Bitten By Birmingham
The "Hollywood Derby" delivered the drama...and the Reds' first loss.
Wrexham’s first match of the year with league-favorites Birmingham brought out Brady, Beckham, and (almost!) a bite.
The Wrecap:
Birmingham City 3 - 1 Wrexham
The so-called “Hollywood Derby” lived up to its billing, with all the key players in Birmingham for the occasion. Wrexham co-chairman Rob McElhenney was on hand, as was Birmingham minority owner Tom Brady, flanked by soccer legend David Beckham, his son Romeo, and Gary Neville. Wrexham fielded an unchanged XI from the previous two games and Birmingham rolled out their $41M starting lineup, headlined by their deadline day $20M blockbuster acquisition Jay Stansfield.
Wrexham stunned the boisterous home crowd into silence by taking the lead inside of three minutes. The Reds earned a corner and the ball was bounced out of the fray by O’Connell to the boot of Jack Marriott who delivered his fourth goal of the campaign. Birmingham weren’t shaken, however, and at 22’ Okonkwo finally conceded an away goal when a frantic play in the Wrexham box resulted in a shot that he saved, but only managed to knock to the feet of Jay Stansfield who blasted it by Arthur for the equalizer. There was contentious moments throughout the rest of the half - in fact James McClean was involved in two different yellow carded plays, but was the victim in both, managing (barely) to keep a lid on his trademark temper - and nothing boiled over. Birmingham ended up with five shots in the half and the majority of possession, but Wrexham were hardly brushed aside as they kept the hosts to one goal before halftime.
The second half was a different story. Birmingham went from having the edge to dominating the Reds, starting with Stansfield’s second goal at 52’. It would only take them seven more to add the third goal. That’s when things got interesting. At 81, Alexander Cochrane took down Mullin (who relieved Marriott), leaving his leg draped over Mullin’s back for far too long. Replay would reveal that Mullin nearly let the intrusive thoughts win as he clearly made to bite Cochrane’s other leg, but instead settled for angrily shoving the defender off of him.
This caused Krystian Bielik to swoop in, push Mullin from behind, and then all hell broke loose. Mullin fought back, the squads came together, and, well…one doesn’t simply rough up James McClean’s team and get away with it. The Captain came flying in like a bat out of hell, grabbing several players by the shirt and necks. Five yellows would be issued and McClean was subbed out before he got himself in more trouble. The local fans gave the Irishman the abuse he’s well-used to receiving, but he had some parting words for them on his way out. (He also caught a drink that was thrown at him and flung it away like a boss).
But the drama wasn’t done. Five minutes later Bielik would continue his unnecessary antics with an asinine tripping of Cannon which got him a second yellow and a sending off…and the defender actually had the audacity to act surprised about it. The Reds saw more opportunities against ten men, with Elliot Lee nearly netting a consolation goal, but alas, when the dust settled Wrexham had their first loss of the season and Birmingham drew level on points.
The Hollywood Derby, indeed.
Stansfield is my Man of the Match, but let’s not brush away Wrexham’s effort completely. Yes, Birmingham ultimately bossed the match, but Wrexham weren’t exactly pushovers. They created some promising chances and countered well, just as they have all season. Plus, this match saw the return of Cannon and Mendy from injury and we’re still in first place. So, yes, the Reds weren’t at their best, but I take a lot of positives from our first loss of the season.
The two clubs meet up again on January 25th…so I’d go ahead and mark those calendars now.
Read the full report from Wrexham here.
And watch the highlights - bites an all - here or below:
Match Facts:
Starting Lineup: Okonkwo, Cleworth, O’Connell, O’Connor, Barnett (Revan 83’), Dobson, Rathbone (Cannon 72’), Lee, McClean (Mendy 83’), Marriott (Mullin 63’), Palmer (Fletcher 63’)
Bench: Mullin, Fletcher, Mendy, Cannon, Revan, Scarr, Burton
Goals:
WRX - Marriott (3’)
BIR - Stansfield (22’, 52’), Iwata (59’)
Yellow Cards:
WRX - McClean (81’), Cannon (81’), Mullin (82’)
BIR - Klarer (36’), Gardner-Hickman (54’), Bielik (81’, 86’), Anderson (82’)
Red Cards: Bielik (86’)
Women: Wrexham 0 - 2 Cardiff City
Another year, another loss to Cardiff City. The Wrexham Women begin their second Genero Adran Premier campaign with a home defeat to reigning champions Cardiff City. But unlike most of iterations of this fixture last year, Wrexham were hardly steamrolled. Nothing could split the sides in the first half and Wrexham continued to ask questions of the Cardiff defense deep into the second. But after the visitors pulled ahead shortly after the break, the Reds simply couldn’t get an equalizer past Cardiff keeper Chamberlain. Cardiff, on the other hand, did get around Wrexham stopper Craven a second time at 82’ to put the final stamp on their victory, sending the Reds down to sixth to open the first phase of the 24/25 season.
