Welcome Back Wrexham

North Wales have a team back in the EFL again as Wrexham finally secured promotion back up into the Football League after 15 years in the Non-league wilderness.

I’d always heard that the National League was the hardest league to climb out of, with it offering a paltry singular automatic promotion position. If any season proves the truth of that adage it’s this one.

Wrexham have had to secure 34 wins from 45 games, lose just 3 and score 115 goals to secure the 110 points they have needed to secure promotion. Despite the glorious feats I’ve just listed it has taken them till the penultimate game of the season to successfully see of the challenge of Notts County.

That’s just what it takes to claw your way out of the mire and perhaps the financial backing of their Hollywood owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhanney, has helped a bit too. Being able to convince Ben Foster and Paul Mullins to lend their innumerable skill and experience to the promotion push has helped and I doubt either would have plummeted into the Nation League without the correct incentive.

Both have proven to be astute investments for the club. Paul Mullin has only contributed a mere 46 goals to the teams tally for the season, which is just 40% of the total so no big deal really. That’s his contribution without assists and he got two of those in the title decider against Notts County at the Racecourse Ground on Easter Monday, 10th April 2023 (he had already scored the opener.

Speaking of that decisive battle between the two title contenders (the closest team below the duo being 25 points in County’s rear view) that was when Ben Foster made his biggest contribution to their promotion party.

Wrexham had taken the lead, for the second time, in the 78th minute and looked to be hanging onto for a famous win that would put them on the brink of promotion. Then disaster struck. Eoghan O’Connell handed County a penalty in the 96th minute of the match.

The only man standing between Notts County and the promotion place now was Ben Foster. He dived to his right and shoved the ball round the post to secure a crucial 3 points for Wrexham.

That save, and all the excellent performances across the season are why the fourth tier of English football will be saying welcome to Wrexham again next season. It is there that, under the guidance of ex-Hull City manager Phil Parkinson, The Dragons will be looking to set the world on fire once more next season. They will have to win their first Welsh derby in the Football League since the 2002-03 season, to do so though.

Winning the National League is such a difficult quest to complete that it seems to set you up well for survival in the league above and maybe more. After all, Stockport County won it last season and in their first season back in the EFL they’re still in the running for a second automatic promotion in a row with just 2 games of their season remaining.

The scenes in Wrexham this evening must be incredible. How much better will they be if they manage to follow this promotion up with another next season?