- Seb Sternik
- 15 November 2024
Free EFL acca tips: Goals galore in Blackpool, Barnsley momentum, Wrexham test and more...
With the international break taking centre stage, it’s time to shine some light on EFL action from League One and Two.
Wrexham are a professional football club based in North Wales who currently play in League One - the third tier of English football.
The Red Dragons play at the Racecourse Ground, which is the oldest international stadium in the world.
Wrexham had been in the National League since the 2008/09 season and haven't played league football for 15 years.
However, things changed on February 9, 2021, when the Hollywood duo of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchased the club for an estimated sum of £2million and oversaw Wrexham's return to the Football League for the 2023/24 season.
Historically silverware has been hard to come by for Wrexham, with the EFL Trophy arguably their biggest cup win in 2005.
Wrexham were also Third Division champions in 1977/78, won the FA Trophy in 2013 and are the record-breaking winners of the Welsh Cup with 23.
But it's the 2022/23 National League title under the stewardship of Reynolds and McElhenney, and manager Phil Parkinson, that will be most dear to the fans and admirers of Wrexham.
The following season Wrexham were promoted from League Two to League One after finishing runners-up to champions Stockport.
Wrexham players celebrate promotion
Wrexham's early history
Wrexham were founded in 1864, in the Turf Hotel pub next to their Racecourse Ground stadium, and to begin with only played friendlies and appeared in the FA Cup.
Wrexham then joined the original FA Combination League in 1890 before a brief stint in the Welsh Senior League, which they won in both of the seasons that they featured.
They returned to the Combination and lifted the trophy four times between 1900 and 1905.
The 1878 Welsh Cup was the first time they lifted the trophy, and they continued that love affair with that tournament until 1995 when they picked up their 24th and last piece of silverware. Welsh clubs who played in the English league system were excluded from the competition the following year.
After twelve seasons in the Birmingham & District League, Wrexham were elected to the newly formed Third Division North in 1921 - runners-up in the 1932/33 campaign was their highest finish.
They stayed in Division Three until the 1959/60 season when they were relegated to Division Four, and up until the late 70s they bounced between those two divisions on a regular basis.
The golden years of the 1970s
Wrexham reached the Second Division after winning the Division Three title in the 1977/78 season under manager and the club's record appearance maker Arfon Griffiths. His 591 league appearances for the club still stands to this day.
They also made it to the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time in their history in 1974 after beating fellow Welsh team Cardiff City.
Wrexham also made it through to the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup in the 1975/76 season under manager John Neal.
The 70s also saw the first and second stints of club legend Joey Jones who made his debut against local rivals Chester City at the age of just 17.
Cult hero Jones would go on to have three spells for Wrexham and make 375 league appearances for the club.
Fall and rise
Wrexham lasted four seasons in Division Two before being relegated at the end of the 1981/82 campaign. They then suffered a further relegation to the bottom tier of the Football League the following season.
They camped in the Fourth Division for nearly a decade, narrowly avoiding being forced to apply for re-election to the League and fortunately finished bottom of the entire Football League during the season when there was no relegation to the Conference.
In the 1991/92 season Wrexham went on a now famous FA Cup run, knocking the mighty Arsenal out of the tournament thanks to a Mickey Thomas free-kick and a Steve Watkin goal in the third round.
They took West Ham to a replay in the next round but lost 1-0.
The cup run sparked Wrexham into life the following season as manager Brian Flynn guided the club out of the bottom tier and into the rebranded Division Two as runners-up. They'd stay there until they were relegated in 2001/02.
2000s and the EFL cup
The 2000s where a turbulent time for Wrexham as the club found themselves in continued financial trouble.
In the 2004/05 season Wrexham were forced to enter administration after failing to pay their debts and players. They became the first league club to be handed a ten-point deduction which ultimately saw them relegated from the third tier of English football, now rebranded League One.
Regardless of their off-field woes Wrexham found themselves in the final of the EFL Cup, beating Southend 2-0 in the final.
Wrexham played in the bottom tier of the Football League for three seasons before being relegated to the National League at the end of the 20007/08 season.
Apart from a FA Trophy win in 2013 season and a handful of unsuccessful play-off appearances, the good times have only occasionally visited North Wales.
Reynolds, McElhenney and Wrexham
Wrexham owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney
At the start of 2021, Hollywood surprisingly arrived in Wrexham in the form of Deadpool's Ryan Reynolds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney.
The duo purchased the club for around £2million and turned the club and town upside down... in a good way.
Wrexham started attracting EFL calibre players to the National League. Most notably strikers Paul Mullin, who joined from Cambridge, stepping down two divisions to play, and Ollie Palmer who broke Wrexham's transfer record fee when he joined for £300,000 from AFC Wimbledon.
They are now managed by former Sunderland, Bolton and Bradford manager Phil Parkinson, who also lured former England and Manchester United keeper Ben Foster out of retirement to play for Wrexham.
The club also became the centre of its own TV show, called 'Welcome to Wrexham' on Disney, which has attracted fans from across the world to follow the fortunes of this former sleepy mining town.
Since the takeover Wrexham have seen a massive change in form and just missed out on promotion in the duo's first season in charge and were also beaten finalist in the FA Trophy.
Wrexham's dreams finally came true in the 2022/23 season, as they sealed promotion to League Two after a 15-year absence as Mullin's brilliant brace fired them to a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood.
Mullin took his goal tally for the season to 47 in providing a script worthy of Reynolds and McElhenney - who were among a 10,162 crowd to see the Welsh club secure the National League title.
In the 2023/24 season, Wrexham secured back-to-back promotions with a thumping 6-0 win over Forest Green.
During the campaign, Mullin scored his 100th goal in just three seasons for the club.
Asked how Reynolds deals with match nerves, he said: “My coping mechanisms as I’ve gotten older are not great.
“One time I checked how many steps I got through during a match and it was like nine-and-a-half thousand.
“I’m like a caged tiger, I live, breathe, eat and sleep Wrexham."
Wrexham's rivalries
Wrexham's main rivalries are with Chester City and Shrewsbury, over the border in England.
Being a Welsh side in the English pyramid, Swansea, Cardiff and Newport are also considered rivals.
Wrexham's fanbase
Even before the takeover Wrexham had a relatively large fanbase for the fifth tier. The Racecourse Ground holds just under 11,000 and is filled most weeks.
However, this has increased on a global scale thanks to the ownership of Reynolds and McElhenney
Wrexham ownership and finances
Wrexham are owned by the R.R. McReynolds Company, which is equally run Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.
Turnover for the year to June 2022 was £5.972m, an increase of 404 per cent from £1.478m.
However, rising football costs of £3.94m resulted in an overall loss of £2.914m.