Read the full report from Wrexham here.
Match Facts:
Starting Lineup: Craven, Clark, Sharp, Lovett, Fuller, Gibbard (Pritchard 70’), C.Jones, Cairns, L.Jones, Suckley (Iddenden 70’), Hughes (Lightfoot 60’)
Bench: Pritchard, Iddenden, Lightfoot, Ankers, Burnham
Goals: CAR - Price (55’), Collie (82’)
Yellow Cards:
WRX - Hughes (21’), Clark (90’)
CAR - Collie (78’)
U18s: Shrewsbury Town 0 - 1 Wrexham
Much like the first team, the academy squad was successful on derby day, although it would be a while before the winner came. Just when it looked like this Football League Youth Alliance Cup would be a 0-0 draw, midfielder Hari Roberts came up with a late winner at 87’.
Match Facts:
Starting Lineup: Bryn Owen, Tommy Clayton, Tom Kelly, Alex Moore, Max Purvis, Regan Nicholas, Hari Roberts, Oliver McTweed, Rio Owen (D. Edwards 90’), Keane Hazeldine, Nikolas Slosarczyk (Nawaz 46’)
Bench: Dafydd Edwards, Jake Hall, Joe Rees, Sam Chesworth, Umar Nawaz
Goals: WRX - Roberts (87’)
Yellow Cards:
WRX - McTweed (65’)
SHR - Huighes (26’), Austin (90’)
Reserves: Wrexham 0 - 5 Derby County
The reserves were beaten up by Derby County yesterday, falling by five goals in the Central League Cup. One silver lining was the Anthony Forde played all ninety minutes as he works his way back from injury and into first team contention. It was also new acquisition Josh Adam’s first game action for the club. Another reserves match is on the book versus Preston North End in October.
Match Facts:
Starting Lineup:
L. Hall, A. Forde, J. Rainbird (Kelly 74’), A. James, H. Dean, M. Purvis, C. Edwards, A. Moore, R. Owen (Nawaz 73’), H. Ashfield, J. Adam
Bench:
T. Clayton, B. Owen, T. Kelly, H. Roberts, U. Nawaz
Goals: PNE - Brown (4’, 63’), Moloney (18’, 32’), Ward (72’)
Current Tables
Women’s Team
News from the Week:
Parkinson Wins Manager of the Month
With an unbeaten start to the season and ten points in four matches, Phil Parkinson took home the League One Manager of the Month prize for August. If Wrexham keep rolling at a similar pace, there’s a good chance this is only the first of what could be several trophies this year for the gaffer. Congrats, Phil!
The Week Ahead
9/21 vs Crawley Town
US: Paramount+, iFollow. UK: Skysports+
10am EST / 3:00pm BST
Theoretically, this should be a more relaxed match on Saturday. We bested Crawley Town in both League Two matches last season and they’re off to a very middle-of-the-road start to their League One campaign: 13th overall, 2 wins, a draw, and 2 losses over their first five matches with only four goals to their name. Wrexham have twelve across their first six games, having only lost one, of course. That’s not to say Crawley are without their highlights. They trail only Birmingham City in average possession (63.5%) and accurate passes per match (445.4)…but they’re also third in expected goals conceded (8.8).
Women: 9/22 at Briton Ferry Llansawel
US: iFollow.
9am EST / 3:00pm BST
While Wrexham struggled against Cardiff in their first match of the season, Briton Ferry put up a four spot in their’s. But Wrexham did well against them last season besting them 2-0 in the FAW Cup and 4-0 in the Adran Trophy, so here’s hoping for a similar result to get us in the win column in the early going.