WREXHAM — The sense you know Wrexham Football Club before even entering the Racecourse Ground for the first time is inescapable.
Much like that celebrity off the telly, which in a way they are, there is a cosy familiarity to the club, and it was impossible not to feel excited about my first-ever Wrexham home game to end a day playing tourist in north Wales.
Llangollen: check. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (inspiration for a scene in last Christmas’ Wallace and Gromit epic): check. Now for the main attraction.
I was not alone in making my debut, with an American family – Larry and Wendy over from Memphis, Chris and Lauren from Florida – here for their first game as well, proof of TV show’s Welcome to Wrexham’s enduring appeal three years on from its first season.
“We’re all huge Wrexham fans since the show came out,” Lauren says, before Larry adds: “I didn’t even care for sports but the show is just so endearing.
“I tell people who haven’t watching it it’s the greatest infomercial ever made on planet earth. You fall in love with the sport, the city, the culture, the team.”
But there is a fear I’ve arrived to the party when the fridge has long been empty. After three straight promotions, co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac have entered their toughest chapter since taking over in 2020.
It was an inevitability on account of their rapid rise from the National League. For that uncertainty to only bulldoze its way in by the time they’ve reached the second tier is nothing short of remarkable.
The Championship offers that thrilling jeopardy where the Premier League is within reach, and with Wrexham surrounded by more than a dozen clubs that feel as though they belong there, it is no surprise they sit 19th going into their match against Oxford United.
Wrexham are one of just five Championship clubs who have not been in the top tier in the Premier League era – also Oxford, Millwall, Bristol City and Preston North End – and they are playing in the second tier for the first time since 1982.
Their highest ever finish is 15th in the second division in 1978-79, a position they have occupied briefly this season, while manager Phil Parkinson – who has overseen this journey up the leagues – has only coached a club in the top half of the Championship for less than two months: Bolton Wanderers in August and September 2018.
Difficult questions have arisen. Already Parkinson’s future has been the subject of scrutiny, with Steven Gerrard among those linked to replace him, while the presence of former Manchester United defender Phil Jones at the Racecourse Ground also sparked rumours.
I can’t explain it… but Phil Jones is in Ryan Reynolds’ box at Wrexham this afternoon
— Nathan Salt (@NathSalt1) September 13, 2025#mufc #WxmAFC pic.twitter.com/9oQqwmVK3m
Jones, it turned out, was invited to September’s game against Queen’s Park Rangers by chief executive Michael Williamson simply because they are neighbours. Nonetheless, it spoke of the frenzy that swirls around this club.
The realisation that Wrexham have quickly entered a billionaire’s playground has not been lost on Mac and Reynolds either.
The pair welcomed minority investors in October 2024, the Allyn family, while Reynolds said this month on a US chat show that after going up from League One, they were “going to have to rent our mouths out to oligarchs”.
Wrexham spent £29.2m on new players in the summer. Only Ipswich Town (£46.4m) and Southampton (£45.8m), both relegated from the Premier League, spent more in the Championship.
Among the 13 new names are ex-England centre-back Conor Coady, 32, and Wales striker Kieffer Moore, 33. Adding experience has been key, but despite their outlay Transfermarkt still ranks Wrexham down in 12th for the Championship’s most valuable starting line-up.
A packed squad has also led to difficulties settling on an XI, while for the fans each step up the ladder has led to an unfamiliarity with the players in front of them.
By Wednesday’s game against Oxford, Coady is barely a fixture of the matchday squad, while Moore is under pressure after a difficult few weeks.
The win over Oxford was the first at home in the league this season. They have lost two more but the three draws have proven even more frustrating. They led Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 at half-time and almost lost that 3-2 with the last kick of the game, while they also scored first against both Derby County and Birmingham City only to be pegged back.
Eight of their 10 league matches have either been drawn or decided by one goal. They are competing. They are having no problem scoring, with only four clubs boasting more goals, but just two clubs have conceded more.
There is a power cut within minutes of entering the stadium. An ominous sign at a club in need of a little light. There’s a fear the match will be delayed if the floodlights don’t come back on soon, with the goalkeepers having already come out, but eventually the sarcastic “Wheys!” indicate order has been restored.
Parkinson reverts to the 3-5-2 that served them well in League One. The calls to start Nathan Broadhead are answered and he joins fellow Wales international Moore in attack.
To begin with, Moore is winning almost every ball, Broadhead is there to win the “seconds”. Wing-backs Liberato Cacace and Issa Kabore are starting together for the first time and both look sharp.
Moore is first to a corner which he nods across to Broadhead, whose effort just about crosses the line to give Wrexham the lead. Now they must right the wrongs of those recent draws.
But the nerves creep in. From the home supporters, it soon becomes “Just hit the f**king thing!” and “Kick it in a straight line!”, and soon the worry that “This is like the Birmingham game all over again.”
A straight red card for defender Callum Doyle means Wrexham have a quarter left to see out the game. Moore looks shattered. Oxford flick the crossbar. “Get the ball in the other end!”
Defiant chants from all three corners of this ground (the fourth is non-existent, a new “Kop” stand should be ready next year) show the Wrexham fans recognise their role in getting their players over the line. The noise levels rise. Then comes the sound of the full-time whistle.
As Parkinson speaks after the game, the lights go out again. Had his side lost, he might not have found it so funny, but he happily continues chatting in the near darkness.
“We know we can get better,” he says, somewhere ahead of me, and with the win taking them up to 15th – level with Ipswich above them and Swansea City and Portsmouth below – you are reminded of the fickle nature of this league, where the play-off and relegation spots never seem far off.
It’s a rollercoaster, and though they’ve far from had it their own way, Wrexham are showing they can at least be competitive. The grit showed against Oxford proves they’re tall enough for the ride.
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