Wrexham: Club history
As hard as it may be to believe, there was a Wrexham AFC before the arrival of Hollywood superstars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the club’s current owners.
We are not sure whether the docuseries the pair persuaded FX Networks/Broadwalk Pictures to make will go back as far as 1864, but that is when the club was founded making it the oldest professional club in Wales and the third oldest in the world.
The first game there took place on October 22, 1864 after Wrexham Cricket Club formed its own football team but could only muster 10 players. Unfortunately, their opponents, the Prince of Wales Fire Brigade, although merely matching them in numbers, reportedly won the game “comfortably” 2-1.
They do proudly claim that the Racecourse Ground is the oldest international stadium in the world having hosted the Welsh national team in 1877, the side’s first international game which they lost to Scotland.
Those early years saw Wrexham play mostly cup ties and friendlies before becoming founder members of a league called The Combination in 1890. After a run as Champions four seasons out of five between 1900-01 and 1904-05 they left The Combination (perhaps feeling the competition wasn’t stiff enough) and joined the Birmingham & District League. The competition presumably was stiffer as their best finish in 12 seasons (broken by the First World War) was third.
In 1921 they became founder members of the Football League Third Division North where they remained for nearly four decades.
During this time they did achieve what remains their club record attendance as 34,445 souls packed in to the Racecourse to see Manchester United‘s Busby Babes win 5-0 in an FA Cup fourth round tie in 1957.
There were European adventures in North Wales during this part of the club’s history as fairly regular success in the Welsh Cup gained qualification for the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Their best effort came in 1975-76 when they reached the quarter-finals of the competition, going out to the eventual winners Belgian champions Anderlecht.
Indeed, cup competitions make up some of the proudest moments of Wrexham’s history with an FA Cup win over top flight champions Arsenal in 1992 among the more memorable nights seen at the club. A thunderous free-kick from former Manchester United and Chelsea winger Mickey Thomas that evening regularly makes an appearance on TV when an FA Cup giant-killing is on the cards.
However, the 21st Century history of Wrexham AFC was mostly less cheerful. In 2002, Mark Guterman, the former chairman of arch rivals Chester City, bought the club and then two years later sold his 78% stake in the club to property developer, Alex Hamilton – you can see where this is going, can’t you?
Hamilton made no secret of his desire to develop the club’s stadium at a meeting of supporters in May 2004. Soon there was talk about ground-sharing at Chester; an attempt to oust the club from the ground; and a winding-up petition from the taxman with debts of more than £5m including an £800,000 tax bill. An administration, a ten-point deduction and numerous court cases later, the club was sold to a consortium headed by local businessman Neville Dickens, who was backed by the club’s supporters’ club and they lived to fight another day.
Despite the upheaval, the club enjoyed some success on the pitch winning the Football League Trophy against Southend United in 2005 in front of 20,000 fans from North Wales inside Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, but could not beat the drop to League Two. There they remained by the skin of their teeth in a final day home win over Boston United in 2007, sending their opponents down as the Dragons survived. But the delay was only for one more season as the 2007-08 ended an 87 year stay in the League.
Despite (or because of) appointing Wales striker Dean Saunders, who made his name playing for Liverpool and Aston Villa, the club finished tenth in their first Non-League season. However, with Saunders still in charge they did reach the play-offs in 2010-11 but were defeated 5-1 on aggregate by Luton Town, and Saunders departed for Doncaster Rovers at the start of the following campaign.
His replacement, club legend Andy Morrell, who scored 65 times in two spells for the club, took them to the Conference play-offs twice in the next two seasons. In 2011 they earned a club record tally of 98 points but still ended up five points adrift of champions Fleetwood Town and then lost (again) to Luton in the play-off semi-finals. Off the pitch financial mismanagement was still dogging them, only the fans raising £127,000 towards a £250,000 bond to guarantee meeting obligations for the forthcoming season avoiding expulsion from the Conference. While different parties had been battling for control of the club another demand for unpaid taxes, this time of £200,000, dropped through the letterbox. Eventually, to the relief of fans, the seemingly endless procession of dodgy owners and wannabe owners were finally sent packing with the Wrexham Supporters’ Trust gaining control.
The following season they went one better on the pitch and made it to the play-off final where they faced Welsh rivals Newport County. But it was heartache again, this time losing 2-0. Morrell left midway through the following campaign with the club eventually finishing 17th in the Conference.
