfalls, thought, are huge. You know, our wage bill is gonna be the largest in the division. The money we’ve spent on transfers will be more than anyone else in the division. Um, and we need to get that promotion in order to, you know, offset that cost, effectively. So, you know, the challenge here is, if it doesn’t all go to plan, we’re left holding a very expensive baby.”
“So it’s the start of the season and time to see how the squad looks with the new additions. Yeah, so Rob and Ryan are very excited about the king coming. Giddy, you might say. And, you know, I think they recognize, you know, the significance of having the monarch visiting Wrexham. We are trying to get £20 million worth of Kop funding out of the UK government. 18 months, two years. A lot of work has gone into lining up all the pieces of the puzzle to try and get this funding, and that will give us an extra 5,500 seats. It’ll also give us a stadium that is deemed to be of international standards so we can bring Welsh football back to the Racecourse. It’s the biggest and most expensive piece of this endeavor. UK government and the monarchy are closely aligned in many respects, and so getting support from the King is critical for the Kop stand as well as our future goals and plans. You know, I’m very impressed by their diligence in going to see an etiquette coach before meeting the King. Um, no one asked me if I needed to see an etiquette coach. So I hope I don’t blow it. Yeah.”
“Moments of great import are happening. At the same time, you know, this week, we’ve obviously got a massive game against a big rival, um, and, you know, the other thing for us this week is obviously, you know, we’re looking forward to getting, uh, some kind of decision about the Levelling Up Fund, hopefully, which is, you know, the money from the UK government that we’re hoping to help use to pay for the Kop. Mm-hmm. Not wrong. When the stand is built, the level of craftsmanship, the quality, the work that’s gone into it means that it should work and operate and it’ll go the way it should do and none of the door handles should fall off like everything does in my house in LA. Because– yes.”
“Yeah, unfortunately, I can’t work out how to do it on my phone, which is a bit of a blow. Oh, well, you’ve got so many of them. You can’t possibly– you can’t possibly need all of them.”
Wayne Jones
“This is just the most surreal year ever.”
“You know, we’re getting hundreds and hundreds of tourists, not just ourselves, but the restaurants, the Fat Boar, all these places– you know, the hotels. I mean, our business has doubled, practically, if not more so. Sorry, guys. Oh, there’s tourists walking in, yeah. Sorry, guys. IT’s 1:00 today. We’re just doing some… shoot– yeah. 1:00, I’m afraid. I’m just doing some filming for the documentary. I do apologize. We’ll be bang open for 1:00. Sorry, guys. Take care. See what I mean? Two minutes past 12:00. Americans. They’re lovely, though. They’re always like, ‘eh, no worries.’ We just send them to the burger van so they spend there instead.”
“Sellout crowd again today for Eastleigh, which is just phenomenal.”
“Oh, very fond memories, you know? My folks moved across the road when I was 11, and I was told then strictly not to cross the road. But as an eagle-eyed 11-year-old the floodlights were on. I remember the game well. I think it was Blackpool. And we scored a last-minute winner to win 4-3. And between the lights and the last-minute euphoria, I was absolutely hooked from that minute on. And that was the Kop, so yeah, just very fond memories. Um, mixed emotions, really. One of excitement for the future. But obviously, there’s a little bit of, um– a little bit of sadness, you know, mixed in there because not only I, thousands of people, you know, people that are no longer with us as well have got memories, you know, in that stand.”
Shaun Harvey
“All-in physically, all-in financially, and all-in emotionally.”
“The playoff semifinal defeat at the end of last season was deflating for everybody at the club, but we didn’t sulk. We just stayed committed to the process, to the plan that we had. Looking forward, you think, ‘this group of players together for a full season should be able to get us promoted.'”
“So, was I was saying– the line’s here– the line’s here. So once you’re at the line, you and Rob are gonna go that way with the Queen Consort.”
“Mm-hmm. The Levelling Up Fund, we are told that the decision is next week. Now– twice. Yeah. Absolutely. The club has an application into the Levelling Up Fund, which is operated by UK government. We’re asking them to contribute, via the council, £20 million to actually build a new stand.”
“If we don’t get the Levelling Up Fund, we have to go and find a public sector contribution from somewhere else. Nowhere near as attractive or quick. Because– trust me. This is efficient. Well, congratulations. However, this is happening in Wales, so you’ve got no choice. Okay. We’ll know next week.”
“You know, there’s absolutely no doubt Chesterfield were going to be one of the contenders for promotion. And obviously, going there so early was always going to be a challenge.”
