TL;DR to this rambly piece. The Wrexham thing is a circus but it is a fun one. Respect managers. Welsh football is at another crossroads but we should be backing it from inside rather than outside. Football can furnish your life but it should never take it over. For more…keep reading. You’ll need to really keep reading.
I had prepared myself for a season of EFL Trophy games and seeing what came on TV, or a midweek stream if live games hadn’t really happened. I took the choice to stop being a club member when a charge was introduced that I felt was poor value for money, so I was at ease with the fact that I wouldn’t get to choose when to go anymore. Last year it was TV only for Notts County and Boreham Wood, I was fine with it and that was that. As it stands, I have ended up with the opportunity to go the Racecourse quite regularly this time due to spares floating around. This has been a welcome bonus; I’ve never stopped enjoying watching the team even though my commitment to the grind has evaporated, and I got quite a mixed bag of games. Being 2-0 down to MK after ten minutes of the opening day took the wind out of everyone’s sails and it looked like the team wasn’t prepared for the step up. The harshness of the higher level took some time to settle down but provided entertainment in spades; I wasn’t there for the 5-5 (!) draw against Swindon but I was for the 3-3 draw against Crewe. Red card setbacks, a Mullin and Fletcher masterclass, and the crowd roaring the team to a stoppage time point provided a classic topsy turvy encounter, and I hadn’t been so invested in a Wrexham game for a few years – just when I thought I could view these things with arch detachment. A word on those two forwards; Mullin’s form was a hot topic for some of the season. It felt like he was rushed back, and he had a strange dip in form at around the team of the team’s most inconsistent results. Yet he still breezed past 20 goals and when he was good, he was still showing why he’s the first name on the team sheet. While there were plenty of other crucial players, Elliot Lee before Christmas, Andy Cannon after, George Evans when fit and Max Cleworth when picked, I didn’t enjoy watching anyone as much as Fletcher. People talk about certain other forwards who have played for the club as possible top end players who it didn’t quite happen for, but when you watch Fletcher you see why that’s not true. He just sees everything quicker than other players, is almost unbeatable in the air and is the perfect foil for whoever his strike partner is, and if he had a young man’s fitness he wouldn’t even dirty his hands in League 2.
The thrills and spills mostly eased off, but Wrexham dealt with the challenge. I saw a classic performance as Morecambe were sent packing 6-0, right up there for complete Wrexham performances that I’ve seen, but there were tougher challenges. Yet games I attended against Gillingham, Newport, Wimbledon and Mansfield followed a theme. Each one of them saw the visit of a capable and hard working opponent, but be it early (55 seconds against Gillingham) or later (mid-way through the second half against Newport and Wimbledon) you had the sense of a Wrexham team that was happy to ride out the tough patches and take its chances. The Mansfield game came at the right time for me; I had seen the team draw blanks against Bradford (played all the football and collapsed to defeat in the last ten minutes) and Harrogate (they set up for a point early on and got it from a Wrexham team afraid to shoot). Yet without entirely silencing the critics, the job got done with two games to spare. For all the griping about away form, aside from an ugly January and February the team chipped away at getting enough points on the road to bolster the still reliable displays at home. In the before times, a game like the one against Crawley was the traditional banana skin; game in hand against in-form opponent in front of an expectant crowd, where deep down you’d have probably taken a point. What actually happened was taking the sting out of Crawley’s style, hitting them with back-to-back goals, managing the rest of the game with ease and picking the opponent off as a relaxed crowd felt the aim come even closer. All this leading to a breezy final day everyone could enjoy against, err, Stockport, which meant a lot of grown men, some of whom play for the two clubs, simply couldn’t be normal about it. But it was the least cranky game between the two that I have ever been to, made all the nicer by a come from behind win. This team has cost plenty of money but it still needs a professional job to be done – they have done it repeatedly.
