[jjamez]

Tuesday sees Towns one and only international game of the season as they head to Hollywood to meet a supposed Welsh side. Backed by a couple of actors, Wrecsam have had a dramatic profile increase, which in turn has seen them stride up the leagues, with very little to suggest that they won't be the biggest side in Wales over the coming seasons. You could argue that they are the most likely to reach the Premier League out of the Cardiff and Swansea.



Wrecsam have taken to this league much like they did to League two last season, currently sitting in second place following a 1-0 win away at Rotherham, they will be hoping that it is a short stay, they have lost just the two league games all season so far, one of those being away at Birmingham, the other coming against Stevenage. They began the campaign with a 3-2 win at home to Wycombe, former T'owl Steven Fletcher finding himself on the scoresheet there. They followed that with a 4-2 defeat at Brammall Lane in the League Cup before playing out a goalless draw at the Toughshit Stadium against Bolton. Winning ways was resumed with a 3-0 win at home to Reading, Deadpool star Ollie Palmer among the goals there, he has been a pivotal part of the Wrecsam side that have climbed up the football league. They followed that up with a 2-0 win on the road away at Peterborough with another former owl, Jack Marriott on the scoresheet, the striker is their leading scorer so far this season, but is out for up to 4 months after breaking his leg. The Dragons made it three in a row with a 3-0 win over Shrewsbury, the Palmer and Marriott were both on the scoresheet once again, joined this time by Elliot Lee, son of former Newcastle and England midfielder Rob. Their next league fixture was against Birmingham which saw Hollywood face up against one of the greatest NFL players, stars were in attendance, the likes of David Beckham being lured in by the fame and fortunes, Wrecsam would take the lead through Marriott after just three minutes, but Brum would bite back to win 3-1, despite Krystian Bielik seeing red late on. They dusted themselves down quickly and returned to winning ways thanks to a 2-1 win over Crawley, Lee and Max Cleworth scoring either side of a Junior Quitima goal. A goalless draw away at Leyton Orient ended September, before losing away at Stevenage 1-0, but a 4-1 thrashing of Northampton took them into the international break, with a 16 second goal from Paul Mullin seeing them past Rotherham at the weekend.



It's worth looking into a few of the stats, with the vast majority of the games seeing Wrecsam yielding possession of the ball, with a high number of fouls being committed by the side. It seems like a lot of their wins have been revolving around set pieces and hitting teams on the break, with a few clinical and hardworking strikers amidst their ranks. Quite a few of their games have seen them face a fair amount of efforts on their goal, Rotherham clocked 17 efforts, but not many on target, Northampton, despite losing 4-1, managed 14 efforts as an away side. Stevenage restricted the Welsh side to 7 attempts with one on target, Orient, too frustrated the Welsh side, but in fairness it seems like a drab match. Crawley had the higher possession and attempts on goal as the away side when the sides met, they were probably unlucky to come out on the losing end of the tie. The Birmingham game seems like it was much like how we tried to play against the moneybag side, Shrewsbury managed to get into double figures in attempts, Posh struggled but saw over 70% of the ball, Reading nearly got 70% of the ball also as an away side but managed just one attempt on goal. Same story with Bolton, they just managed more attempts on target. Wycombe also had the better of the game but lost. I guess what I am trying to suggest is that we could well muster quite a few attempts on goal and we will probably see a fair bit of the ball in the process, Wrecsam like breaking play up with fouls, normally we have been decent on attacking set pieces but I think Matty Pearsons goal was the first from the initial set piece, Ben Wiles scored against Peterborough in the aftermath of the corner. It will be interesting to see how we line up in the forward line, whilst Marshall rats around and could be a big problem for the Wrecsam defence, his partner, should it be Bojan will probably have to be far more alive to rebounds and snap shots, at the moment, it still feels like the much maligned Danny Ward or the ever injured Rhys Healey are the more likely to capitalise from this sort of opportunity, although having scored at the weekend maybe Bojan will be more confident and riding the crest of a wave.



So what's happening at the Stok racecourse ground? Well Hollywood came a calling and the Welsh side listened intently, ultimately succumbing to the charm of Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, of Green Lantern, Free Guy fame and a small movie trilogy called Deadpool, nothing to do with Clint Eastwood and his friend Rob McElhenney, who claimed it's always sunny in Philadelphia, jokes on him, he's never been to Yorkshire. The duo purchased the club back in 2020, the club finished 8th that season, but was unveiled to whole new audience thanks to the docuseries welcome to Wrexham. The following season the side finished second and just missed out on promotion, but constant investment from the big screen duo saw the club achieve back to back promotions.



Reynolds has been seen in Hollywood since the first Deadpool films success as almost a banker at the box offices, whilst the films may not be Oscar worthy nor the greatest of films overall, they are normally good for a few hours of humor and escapism, which in my book is normally a good thing. Not every movie has to be hard hitting, that being said I do enjoy thought provoking films just as much as I do a good Sci Fi or comic book film, I feel I am quite well rounded in that regards. So does anyone have a favourite Reynolds film? mine outside of the Deadpool series would be Free Guy. What would People put as their top 10 films of all time? I'll put mine in the comments below.



