Wrexham 2 B’Wood 1

What Happened?

Everyone watched in on the live stream gogglebox because we had to. And that included co-owner in waiting Mr Reynolds who would have been impressed with the Deadpool-esque reflexes of Rob Lainton during the opening exchanges as the Rob-bobcat made a string of ridiculous saves to keep out pre-season optimism intact.

Adi Yussuf suffered an injury before the half hour, with Jake Bickerstaff replacing him.

Reece Hall-Johnson then thundered down the right before lacerating both ball and net with a venomous strike. Ferocious finesse. 1-0.

Theo Vassell turned a sitter into a shitter before half time. …

2020 eh. Depressing, strange, horrible, surreal. And I’m not talking about Covid-19.

Wrexham embark on a 13th season in non-league tomorrow when they host Boreham Wood at a fan-less Racecourse. Depressing.

The match-day squad will be barely recognisable from the one which was held to a goalless draw by Easteigh in our last competitive game on home soil back in March.

Instead of rolling up to the ground at 14:50hrs we will be gathered in our socially-distanced masses in pubs, and/or settling on the sofa with our spouse as the game gets the live-streaming treatment straight to our TVs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. …

I was lucky enough to be gifted a matchworn shirt by Paul Whitfield recently.

You know, Whits, the former Wrexham AFC goalkeeper.

You know, surely! No? Okay, maybe not.

A fair share of decent custodians have adorned the no.1 shirt for the Reds — from Dai Davies to Andy Marriott, Ben Foster to current incumbent Rob Lainton.

The last line of defence is one of the most exposed and scrutinised positions on the pitch. For all the noteworthy goalkeepers of yesteryear there have also been plenty of God-awful ones — Mark Walton and Xavi Valero had all the stopping prowess of a those crepe paper targets aboard the battle cars in the finalé of Takeshi’s Castle. …

Rarely do I receive text messages nowadays. Most of my instant messaging is done through WhatsApp. So on the rare occasion my text alert did sound I knew it was going to be from one of the following: voicemail notification, spam or Davy Lee.

When Davy sent a group text to everyone it was to informed the die-hards of Wrexham AFC about the next planned trips aboard TWATS travel — The Wrexham Away Travel Supporters.

It would mention the usual pick-up points and times plus the added bonus of a scheduled stop-off to sample the watering holes of a town within a 30 minute drive or so of the destination Wrexham were playing at. …

If you’d have told me at the turn of the year Wrexham would avoid impending doom to the sixth tier of the English League pyramid due to a global pandemic, and the club captain would spend his summer delivering pizzas then I probably would have told you to lay off the hallucinogens.

Let’s face it, scientists and likely conspiracy theorists aside, nobody saw what was coming when Covid-19 (no, not one of Gary Mills’s lesser-known signings) decided to try and end the world. For many melodramatic anuses their own worlds imploded when the football was brought to an abrupt end.

Strangely, I’ve quite enjoyed the breather from the relentless regular season, especially one which started shit and became progressively shittier. …

Earlier this month we discovered Gary Mills had emerged from his cave to give a rare interview documenting his time as a manager. He claimed he didn’t want the Wrexham job in the first place and effectively went on to slag the club off.

Our man Randy Lee immediately called bullshit on Gary’s wild account. Here is his hot take on Mr Fake.

Picture the scene: It’s Spring 2015. A silver-haired tantastic lothario is sat in the dark and dingy corner of a Gateshead pub talking animatedly to an older man in a suit.

He’s sobbing into his pint whilst nibbling sadly on a pickled egg. “Please don’t make me go there,” he begs. He’s now practically on his hands and knees tugging on the other man’s trouser leg. …

Llewellyn the Great

We already know most of the stories from that historic afternoon 15 years ago today (April 10).

Every single member of Denis Smith’s squad played their part in the LDV Vans Trophy final success, a romantic, everlasting chapter in an unravelling tale of woe as Wrexham would eventually tumble into League Two after a points deduction for entering administration.

The away-from-home goal-scoring prowess of Juan Ugarte that season is the stuff of legend. He would eventually break Southend’s stoic resistance with the opening goal in extra time of the final.

On-loan Stoke City goalkeeper Ben Foster got his ‘shop window’ moment in front of Fergie Senior that would ultimately propel him to the top of the game. …

Andy Holt’s LDV Love Letter

For this article former Wrexham defender Andy Holt kindly agreed to text over his replies to my questions via Whatsapp, as I was up against the clock getting this one done.

I had planned to copy and paste in the replies around the body of the story I wrote, with a few edits here and there.

However, Andy’s replies flowed so well that I’ve decided to leave it untouched. You can tell it is spoken from the heart. A decade-and-a-half later and the magnitude of what Wrexham achieved that day is still not lost on those who made it happen.

Andy was one of the first names down on the team-sheet for Wrexham. …