“You know, we knew we put a squad together that was good enough to get promotion. Us knowing it and them doing it are two vastly different things.”
“Okay, coo. So I just got a message from– well, regrettably, a media outlet that’s hear the news that the Levelling Up Fund bid application from the council has been unsuccessful. So the Levelling Up Fund bid’s not been accepted. 18 months of work trying to get the funding for the Kop has just gone up in smoke. We can’t grow the club unless we can get more people into the stadium. We’ve got a three-sided ground now with a Kop that’s nearly on the floor. Probably the Conservative government don’t believe they’ll hold the Wrexham seat this time at the next election, regardless of how much money they put into the local football club. We’ve taken a blow, but we’re gonna get back up again. And we’re not out with this fight yet. Just the three of you promise me this. I’m low at the moment. Let just me be the lowest. We’ll find a– we’ll find a– we’ll find a solution because we are gonna need to think outside the box and do things differently, so… oh, you’ve brightened my day. You’ve brightened my day up, you three. Cheers. Talk to you later, mate.”
King Charles
“My wife and I are absolutely delighted to be with you in Wrexham today to celebrate your becoming a city. A little earlier, I had the opportunity to see one of the other wonders of Wrexham, namely the football club, which is busy putting Wrexham on the map as never before.”
“I hear It’s Always Sunny there.”
Royal Family
“What about you?”
Ollie Palmer
“It was a bit weird, really, when you think about it. You got two Hollywood actors, you’ve got the royal family, and Wrexham. How do you even put them together? I-I have no idea.”
Paul Mullin
“I really love goal-scoring.”
Coach Parkinson
“You’re telling me that’s not a fucking pen? We look like a team of fucking fatty fucking footballers!”
“It’s too dry, innit? Good. Show me your finish. Yes. There you go. Got ya. Good. Finish! We needed to make sure that the squad had more strength and depth. We signed quite a lot of players from higher divisions, obviously to get that extra bit of quality. You need players on eights and nines out of ten. Players who understand what they’re coming into.”
“The goalkeeper situation is difficult, because, you know, I had a good chat with Dibbs. The time is right for him to go and be someone’s number one. And unfortunately, he’s got injured in preseason himself. Rob has got a long-term injury, so we brought Mark in.”
“Play with physicality, intensity, and fucking aggression. The ball goes in the box, we’re fucking aggressive. Challenges all over the pitch. We are fucking aggressive. And when we fucking go, we fucking go together. Come on, now, let’s go!”
“This is Rob, our goalkeeper.”
“This is Rosie.”
“Start of the new season, there’s a few teams you expect to be up there. And Chesterfield, Notts County, Boreham Wood, you know, you look at those teams, and they’ve been building squads for a while to make challenges to get out this league and, like ourselves, haven’t found it easy. You’d expect them to challenge again. It’s an early season test, and we’ll know more about the team when we come out of the game.”
“We came against a team who started very quickly on the night, and when you can see two poor goals– and it always gives any team a lift. And yeah, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. It’s a real disappointment early in the season when we were arriving, full of optimism, thinking, this is where we make a statement.”
Mark Howard
“Mark Howard, goalkeeper. I turned pro at 18. I’m 36, nearly 37 now, so close to 18, 19 years. Last season at Carlilse, I ended up signing ten games into the season, trying to help them stay in the league. I end up having a very successful season. Went on to get quite a few awards. I’d worked with Phil before. We’d had a really successful season in League One with Bolton getting promoted, and even the season after. Phil’s a dead honest manager. He’ll tell you how it is and if things aren’t going to plan, he tells you. Once I found out that he was interested, it was a no-brainer for me. And at this stage in my career and what Wrexham are trying to achieve, I’ve got this opportunity. Something really exciting to be part of.”
“Goalkeepers make mistakes all the time. It’s just that we get punished for it, and it normally leads to a goal. I think it’s one of them things that, with the weather, we just didn’t start that game well enough. I think I wasn’t– ah. It was tough because of– it was pressure from the year before. We needed to start off the season so well. Obviously, I tried to take a back pass in and then just took a bad touch. That’s the nature of being a goalkeeper.”