A fourth-placed finish in 2018-19 saw them suffer more play-off heartbreak before the aborted 2019-20 campaign saw them finish 19th in a 24-team National League on points per game – the club’s lowest finish since relegation out of the EFL. In 2020-21 they were battling for a play-off spot but eventually just missed out in 8th.
It was in November 2020 that RR McReynolds Company LLC, backed by Reynolds and McElhenney, completed a takeover backed by 98.6% of the Wrexham Supporters’ Trust.
They promised the club would not be “relocated, renamed or rebranded” and on February 9 2021 they completed the takeover and confirmed a documentary, Welcome to Wrexham, was in production for a US television network.
2021-22 it was all supposed to come good, be the Year of the Red Dragons. They got to the FA Trophy Final, but lost 0-1 to Bromley. Meanwhile, in the league, Stockport County hadn’t read the script, consigning Wrexham to second place by six points in the end. Still, the play-offs would be a breeze with a bye to the semi-finals and home advantage? Enter Grimsby Town, unexpected winners in extra-time over Notts County. In an absolutely mad tie at the Racecourse that saw eight goals in normal time, the Mariners did it again in extra-time, 4-5.
Last season they threw even more money at it. Our trip to The Racecourse on 18th April 2023 didn’t (quite) see Wrexham achieve automatic promotion back to the EFL – they had to wait one more match for that – but did seal the relegation of Yeovil Town into the seventh tier of English football for the first time since 1997.
Wrexham: We’ve Met Before
Previous Results for Yeovil Town First Team vs Wrexham
08/10/1956 | Home | Frnd | W | 2-1 | Robshaw, Elder | ||
08/11/2003 | Home | FAC1R | W | 4-1 | 5049 | Gall 39, G.Williams 46, Miles 59, Edwards 66 | |
23/11/2019 | Away | NLP | D | 3-3 | 3583 | Murphy 4, 39, 67 | |
29/02/2020 | Home | NLP | W | 3-0 | 3040 | Duffus 42, Wilkinson 55, Skendi 90+3 | |
10/10/2021 | Home | NLP | L | 0-1 | 0 | ||
08/05/2021 | Away | NLP | L | 0-3 | 0 | ||
30/11/2021 | Away | NLP | W | 2-0 | 8057 | Staunton 64, Lo-Everton 83 | |
22/01/2022 | Home | NLP | W | 2-1 | 2988 | Knowles 14, o.g. 79 | |
13/08/2022 | Home | NLP | D | 1-1 | 2885 | Linton 48 | |
18/04/2023 | Away | NLP | L | 0-3 | 10106 | ||
03/11/2023 | Away | FAC2R | L | 0-3 | 9604 | ||
Results Summary For Yeovil Town First Team vs Wrexham
Home | Away | Overall | ||||||||||||
W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A |
4 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 17 | 17 |
Wrexham: Club Statistics
RECENT RESULTS
03/10/2023 | Mansfield Town | Away | EFL2 | D | 0-0 | 8613 | |
07/10/2023 | Crawley Town | Away | EFL2 | W | 1-0 | 5572 | Palmer 13 |
10/10/2023 | Crewe Alexandra | Away | EFLT | W | 3-0 | 3751 | Offord 5 (o.g.), Davies 13, Young 73 (pen) |
14/10/2023 | Salford City | Home | EFL2 | W | 3-2 | 9771 | Lee 39, Fletcher 87, Davies 89 |
21/10/2023 | Bradford City | Away | EFL2 | D | 1-1 | 21552 | Mullin 69 |
24/10/2023 | Sutton United | Home | EFL2 | W | 2-1 | 10183 | Mullin 14, Lee 90 |
28/10/2023 | Notts County | Away | EFL2 | W | 2-0 | 16083 | Lee 73, Palmer 76 |
04/11/2023 | Mansfield Town | Away | FAC1R | W | 2-1 | 6158 | Dalby 23, Mullin 58 |
07/11/2023 | Port Vale | Home | EFLT | W | 2-1 | 7870 | Mullin 70, McClean 83 |
11/11/2023 | Gillingham | Home | EFL2 | W | 2-0 | 10268 | Palmer 1, Tozer 71 |
18/11/2023 | Accrington Stanley | Away | EFL2 | L | 0-2 | 5261 | |
25/11/2023 | Morecombe | Home | EFL2 | W | 6-0 | 10224 | Senior 5 (og), Mullin 7, 67, 77, Mendy 35, Jones 90+6 |
28/11/2023 | Harrogate Town | Away | EFL2 | D | 2-2 | 3767 | Cannon 36, Lee 41 |
03/12/2023 | Yeovil Town | Home | FAC2R | ||||
LEAGUE ATTENDANCE STATISTICS
Highest League Attendance: 10,268
