Wrexham Are Pushing For ANOTHER PROMOTION
The excitement was huge last season when Wrexham AFC gained promotion to the English Football League after a run in of the season that had you on the edge of your seat. Both Notts County and Wrexham broke the previous record points tally of 101 points, and with a good margin at that, getting 107 and 111 points respectively.
To further show how crazy competitive that season was, Chesterfield, who finished third and ultimately missed promotion to League Two, are absolutely steamrolling that same division this season and are on track to beat that very same record.
And if the competitive nature of the promotion campaign wasn’t enough, their superstar owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElheny, made sure that there was enough media coverage that you’d think the team was full of Kardashians. But since then, it’s been comparatively quiet. Let’s have a look at Wrexhams first season back in the EFL.
So, this season Wrexham are playing in League Two and they’re still winning. While the National league only has one direct promotion and qualification promotion slot each, League Two has three direct promotion spots and one through qualification. And Wrexham are in third with a game in hand to overtake Stockport in first. The way they are playing they might very well secure back to back promotions.
Team | Games Played | Points |
---|---|---|
Stockport | 26 | 51 |
Mansfield Town | 24 | 49 |
Wrexham | 25 | 49 |
Barrow | 25 | 45 |
Notts County | 26 | 42 |
Tough Break to Start The Season
So, Wrexham look on track to gain another promotion. However, their season hasn’t been without its bumps.
At the end of last season when they were heading into the home stretch, Wrexham’s goalkeeper Mark Howard got injured. And then his backup got injured too, at which point the club reached out to retired former Wrexham and Premier League keeper, Ben Foster. He came in and had a huge impact, crowned by saving a penalty in the 97th minute against Notts County to take Wrexham ahead in the league.
Foster then signed a one year extension to play in League Two. However, after only five games where the team conceded 13 goals, Foster decided he wasn’t meeting the high standards he puts on himself and went back into retirement.
Luckily though, and probably why Foster felt it was alright to step back, Wrexham managed to secure the loan signing of Arsenal's Arthur Okonkwo. Okonkwo has had a pretty good start to his time at Wrexham and has kept seven clean sheets in the 15 games he’s played but has spent some time out of the team injured.
Last season's top scorer at Wrexham, Paul Mullin, has also had a slow start, by his standards. The 24 year old scored 39 goals in the National League, just short of a goal a game. But so far in League Two he’s scored just nine in 26 games. Mullins' status as internal top scorer has been overtaken by Elliot Lee.
Performance So Far
Their start to the season was slow. After five games they had only managed to scrape together six points and one win, drawing three.
Home | Away | Result |
---|---|---|
Wrexham AFC | MK Dons | 3-5 |
AFC Wimbledon | Wrexham AFC | 1-1 |
Wrexham AFC | Walsall | 4-2 |
Wrexham AFC | Swindon Town | 5-5 |
Barrow | Wrexham AFC | 1-1 |
But their form picked up and they managed to win three on the bounce and ever since, Wrexham has been one of the best teams in the league, despite their most famous player deciding to retire once again and their most prolific goal scorer last season struggling to find his form.
In the calendar year of 2023 only Manchester City had a higher points per game average than Wrexham AFC in the top four leagues of English football (counting the games they played in the fifth tier).
Team | Points | Games | Points/Game |
---|---|---|---|
Manchester City | 93 | 41 | 2.27 |
Wrexham AFC | 104 | 47 | 2.21 |
Ipswich Town | 103 | 47 | 2.19 |
Aston Villa | 85 | 42 | 2.02 |
The interesting thing about the way this has gone down is that it’s generally looked upon positively. It’d be easy to assume that two famous, loud Americans coming to the ailing Welsh club would be a bit too much but the actors have been showing a lot of emotion and commitment towards the club, attending a lot of their home games. Since the American duo bought the club, the support has been massive. Merchandise sales are up, social media engagement is up but more importantly for the people of Wrexham, attendance and community support is up.
Of course, most importantly the results are way up.
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