Etiquette Coach
“Is this the first time you’ve actually been trained in etiquette? Okay. Okay. Okay, all right. So, I think we should start with the beginning. Everything begins with the first impression. So what do you think people notice that exudes something special about you? Well, before they can smell you they notice something physically. What do you think it is? There we go. Okay, let’s stand up. If we may. When you sit down, do not flop. And when you place your hands, you are going to literally just place them right here on your knees. Okay? And that’s it. But I just want to see it. And by the way, was I leaning back in the chair? No, I was sitting up with good posture. I think so. Chin up. Good. Yeah, there we go. Okay. Turn around. You know where the chair is. Good. Nice. The control. I feel like the thigh muscles were working, right? Okay. Nice spine distance. Okay, beautiful. Okay. Lovely. And now, you may– exactly. Now, I don’t need to teach you gentlemen how to curtsy because you’re men. However, about the bow. So it is a certain inclination of the head. It’s literally from the neck down. Let’s just see what that looks like. Okay. Okay, good. Okay. Let me see, though, the two pumps and release. Oh, by the way, also, gentlemen… it doesn’t have to be in unison. Oh, wait, let me see the– with the inclination. Do you remember the phrase, gentlemen? No. When you actually meet, there’s that other formal phrase that I taught you that we’re forgetting. You get a little petit four– extra one if you get it right.”
UK Government
“Mr. Speaker, if you live in North Wales and you watch international sport, you’ll have to travel four hours to Cardiff or Swansea. Shocking. The Wrexham Racecourse with its historic Kop stand offers an excellent opportunity to level up access to sport. Hear, hear!”
“Well, there could be no better campaigner for the interests of Wrexham sport. I will do what I can, Mrs. Speaker, but I’m sure that Wrexham has every chance of success in the future.”
Producers
“Call this Poppy syndrome? That’s all right.”
“What does it feel like? What’s the contract situation about?”
“Come over here so we can see it. We can see it there. Have a seat. So what is this?”
“What does it mean for you to see the stand being pulled down?”
Wrexham AFC
“Yeah. Ah! Four, five. Fucking hell. Last one. Don’t go dis– ah! Awesome. Mate. Fucking can’t describe it. Literally cannot describe it. Never had any pain like it, ever. I’ll just put my body anywhere, do you know what I mean, to do what I need to do. To be fair, throughout the whole of my career until this year, I’ve never had any concussion or knockout, and then I’ve had three in the year now. That was a Bromley game away when I got knocked out, my first knockout.”
“Well, you’re in cast, you’ll be in a cast for eight weeks… …so it’s gonna be probably around the three-month marker when you start doing– just doing basic– yeah. Well, I was in every day from Monday to Friday. I’m sat in a machine where it just bend my wrist up and down for, like, six weeks. Push, push, push. Oh, mate. Last one. Ooh, ah. One more, one more. Got two more. Last two. One more. Oh, mate. It’s when you come up. It as a kick in the teeth, really, ’cause I think I’d played 34 games of the season. Coming to the crunch end, and obviously, the injury happened. And then you’ve got to watch from the sidelines and you feel a bit– you know, I don’t know how to describe it. You can’t– you’re there, but you’re not there, in a way, so you’re not feeling the up and the downs and you can’t help, so you just feel like a bit of a waster, really. It’s just a tool to give him some friction to try and move a few things about and desensitize a touch. The issue Rob has had is, after surgery, he was in his cast for almost ten weeks. If we left this for 12 months or so… the body’s real clever, ’cause it knows that it’s healed, so it’ll stop trying to heal itself. And obviously, he wants to get back playing. And with his contract situation as well, we need to get him back on– on the training pitch.”
“I’m out of contract in the summer. So this could be my last season if I can’t get back to where I was at the current time of when I was playing in the team. Obviously, my contract now runs out in the summer, so I’ve got now until then to get back and prove myself again. We had Rob who was injured. Christian Dibble. Then he got inured in pre-season. Which was– that was a nightmare for him. Think he dislocated his knee, so there was a bit of turbulence with that.”
“Mark Howard is a very experienced goalkeeper. Been around, played in the Championship, knows it, which I like. I like a senior goalkeeper just because there’s an experience there and a calmness.”
“Let’s go, then!”
“I live quite close. I didn’t, but I moved closer just to play for Wrexham.”
Wrexham Fans
“Hopefully that money gonna pay the manager off.”
“Why do we do this to ourselves? Why can’t we like something like knitting? Why do we have– why do we have to like football? Knitting? It’s just– because we love football. Yeah. Well, yeah.”