Lowest League Attendance: 9,771
Average League Attendance: 10,140
CURRENT LEAGUE SEQUENCE STATISTICS
Games Without A Win: | 1 | Games Without A Home Win: | 0 | |
Games Without An Away Win: | 2 | Games Without Defeat: | 2 | |
Games Without A Home Defeat: | 9 | Games Without An Away Defeat: | 1 | |
Games Without A Draw: | 0 | Games Without A Score Draw: | 0 | |
Games Without A No-Score Draw: | 10 | Games Without Scoring: | 0 | |
Games Without Conceding: | 0 | Home Results Sequence: | WWWW | |
Away Results Sequence: | DWDWLD | Overall Results Sequence: | DWWDWWWLWD |
Wrexham: Club Information
Racecourse Ground (STōK Cae Ras)
Mold Road
Wrexham
Wales
LL11 2AH
Telephone Number: 01978 891864
Email: info@wrexhamfc.tv
Chairmen: Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds
Chief Executive: Fleur Robinson
Club Secretary: Geraint Parry
Safety Officer: Martin Bradley
Head of Media & Communications: Colin Henrys
Manager: Phil Parkinson
Capacity: 10,500 (all seater)
Covered Terrace: None
Record Attendance : 34,445 v Manchester United, FA Cup Round 4 Proper, 26/01/1957.
Colours: Red shirt with white trim, white shorts, white socks
Nickname: Red Dragons
Ticket Prices:
At long last the Racecourse Ground is set to get a fourth side back, the Spion Kop Terrace having been closed since 2008 on safety grounds. In January 2023 all the i’s were dotted and t’s finally crossed on planning permission and necessary funding for a 5,500 seated stand replacement.
The Racecourse is an all-seater stadium. Away tickets for the FA Cup tie on Sunday 3rd December, 3.45 p.m. kick-off are being handled by the Huish Park Ticket Office so head HERE. It’s purchase by Season Ticket Holders only until Tuesday 22nd November with remaining tickets going on General Sale from Wednesday 23rd November.
Update 01/12/23: away tickets are now what the club described as “off sale”.
Adult: £ 10.00
Concession (65+ and Under 18): £5.00
We’re in the usual away section (part of the Wrexham Lager Stand) with entry to this area of the ground via Crispin Lane and then turnstiles 1 & 2.
Disabled Info: The Racecourse Ground has 32 spaces for both home and away supporters at pitch level in the Main (Macron) Stand. Partial cover, with helpers sat behind.
A new platform at height was built in 2015 and allows for six wheelchair spaces, with carers, which are assigned by the Wrexham Disabled Supporters Association on a rotating basis to their members. Non-members are also welcome but you will need to contact the DSA in order for them to add you to their rotas. Access to the disabled platform is via the 1864 entrance on Mold Road where there is a lift to gain access to the platform.
For full details of accommodation for disabled supporters – click here. The club’s Disability Liaison Officer is Kerry Evans who can be contacted at kerry.evans@wrexhamfc.tv
Official Away Travel
The Green & White Supporters’ Club is running away travel to Wrexham on Sunday 3rd December with a 3.45 p.m. kick-off.
Details are as follows:
Members: Adults £37, Concessions £35
Non-Members: Adults £40, Concessions £38
Coach departs Huish Park: 8.15 a.m.
To book, call Paul Hadlow on 07736 044570 (after 6.00 p.m. please) or email him on paulhadlow@outlook.com.
If you are getting in touch by email, please make it clear which match you are booking for and that you give your full name, the names of people that are travelling and a contact telephone number.
You may be asked to pay a £5 deposit to reserve your seat.
Wrexham: Directions To The Ground
General
Wrexham (Wrecsam) is in Wales, North Wales. Huish Park to the Racecourse Ground is 223 miles using the route below. One can knock 27 miles off that by cutting across the M5/M54 dog leg but it’s not a particularly quick road.
