Introducing: The Wrexham Wreader
Wrecap: Wrexham vs Walsall
Welcome to the first edition of The Wrexham Wreader. This newsletter evolved from me texting some friends the line score as Wrexham chased promotion out of the National League and back into the EFL. Now in League Two and with the second season of Welcome to Wrexham just around the corner, I decided to expand these updates for those who don’t have the funds for an iFollow subscription to watch the games live, or don’t have the time to follow action on their own.
My main hope for this newsletter is to take those who have a budding interest in Wrexham’s journey from casually curious to passionate fans as I continue my personal calling to be a brand ambassador for this Welsh club.
Now then, with that little intro out of the way…
The Wrecap:
Wrexham 4 - Walsall 2
On the day that Wrexham star Paul Mullin published an article saying he thought “this might be it for me” when sustaining his injury, Phil Parkinson put out a squad that lacked James McClean and Jordan Davies in both the starting XI and on the bench, lending credence to the rumor they had sustained injuries over the weekend. This caused some nerves on Wrexham Twitter following the lineup announcement, but it proved to be ill-placed as Wrexham’s third game of the season began with a positively blistering first ten minutes of action.
The dragons got the ball forward immediately and had almost sole possession during that time, earning four consecutive corners that culminated in a beautiful goal headed-in by Will Boyle to commemorate his Racecourse debut. Ollie Palmer earned an early yellow card with a rough challenge, but made up for it at 20’ as he took advantage of a bad clearance by Walsall’s Chris Hussey, lobbing the ball from over 25 yards towards Walsall’s open goal to give Wrexham an early 2-0 lead. Hussey would effectively erase this blunder just four minutes later, however, as Walsall stole a goal back following a truly beautiful corner set-piece of their own. The first 45’ felt more like just 5’, and the half ended 2-1 Wrexham.
The second half started with the inverse of the first, with Walsall piling on pressure at the start of the half, nearly scoring twice in a matter of seconds but foiled by two back-to-back saves by Foster. Wrexham built on that positive action from Foster by regaining control and putting on pressure themselves and at 56’ Jake Bickerstaff fired one in to make it 3-1. Mullin’s young replacement received a standing ovation when he and Palmer were subbed off at 72’ for Billy Waters and Sam Dalby.
Waters, also in the race to fill in for Mullin, had a glorious chance to support his case shortly after coming in, but fired his shot just wide. A minute later he had another great shot, this one on target and swatted away by the keeper’s glove. But Wrexham continued their fiery pace of play and Elliot Lee put the game away with goal number four at 86,’ capping off yet another brilliant display from him.
Walsall lost some heart after that but didn’t pull back completely and forced Wrexham’s Anthony Forde into conceding an own goal at the start of stoppage time. They nearly scored again with a minute left but Foster made a lucky save with his foot to keep it out and punctuate what was a superbly entertaining match and cap Wrexham’s first League Two win since 2008.
All League Two teams were on the pitch today, so with all games in the bag Wrexham jump from 20th to 11th on the table as they bring their points total up to four in the young season.
Now this recap was written live as I watched, which won’t always be the case but I’ll continue to try to capture the action for you even when I myself am catching up.
Next Match: 8/19 vs Swindon Town.
Wrexham will play Saturday morning against Swindon, who are 1-1-0 and in 10th after their first match of the season was scratched. Though they may have a game in hand, they’re just one goal ahead of Wrexham at the moment