Was it a successful season for Wrexham AFC? It’s a simple question with an incredibly complex answer.
The ultra-ambitious owners may say no – they wanted promotion and missing out on the playoffs on the last kick of the game hurts. But perhaps we’re victims of our own success and no one really expected us to have a playoff tilt this season. The pain only comes from missing out in such a manner.
And there’s a school of thought that believes it’s too early for us and the club as a whole needs to catch its breath before going for the Premier League in earnest.
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So what went ‘wrong’, how can we put it right and what are the reasons to be cheerful that it didn’t happen?
Here’s the definitive guide…
Leaky Blinders
The Racecourse has historically been an impregnable fortress over the past few promotion campaigns. But this season, there were times when it resembled the Wacky Warehouse.
An early loss to West Brom and even a draw with Sheffield Wednesday were painful but understandable, but the defeats kept coming – especially against our playoff rivals.
Losing at home to Millwall, Southampton (heavily) and Hull meant we gifted points to those around us. We only beat two teams in the top eight at home – champions Coventry and second-placed Ipswich. Not a single playoff rival was seen off.
And that wasn’t the only problem. Only crisis club Wednesday – with a massive 0 points this season – conceded more at home than the 37 goals Wrexham did. While the 5-3 thrillers make for great Welcome to Wrexham episodes, you can’t outscore your problems forever at this level. And often, we didn’t.
Josh Windass of Wrexham sits dejected after Wrexham misses out on the playoffs -Credit:Getty Images
The points that sailed away
Yes, the slow start was expected as we had to knit together a new squad – but that’s not what really cost us in the end. Dropping points against sides languishing in the bottom half ruined a playoff just as much as any defensive lapses later on against Coventry and Middlesbrough.
Conceding late, heartbreaking goals at Preston, Swansea, and Bristol City robbed us of six vital points. In a league this tight, those lapses in concentration aren’t just ‘bad luck’, they are the difference between a play-off place and an early holiday.
Too often, we got the lead, sat back, and were punished when we really needed to go after another goal to kill teams off.
Rotating treatment table
There was a time when the Championship incarnation of Wrexham looked to have all come together. At the turn of the year, they were dominating matches with possession football orchestrated by Matty James and Ben Sheaf. And in quick succession, we lost both to injury and were forced to play a center-back in the midfield engine room. Every team has its fair share of injuries, but at times, Wrexham’s medical room looked more like a busy A&E department.
Trying to find tactical consistency with a squad that was effectively ‘new’ to this level is hard enough without losing the spine of your team.
From Danny Ward and Lewis Brunt to the creative spark of Josh Windass, the power of Kieffer Moore, and even new signing Zak Vyner towards the end of the season, Parky was constantly chopping and changing. The problem was magnified as the squad is unbalanced. There are many League One and even League Two components, proved when we lost Liberato Cacace to injury (again), Parkinson was forced to play a sixth-choice central midfielder on the left for the remainder of the campaign simply because he had no one else.
January goes out the window
Ollie Palmer, Ben Foster, Jack Marriott and Sam Smith. The players who helped us to promotion were brought in mid-way through the season, with the latter shattering our transfer record.
But with the most open Championship season for years unfolding in front of us, our January transfer window seemed anything but proactive. Maybe it was the huge outlay of cash spent in the summer. Maybe Parky didn’t want to further disrupt a squad still knitting together. Perhaps players simply weren’t available. But whatever the reason, we only brought in one player who was going to be a first-team starter. And he was injured.
Failing to bolster the midfield engine room left the team running on fumes by April and while George Thomason answered the SOS at left wing back after James McClean wasn’t replaced, the reliance on him was dangerous.
Yes, Vyner was brought in as a starter, and I believe he would have come into the defense in place of Max Cleworth at the end of the campaign if it hadn’t been for another injury.
Davis Keillor-Dunn was always going to be back and never got any minutes, while Bailey Cadamarteri looks full of running but won’t be given the time a young player needs to develop.
We needed to sort the wing-back problem rather than bring in a fourth-choice attacking midfielder. We didn’t and the repercussions permeated through the rest of the team.
The tragedy of the FA Cup
It’s easy and cliched to point to one moment where it all went wrong… so let’s do that. The FA Cup is long woven into the folklore of Wrexham AFC and kept us going in the late 90s. But that’s all we really had going for us at that time.
For the past few years, we’ve had another agenda – promotion – and the squad is too unbalanced to fight on more than one front. The cup match with Chelsea was a brilliant spectacle and showed we could go head-to-head with the Premier League big boys in a one-off game. But… it took so much out of us before an arguably even bigger game that we can say now it derailed our play-off bid.