By Road
Travelling from Somerset, take the M5 motorway and briefly the M6 until you reach Junction 10A for the M54.
Continue along the M54 until it becomes the A5 which will take you around Shrewsbury, past Owestry and over the border between England and Wales.
Continue on this road (for reasons best known to itself although it’s still the A5 several stretches get referred to as the A483) to Halton Roundabout. There the A5 swings off westwards (first exit); take the second exit (which now definitively the A483) signed to Wrexham(Wrecsam)/Mold/(Yr Wyddgrug).
Exit the A453 at Junction 5 and take the fourth exit on to the A541 (Mold Road), and continue straight (2nd exit) at the next roundabout remaining on Mold Road (still the A541), where you will pass Wrexham Glyndwr University. The Racecourse Ground will quickly come in to view on your left.
Parking
There is no parking at the ground for ordinary supporters. The University (to the North of the stadium) car park is made available to football supporters on match days with a £5.00 charge. Wrexham General Railway Station (see By Rail, below) car park would normally likely be quiet on a Sunday (but probably won’t be on this one with a match on) and is a flat rate £4.75.
By Rail
Wrexham has two railway stations. Wrexham General station is situated a couple of minutes walk (maybe four to the away turnstiles) from the Racecourse Ground – you can not miss it when you come out of the station. Wrexham Central is 0.7 of a mile from the stadium, so under 15 minutes walk. Both are served by what was formerly Arriva Trains Wales and is now called Transport For Wales, while Wrexham General also has some Avanti West Coast services.
Yeovil to Wrexham by train on a Sunday?! Technically it can just about be done getting there, but a right struggle and looking at between six and seven hours travel time. There’s also a bus replacement service between Yeovil Junction and Salisbury across that weekend to contend with. Getting back on the same day: no chance.
London and South-East based Glovers are slightly better served. Counter-intuitively, options on the longer route out of Euston and two changes, at Crewe and Chester, coming into Wrexham from the north, are quicker than the single change at Birmingham International option coming into Wrexham from the south.
Update 16/11/23: be aware that Aslef has called industrial action that will affect rail travel across this weekend. Its members employed by Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, Great Northern Thameslink, and West Midlands Trains (which includes those services badged London Northwestern Railway) will be on strike on Sunday 3rd December which means those companies will likely be running very few trains if any. There’s also a general overtime ban across all the train companies involved in the dispute, so even if your route doesn’t involve the previously mentioned companies be prepared for more delays and cancellations (than usual).
By Bus
The Racecourse is central enough that one is unlikely to want buses; and there probably won’t be many running on a Sunday anyway. However if needed the 12A and 21 are the services to look out for, running along Mold Road with stops right outside the stadium.
By Taxi
Should a taxi be required there are some numbers here.
Web Sites
Fearless in Devotion – a blog, fanzine and podcast dedicated to Wrexham AFC. They’re good sorts; we like them.
Red Passion – a message board (remember those) about all things Wrexham and passionate about red stuff.
They’ve also got Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok… they’re every-damned-where for those that interested.
Local Press
The Leader – a newspaper owned by the Newsquest Group.
Daily Post – the newspaper covering North Wales including Wrexham.
Wrexham: Food & Drink
General
Club Bar
Local Pubs
Wrexham has a mass of pubs, bars and eating joints clustered in the town centre in and around the High Street/Town Hill area and adjoining roads. We’ve selected a few from there, plus a couple away from the centre up by the ground. Ironworks (9-15 Town Hill, LL13 8NA) has apparently been made the “designated away pub”. There are several reasons why it doesn’t feature in this guide but not the least is no one tells me where I have to drink.
The oldest pub in Wrexham, the Horse & Jockey, which the Guide has featured previously – a thatched timber-framed 17th Century building that wouldn’t look out of place in Chester – was long-term closed, with its future as a pub very much in doubt, on the Glovers 2021 visits to Wrexham. It has reopened again – possibly sometime around May 2022. We don’t know much more than that though seen suggestions it no longer does cask beer. If want to take a look it’s in Hope Street, LL11 1BG.
The Elihu Yale, 44-46 Regent Street, Wrexham, LL11 1RR. Tel: 01978 366646. Map: Elihu Yale.