As well as getting money from the TV show and their famous owners, the club has also seen a dramatic upturn in sponsorship deals, with social media site tiktok sponsoring the side the last two seasons along with travel site expedia, Vistaprint has sponsored their sleeves along with Reynolds owned company American Aviation gin. This season the club is sponsored by American Airlines and Vistaprint, with HP Inc sponsoring their sleeves, not sure if it's ketchup, brown sauce or the fruity one. Which is your favourite?



Managed by Mr Empty Seat himself, Phil Parkinson, the former Reading player replaced Dean Keates in July 2021. His first season saw the side miss out on Promotion in the playoffs to Grimsby before leading the side to back to back promotions, as well as a couple of overseas tours to the US of A, building up a new fanbase, capitalising on the fame of their owners. Back in 2007, Parkinson was assistant manager to Alan Pardew at Charlton and looked set to a return to management at the then McAlpine Stadium, but backed out of the deal at the last minute to stay at the Valley, this resulted in the infamous scene of Ken Davy and a guy who I can't remember the name of, Andrew Watson maybe? sat at a table with gathered press and an empty chair, having to announce that the manager wasn't going to turn up. In the end we ended up with Andy Ritchie and Parkinson would eventually take the hotseat at the Valley in 2008 on New Years Eve. His tenure at the Valley ended in January 2011 and in August the same year he wound up at another Valley, in Yorkshire, of Bradford origin. He spent 5 years at Valley Parade, with his first full season at the helm he would guide the Bantams to a historic League Cup final, which they would lose 5-0 to Swansea City, the same season they would also gain promotion to League One via the Playoffs. The next season he would see his Bradford side ease past a Jose Mourinho Chelsea side in the FA Cup, but could only get as far as the Quarter Finals, in the league, they would lose to Millwall in the Play Off semi finals and Parkinson would depart to join newly relegated Bolton Wanderers. He would guide the Trotters back into the Championship at the first time of asking, but struggled upon their return, managing to scrape to survival, he would resign from the club in 2019, before having just over a year at the Stadium of Light with Sunderland, leaving them in 2020 before having a few months off to recharge ahead of the arguably heightened media scrutiny in Wrecsam.



In terms of team news for the two sides, town will be without the usual bunch of balker, helik, nicholls and Hodge, but will now see Sorensen join them after limping off only 4 minutes into Saturday's game. Ollie turton stepped in admirably and will be hoping to start, as will Brodie Spencer who returns after suspension. Striker Rhys Healey is expected to have gotten over the illness that dragged him off early in the b team game and kept him out of the weekends game. Wrecsam will definitely be without Jack Marriott with a broken leg, Max cleworth will also miss out with torn ankle ligaments, midfielder George Evans will also miss out having suffered the same fate.



The side will be captained by everyones favourite footballer James McClean, I'm sure he will get a vociferous welcome as he does at every ground.

He will be one to watch as he is prone to winding opponents up and not just the supporters, now 35 his best days are behind him and no longer is he a marauding winger, most recently he has been operating as a wing back in a back 5. Also to be watched is Paul mullin who has come in due to the injury to Marriott. Over the last few seasons mullin has been pivotal to wrecsam climbing the leagues, but a serious injury in the summer set him back. The Liverpudlian is no stranger to Town, having come through the set up down Leeds road but never managed to play a game for the club. He moved to Morecambe and would spend 3 years there scoring 25 goals before heading south to Swindon. His one season there yielded 6 goals before he moved back north to Tranmere, scoring 8 goals in 42 games over a two year period before moving to Cambridge. At the U's he becomes a cult icon scoring 32 goals in a season there winning promotion to league one. Despite this he made the decision to leave and dropped down two divisions to join wrecsam, where he is already approaching the 100 goal mark, having been there since 2021, earning him a standby callup to the Wales squad and an acting credit as Welsh pool in the Deadpool v wolverine movie.



His most recent striking partner has been fellow actor Ollie Palmer, the 32 year old has been at the club since 2022 when he joined from AFC Wimbledon. Also in the striking ranks is Steven Fletcher, the former owl striker has scored a few times against town, but now nearly 40, he is more of an impact player. They also have talented midfielders Andy cannon, Elliot lee and spent good money on Ollie rathbone in the summer but haven't seen the best from their midfield three yet and still see themselves in second spot.



Their transfers can be seen here,

   

Departures

   

Our head to head record is as follows;

   

The most recent of meetings came way back in may 2005 when David Mirfin scored past a young Ben Foster to give Peter Jackson's side the three points, whilst the first meeting was a 0-0 draw in 1973.

I don't know how to get these bigger, first time I've used attachments for one of these.