We lost Moore to injury, George Dobson to a three-match ban (thanks, VAR) and it took so much out of the players that we limped to a home loss against Hull a few days later. Draw that game and we’re in the play-offs.
There will be a time – hopefully when we’re established in the Premier League – that Wrexham will be a cup team once again. This wasn’t that time.
We’re a little spoiled though, aren’t we? It stings now, but take a breath. There is a compelling argument that another year in the Championship isn’t just ‘okay’ – it’s actually preferable. Here are a few reasons to be cheerful…
Bragging rights at national level
Next year promises a domestic feast. For the first time since the early 80s, the three giants of Welsh football (not you, Newport) will be in the same division. We owe Cardiff City one for the League Cup debacle and while the hackneyed rhetoric Snoop Dogg vs Ryan Reynolds derby can get in the bin, the Union Jack-wielding Swans always like creating a needle that’s not really there.
Wouldn’t it be great to shut them both up? There’s always been a South Wales arrogance regarding the north, even though we’ve long been the poor relation. But we’re in the best shape of any Welsh club to go up and doing so by taking points off them would be glorious.
The pursuit of “Gr-eight-ness”
The EFL’s move to an extended playoff format – from third down to eighth – changes the geometry of the season. More spots mean more hope, but it also means more teams will be forced to “throw caution to the wind.” It makes the division a shark tank, but for a club with Wrexham’s resources and growing depth, the expanded safety net makes a 2027 promotion push feel more real.
Kop a load of our Jewel in the Crown
Let’s be honest, welcoming Haaland, Saka or Van Dijk to a three-sided Cae Ras would have felt slightly underwhelming. And that’s if the Dragons were allowed to start a Premier League season at a depleted Racecourse at all, which was by no means certain due to ground regulations.
The oldest international stadium in the world is the soul of the club and needs to be front and center of any rise to the Premier League. By delaying that dream by 12 months, we could make a top-flight debut with the grand reopening of a shiny new Kop. That would not only add atmosphere but also the vital match-day income we’d need to compete in the world’s most expensive league.
At the moment, we’re looking at January 2027 for the grand opening, but even then it may not be at its full 7,750 capacity.
But what an end-of-season boost that would be. A four-sided ground will put the fear of God into the opposition just when we need it.
Champing at the bit for more Championship
The Championship season seemed to be over in the blink of an eye and there’s so much more to explore in what is a fantastic league.
Key away days like Portsmouth (228 miles from Wrexham) and Swansea were on weekday nights so you can’t really enjoy them. We’ve mentioned Cardiff already and Charlton is a brilliant away day, QPR brought us so many memories and we’ll have a trip to the London Stadium – or even Spurs – to enjoy.
Wolverhampton Wanderers may be close but we’ve not played them in donkey’s years and Burnley will also be a new ground for me.
Lincoln’s a lovely day out and wouldn’t it be great to renew hostilities with our old pals Stockport, but with us in the ascendancy this time around.
Anyone can beat anyone in this league, but put a run together and you’re right up there. It’s thrilling AND it doesn’t have VAR to ruin it.
Lap it up.
Another transfer window to put it right
Phil Parkinson’s greatest trick this season was molding a squad of 19 new players into a cohesive unit while still fostering the togetherness and team spirit that underpinned our promotion successes.
This squad does not need a massive overhaul; we’ve done the hard yards there.
But we do need to bring in some quality starters with the right mindset to complement what we have.
For me, I would like two right-wing backs, a left wing-back (two if Cacace leaves), a midfield playmaker and a pacey striker. That’s five players in and none of the players coming to the end of their contract to be kept on. I would offer Arthur Okonkwo a new deal, though.
I’d happily bring in Issa Kaboré if we brought in someone of equal stature alongside him to push him on the right. Thomason is good back up on the left, but we need a natural left-sider with the attacking and defensive instincts needed. Solving that problem will strengthen the leaky defence.
A younger carbon copy of Matty James is needed in midfield – no mean feat – while up front we lack real pace and I’d like us to get a physical specimen to take the pressure off Moore and Smith. Perhaps he’d have the guile to partner one of them when needed.
I’d like to see Okonkwo as our number one and grow into the position, the defence may see one change with Dan Scarr dropping out and perhaps a younger, quicker player coming in. But really, we’re good to go.
In conclusion: We have the spine of a great squad. We have money to spend, a new stand coming and more than anything – the key to all this – we have THREE more seasons of Welcome to Wrexham on the horizon.
That keeps the interest up globally. It’s the best news of a successful season and for me gives us three more real goes at the Premier League.
Be patient. We’ll get there.