The Fat Boar, 11 Yorke Street, Wrexham, LL13 8LW. Tel: 01978 354201. Map: Fat Boar.
Magic Dragon Brewery Tap: Formerly the Elephant & Castle pub, this reopened as the Tap for the eponymous brewery in 2019. The previous extremely complicated opening hours appear to have been much simplified a couple of months ago: opening noon every day except Sunday when it’s 2.00 p.m. and closing 11.00 p.m. Monday to Thursday, midnight Friday & Saturday and 10.30 p.m. Sunday. Generally serves between four and six cask beers and three to five keg beers from its own brewery and a guest or two by other breweries plus up to half a dozen ciders. Just under a mile from the stadium so about 15 minutes walk – or 20 if you’re strolling.
Brewery Tap, 13 Charles Street, Wrexham. LL13 8BT. Tel: 01978 365156. Map: Magic Dragon.
Plas Coch: A Marston’s Two For One chain ‘family friendly’ retail park located hostelry five minutes walk north of the away turnstiles (if cutting through the University grounds) the other side of Wrexham Glyndwr University. They are what they are. This one has two Real Ales, usually Marston’s Pedigree and Wychwood Hobgoblin. Opening hours: 11.30 a.m. – 11.00 p.m. weekdays, noon – 11.00 p.m. Saturday, noon – 10.30 p.m. Sunday. Food is basically served all day though with different menu options at different times. Disabled access, beer garden, kids play area, car park.
Plas Coch, Plas Coch Road, Wrexham, LL11 2BW. Tel: 01978 261470. Map: Plas Coch.
Royal Oak: Joule’s Brewery pub in the High Street, around a hundred yards from the Fat Boar (above). Wet-led pub, no meals when we last there though the website implies it does (not sure we believe it). Stocks three of their beers on hand pump (most usually Pale Ale, Slumbering Monk and Pure Blonde) plus an additional two guests. Also serves Real Cider and, as well as more international kegs like Guinness and Carling, has Joule’s own Green Monkey Helles Lager. A very narrow frontage belies a bar that carries on deeper than one expects. There’s a roof top beer garden open April to September. We’re also unconvinced about the opening times shown on its website and think these may be more likely: Monday closed, 4.00 p.m. – midnight Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, noon – midnight Thursday, noon – 1.00 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Disabled access. Sports TV. Roped off area to the front on the pavement with a few tables and chairs and a small yard at the back.
Royal Oak, 35 High Street, Wrexham, LL13 8HY. Tel: 01978 364111. Map: Royal Oak.
Turf Hotel: Has its own Wikipedia entry ( Turf Hotel – Wikipedia ), claiming to be the only pub in the United Kingdom to be built within the grounds of a football club – though Kidderminster Harriers and Havant & Waterlooville might well argue with that. Was owned by Marston’s (though possibly not any more as it’s no longer listed on their website), it served a couple of cask ales and stuff from their keg range when was last there a few years ago. Appears to have started serving Wrexham Lager by Wrexham Lager Company and some cans of ‘craft’ beers recently. Obviously packed out when there’s a game on, it does usually puts on some basic food provision on matchdays. Sports TV and a pool table. Open noon – 11.00 p.m. every day. (Sometimes restricts access of away fans if there’s a large crowd expected – so this could be every match these days!) Distance from the ground: 0.0 miles.
The Turf Hotel, Mold Road, Wrexham, LL11 2AH. Tel: 01978 261484. Map: Turf.
Likelihood the Natives Will Understand You: Can if they want. Despite being North Wales there’s not a lot who are fluent in Welsh – 12.9% in the county as a whole and lower than that in the county town according to the 2011 census figures – in Wrexham. So if they pretend not to follow West Country English it’s a good indication they don’t like you and are making an active choice. Suck it up – it’s their patch.
Top-Tip: Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood… the media luv-in goes on and on. Still, at least we’re guaranteed twenty grand out of it.
Wrexham Local Amenities: As a small county town of a small County Borough it’s got what one might expect – not a lot. There is a (smallish) University with around 8,000 students. And The Racecourse officially still has International Stadium status, though the days of the senior men’s team playing there passed long ago.
Other Points Of Interest: Robbie Savage was born in Wrexham. The town has never recovered from this blow.
[No responsibility is taken for any inaccuracies. This page is entirely the product of bias and prejudice.]