“What’s amazing for us is the Hollywood owners, when we first heard it, we all thought it was a joke. What they’ve done is, they’ve given the whole community of North Wales such a boost. We sold out 24,000 Wrexham shirts this year. We could’ve sold a lot more, but the suppliers couldn’t meet demand. Now, you can’t go anywhere where there isn’t a Wrexham shirt and pride to be a Wrexham fan.”
“Everybody’s walking round in the park with them on, our team– the jackets or anything, and you just talk to one another. We’re just on a the ride of a lifetime. People here are excited to see Rob and Ryan, and we’re here excited to see the people we recognize from the documentary. Yeah.”
“A hell of a lot of people recognize me, and I’ve even signed shirts. I have! I told you mate. I went– I went to the Racecourse. I was signing– I was signing shirts for these kids from Australia.”
“We’re starting a little community… of Wrexham fans in Portugal. Thailand. Yay! I’m from Brazil. I’m being– I’m in Wrexham just today to watch the match with the people in The Turf.”
“I speak to some people overseas in America, and it’s like, um– and it’s like they know about Wrexham now, which is strange, ’cause I always had to explain Wales ’cause they thought it was an animal. Everyone is just better off for it, really. Probably one of the best things to happen in a long time.”
“Oh. That’s all right. Thank you. Yeah, no problem at all. Sounds good. Thank you.”
“Hopefully, we’ll get promoted this year. I can see them getting promoted, to be fair. The only choice for them, the only realistic choice is to go up this year in league. Just getting out of this awful league has been so– oh, it’s been terrible. If we were promoted, it would mean the absolute world to the fans, to the club, to the town.”
“Eastleigh. Absolutely must-win game. So excited! Who’s your favorite? Paul Mullin.”
“We’ve got to do it this year. This year is the year. What a player! What a player! Elliot Lee, absolutely immense. Second half, Elliot Lee changed the game. What a signing. What a player. What a fucking player. Is it your new favorite player, Elliot Lee, or is it still Paul Mullin? Uhh, Elliot Lee. Elliot Lee, yeah.”
“So this is one of the shirts from our time. Seven seasons, we were sponsors, uh, for back of shirt, as they called it. We carried that on for seven seasons. And then, obviously, the last season that we were sponsors was the first season of the takeover. Felt as if we were doing something right, that we were helping the club and that when we had this on the back of the shirt, that was– you know, I never got to play for them, but to, uh– to have that on there, you know, as our company was brilliant. Getting emotional now. My name’s Phil Salmon. I’m 64 years of age now. Been supporting Wrexham AFC since probably the age of seven. This is one of the original Kop barriers from, obviously, the Racecourse Ground, the oldest international stadium in the world. They were taken down when the Kop was no longer in use. So the Kop used to be standing only. That was the reason for these barriers, to stop any sort of crush if fans move forward too quickly or whatever. And so fans that used to stand on the Kop were given the opportunity to purchase them. And the money was used for charities. And– ’cause we were doing ’em on a voluntary basis, we’d normally do them at night, you know, after we finished work. So I’d, say, spend an hour on each barrier.”
“I very luckily met Phil through Dixie. And Phil mentioned that he might have a barrier from the old Kop at Wrexham Football Club that he may be able to donate to Nightingale House Hospice to see whether we could raise vital money for the hospice. This is where people stood behind watching the football matches in the ’70s and ’80s and gave you lots of abuse if you missed a goal. Don’t put that in. Don’t put that in. No. So please keep your eyes peeled, because this is coming on the market, and it will be sold to the highest bidder. Brilliant. Amazing. If it wasn’t for the likes of Phil, we wouldn’t be able to have the opportunity to raise the valuable money that we need. I’ve always though that, you know, if you can do something nice, it gives a lot of people a lot of pleasure, you know? And I would like to think that if I was in somebody else’s shoes, that I would look forward to somebody doing that for me. So yeah, just loads of history. So to be involved with the club and see where it is now is just phenomenal.”
“I think the Kop was obviously iconic. And it’s, like, a little bit like the Turf. It’s just sort of the fabric of the football club, in many ways, that– obviously, friends have come together and I’ve stood on there as a youngster. But then as a player, to look out onto a full Kop was pretty special. You know, that’s something nice that I’ll always have to keep hold of and, you know, that– that moment becomes even more special now it’s no longer there.”
“Wrexham! Wrexham! Wrexham! Wrexham! Wrexham! Well, out of the ashes, you know, will arise a new Kop. Goodbye, old friend, as Rob said. Yes, yeah. Goodbye, old friend.”