They’ll be playing in League 1 next time and that is an intriguing prospect. Even while the team was right in the automatic promotion mix it didn’t take much for some people to be writing Phil Parkinson’s obituary, not for the first time since he came somehow. I would admit that the style of play isn’t always lovable and his methods are rigid. Some of the reactions to his team dropping points were hysterical though, with occasional reference to “this is how his other jobs have ended” and, best of all, “League 1 is his ceiling” when he has got teams promoted from it twice! Even the much-discussed away form is judged on feel rather than results – on away form only Wrexham were a playoff team, but you wouldn’t think so after a defeat. What comes next will be a test of everyone’s mettle; there will need to be changes to get this squad near the top of the division, including a smarter focus on who comes in rather than just waving cash around, and I suspect a year to have a look and just be competitive would be fine and dandy. Can people handle a year of win, lose, win, lose, or god forbid, win, draw, lose, lose, draw, win, lose etc? Probably not without the dreaded “I think he’s taken us as far as he can” debate rearing its ugly head, and fans on social media nibbling at opposing fans mocking every dropped point (come on people, you’re going to have to start getting used to that without blowing a gasket). Unless relegation is looming I would say a change next time would be a huge mistake; when he came Wrexham needed Parkinson more than the other way round, and given the man’s pedigree, the club is still blessed to have him. It’s going to require a little more nous and patience next time after two years of bludgeoning the rest with a big bag of swag. Everyone is still as twitchy as hell though, despite success, but he has earned the right to ease his way into League 1 – let him do it.
I also managed to see the Wrexham women’s team three times. It would have been nice to be more but a) Des Williams is a bad man and you shouldn’t give him your money by going to the Rock and b) the cup final being in Newport is beyond even my enthusiasm. The decision to stream all their games via iFollow really was a boon and if you were watching a contractually obliged Premier League game on Sundays at 2pm I feel like you missed out. To stay in the division would have been a success, but to finish a comfortable third, and only drop points once against the teams below meant this was done with expert efficiency. It wasn’t like the team wasn’t tested as teams who were well beaten early on proved tougher opponents in the return games. This is most clearly shown by the two games against TNS that I went to. The first at Park Hall was a bit of a classic, with Wrexham being 2 down after 12 minutes, but level by the break, and ultimately going on to win 3-2 in a game that could have gone either way. The Welsh Cup semi-final against the same opponents at Flint was a little different; Wrexham had to dig in to win this with a great defensive effort and Rosie Hughes taking Wrexham’s clearest chance. There were harsh lessons for Wrexham too; they played games against Cardiff or Swansea a total of ten times (cup final still to come against Cardiff at the time of writing), and only avoided defeat once, with Cardiff being particularly ruthless. The team got its overdue chance at the Racecourse against Swansea and put in their best performance against either of the big two there. Swansea would have been lucky to escape with a point, so that a freak goal won them all three was a kick in the teeth. An attendance of 2000 there should be celebrated, I saw the men play in front of that many almost exactly a decade earlier. However, I get the sense that the club could have pushed the game harder and earlier seeing as over 9000 watched the team at the Racecourse the previous year. But maybe their season shouldn’t be picked at – it was as good as could be expected and the women ought to be worthy of that Racecourse stage more often.
The general hype around Wrexham is a curate’s egg. You have to be rather picky, ie like me, to not just ride the wave. The general buzz has nowhere near abated but I’m not sure you can make a leopard change its spots, and in Wrexham’s case that means non-stop emotional incontinence. There are still a lot of petty rows around, and for a ground packing in three times what it was pre-takeover it is only occasionally febrile. Let’s face facts, you know that half of the people there aren’t fans unconditionally, and the excellent home record creates expectation rather than Beatlemania – you need more jeopardy for the latter. My concern about the direction of the club, led by assorted uber-corporate types, remains. It seems to me that the hardnosed and/or cynical tactics to remove WST protection of the ground, and the acceptance of a hefty debt despite the fact that we were promised there would be none, is something that people are reticent to discuss. Yet another staff member removed, but actually providing a peek behind the curtain rather than leaving without saying anything, showed an ugly side of the business we are rather too eager to excuse. As was the club’s refusal to make a statement on the scrapping of FA Cup replays (potentially embarrassing for Shaun Harvey whatever the statement said) and the late season flurry of club fans issued, with McElhenney clearly trying to manage a situation that had got out of control. A lesser told tale of another fan’s treatment over the last summer, at that fan’s own request, is as unpleasant a tale of targeted nastiness as I can ever think of from the club at any point in my memory, based on nothing more than a desire to flatten criticism. It’s unavoidable that the ruthless approach of their people on the ground is exactly what the owners are looking for, bar the occasional flashpoint, and I’m not quite sure how people keep looking past that to allocate no blame to them. You have to drink a fair amount of the Hollywood Kool-Aid to truly believe in the myth of community being at the heart of the motivation of anybody working for the club, or owning it for that matter. However, it’s been nice to get more of a slice of it this season than I did last time. It will be a period of the club’s history that is talked about for as long as anyone is alive to remember it, and it won’t last forever, so it’s worth stopping to smell the flowers. God knows I have my issues with the whole circus of it, and I only take part on my terms these days, but I can’t deny that it’s mostly fun.
WELSH FOOTBALL
The Racecourse got its moments in the sun for internationals too. Wales men hadn’t been here since 2019, so even a changed team playing a friendly against Gibraltar isn’t to be sniffed at – qualifiers aren’t a realistic prospect. The game was a sell-out and a bit of a breeze at 4-0, but a reward for the North Wales fans who put the miles in, one we should ideally have every year. Of course, we now know there is no other reward this summer; to have taken one of 13 European places at the World Cup but now not be part of a 24 team Euros is a big regression, albeit with the mitigating circumstances of some big players being missing since then. However, I’m the last apologist for Robert Page, less because of passionately wanting to keep him, and more because even during his period of success the way people have talked about him is disgraceful. He got the job in difficult circumstances while the Giggs shadow remained. Getting out of the last Euros group wasn’t to be sniffed at but there was better to come. To have become the only Wales manager to qualify directly for the World Cup seems to be underrated somehow, overshadowed by not performing very well at the tournament, despite the fact that we should have been thankful the team got there at all. This is particularly laughable when you consider the mostly respectful attitude there is to – takes breath – Mike Smith, Mike England, Terry Yorath, Mark Hughes, John Toshack and Chris Coleman. Not one of those men finished higher than third in World Cup qualifying and Page’s record trounces any one of their records generally except Coleman. I would also argue that the performances immediately after Bale and Allen retired bottomed out a year ago, creating a risk in making a change now rather than then. Page has lost the people so he’s probably wasting his time trying to turn the tide, and you can’t ignore that decline in performance, but he should never have to buy a drink in Wales again. In years to come when you’ve stopped sulking you’ll all claim you weren’t on his case. However, I have a sinking feeling that if he stays the discussion around him will get worse rather than better, and that would be a bit bleak.
The return of the women’s team was also overdue – literally, as a slot for a Racecourse game was announced for a year earlier and not mentioned again. Rhian Wilkinson took her first game as manager against Croatia, and a competitive game to boot. While her predecessor Gemma Grainger did a good job, her team was a bit of a tough watch. If the game at the Racecourse was anything to go by there is going to be a sea change in style under Wilkinson, albeit there will be tougher tests than her opening games. Croatia were played off the park, beaten 4-0 in front of a crowd of 4100. This number is worth noting; the team came to Wrexham in 2012 and drew 1000 when entry was free. The next time they came in 2020, 2000 people paid £5. Double that again paying £10 each is moving very much in the right direction. While the men’s team will always play competitive games in Cardiff, I would like to see the women rotate theirs between East, West and North, and hopefully the turnout will show that this is viable.
The club scene in Wales is having one of its many existential crises. I got a sense of it at my first competitive game of the season. Connah’s Quay, clearly the second best team in Wales, having to play a European game at TNS’ home Park Hall, not getting a kick against their opponents from Iceland and out of Europe before the kids even broke up from school. I saw a handful of games in the Cymru Premier this time, and I would always recommend a trip to Newtown in particular, a quirky and characterful ground where the host club always punch above their weight. Bala is a lovely day out although they perhaps display one of the league’s challenges; a club in a tiny place paying decent money to incomers to play for them despite there being a ceiling on the kind of club they can be, and if you want a drink you’d better stay in the town. Despite the size of the club, they are always pushing for Europe. There is a general sense that the money in Welsh football is in all the wrong places, with some pumped up clubs with no fans while a tantalising dream of all of our bigger clubs being in the top division at once continues to evade us – we should all groan at Rhyl’s Devon Loch leading them to another year at level 3. This season rammed this home more than ever as TNS showed themselves at their most ruthless, yet they might actually feel disappointment in losing two cup finals. Their Irn Bru Cup final defeat in Scotland displays the size of their next challenge; once they went behind they faced a match situation they didn’t know how to handle, and it’s hard to avoid the feeling that this will continue to hobble their chances of European progress. They are the lightning rod for a lot of criticism of the league, but it’s worth reminding yourself that they aren’t really doing anything wrong, and just hoping they go away is a race to the bottom. How you create more clubs like them, making themselves the best club they can be, is a challenge for greater minds than mine.