“Arrived in Chesterfield. Massive game. Need to be taking points off people like this. Up the town. Come on, boys! That’s absolutely atrocious. You don’t dick about with a ball like that. That’s awful. Completely at fault, there. But we need to get a new keeper in soon.”
Football Broadcasters
“Ollie Palmer puts Wrexham ahead!”
“Currently playing outside of the Football League desperate to make sure they have one more to play next Sunday.”
“Here we go. And the kickoff is taken. This was not in the Hollywood script… for Wrexham.”
“Substitution of James. Jordan Davies. The ball goes through to Coulson, Leighton… with an excellent save and Leighton again– and the ball’s gone over the bar. Rob Lainton put his body on the line every single game. And this is a serious one for Lainton. And looks in some pain. And we wish Rob a speedy recovery.”
“Thrown to the Carlisle United fans, it’s a save by Mark Howard. What a save from Mark Howard!”
“Hello, everyone! Welcome to Wrexham. Ooh, start of the season! Getting that tingle yet, everyone? It’s exciting. It’s exciting. It’s odd. I was saying beforehand that every other season I’ve watched Wrexham, I just have a feeling somewhere between hope and fear. Yeah. Now for the first time ever, I actually feel expectation. I expect us to win this league. Finally, we get going. The ball’s laid back to Ben Tozer. Palmer is after it. Floated in to the near post. Howard comes! And he drops it! And it’s 1-0 to Eastleigh! He’s furious. He thinks he’s been fouled. I-it looked to me like he just got underneath the ball, to be honest. He is, yeah. Back to the ball. And then he pawed at it with one hand. Feeding it back, first time cross by McFadzean. Oh! Looking for Forde! Another incredibly close escape. It’s swung in towards the near post. Palmer! Just wide. Ooh. Oh, he got up so well there, but tried to put it inside the far post. Young seeks the near post, Palmer flicks it on! Oh! Just wide. Oh, that was so close. The ref, he blows his whistle. And the fans boo, but I think it’s fair to say the booing is reserved for the official and the opponents. Yes. Wrexham trailing 1-0 up against Eastleigh. 51st minute. Elliot Lee on for his debut to provide a bit more attacking threat for Wrexham. Palmer is taking on his man. Couple of stepovers. That’s nice. Backheels it, Lee hits it! Yeah! Yeah! What a goal! Mullin helps it in. Lee, six yards out. Hits it! Yeah! So that’s it! It starts as we mean to go on– with a win.”
“Neil Roberts equalized from the penalty spot.”
“Let’s get on to predictions. I’m gonna go for a nervy 1-niller ’cause I just love shoving it up those Derbyshire fellows. I’m gonna go for 2-nil. I’m gonna go same as last year. Brilliant. So we’re gonna be top of the league by the end of this. You heard it here first.”
“Hold on to your hats from the start. Quite the power from the adrenaline-fueled atmosphere we got anyway. I mean, I hope you can hear us in this massive early season match. If you’re gonna win the title, you’ve gotta take points off your rivals. Chesterfield are serious rivals. It’s the first time I’ve gone into a season actually expecting success. Lee on the left-hand side scurries forward as well. Nice ball to Mullin, heads behind and turns hits it just wide. Banks switches beautifully to King on the right-hand side halfway line. Palmer gets across quickly. It’s pinged inside. And the return pass is a good one. King hits the goal line, puts it inside Palmer. Gets to the 6-yard box. It’s goal! Chesterfield take the lead! Wow! Chesterfield score in the tenth minute. King with a superb run. And now it’s the Chesterfield fans making all the noise.”
“Lays it out to McFadzean . Early cross, easy for the keeper. Wrexham haven’t quite got their rhythm back since going behind. Asante’s free on the left-hand side as Wrexham try and recover. Tozer. Wrexham are really, really pinned back here. Living up towards Bellinger’s. King gets it back, turns it over the top and Tozer will have to chase this one. He’ll– very coolly plays to Howard, who’s under pressure, and he’s lost the ball! He’s outside the box. The shot comes in! 2-0! Oh, dear me. That got us. I don’t think that was a wise place to play a back pass. How on Earth have Wrexham managed to go two down? I mean, that’s a disaster.”
“Wrexham really needs to push on in this second half now. Chesterfield outperforming the Red Dragons on their trip over here to Derbyshire. Phil Parkinson’s side just couldn’t get into their rhythm or their groove. That’s the full time whistle that’s blown. This was a frustrating day for Wrexham who, in front of a superb following, have not been able to come out with a result at all.”