Just like the previous couple of seasons, the Cymru North proved to be rather more interesting, with a genuine three-way title race that lasted the distance before Holywell won out. My visit there convinced me that they would be the team that won the title; even though they had a long winning run last season they looked even more lively and incisive this time. Their ground isn’t the most slick and modern but you would have hoped they found a way to make it Premier compliant. To have had their Premier licence turned down drew much wailing and gnashing of teeth but I’m not sure what to make of that, all the more so as the club didn’t even appeal. I definitely don’t agree that the FAW should lower standards, the league was, and is, in need of off field standards and I’m not sure that many of them are unreasonable for a league you can qualify for Europe from. However it does seem that the process of becoming compliant isn’t the two-way journey it ought to be. It feels more like “you can apply in September, and we’ll judge you in April” without enough input in between to help the clubs get from A to B. The FAW gets a lot of banal criticism about the licencing process; in my opinion, it has been a canary in the coalmine for clubs who weren’t fit for the league. Without it I’m not sure clubs would spend any time on the necessary elements the licence requires, but the FAW needs to help clubs become compliant, and not just punish the ones who aren’t. The announcement that clubs will be receiving funding to employ someone full-time to run their clubs makes sense, and should hopefully assist both general administration and marketing.
Airbus were competitive after a nightmare relegation from Cymru Premier, albeit being a little less ruthless than the Champions. I have always enjoyed going there but the match day experience was a little inconsistent, with food availability unreliable and an amazing club shop open…sometimes. I have no bias but I was pleased to see Flint get the promotion spot, as they have the most fans of the three title contenders (and most of the Premier clubs) and a ground I prefer to the others, despite the temptations of Holywell’s social club with a view of the pitch, compared to Flint’s before you get in. There were other delights at this level; Buckley is a great ground whose veranda is possibly THE place to watch football from, and it was a blow that they were forced to play elsewhere for a time due to someone pouring undiluted weedkiller on the pitch. I made my first trip to Denbigh in several years on a filthy Friday night and got my game of the season, a 6-5 triumph over Buckley which could have seen even more goals. The FAW love their ground and if their social club plans take place it will rival Buckley as a loved venue, despite me needing a 37 point turn to get out of the car park. Despite the stress of needing expert clutch control to leave the ground, a visit to Mold is worth your time, child friendly, dog friendly, beer friendly, and a good team too, and hopefully a managerial change over the summer won’t derail their superb season. Chirk will have to settle for level 3 football next time but this is also a much improved venue, more seats, more cover, but still no place to be in winter. Despite that, I still hope to visit them next time and hope their improved end to this season gives them momentum to bounce back. Prestatyn also got a first visit in a while, a perfect stop off on a seaside day out that meets all your needs. The local public has disengaged from them somewhat, and off field rumours that have plagued their last few years continue to abound, exposed by a points deduction for playing a ringer. The game is almost entirely unregulated when it comes to who owns clubs, they look like the next set of victims of that, and this remains something nobody in Welsh (or English?) football really has a grip on.
So what to do about the challenges in the league system?There are numerous issues but it’s hard to find silver bullets for any of them. While I think that gripes about a league of twelve clubs and repeat fixtures are overstated – plenty of other leagues have something similar – most would say that this setup has overstayed its welcome and will cheer the expansion we know is coming. In the short term an expansion is likely to lower standards but if the variety stimulates interest then it is probably worth taking the short term hit. It also makes sense to focus investment into pitches as was stated in the FAW’s strategic plan. This will presumably include grass but I’m also happy with more 4G pitches rather than less, but with community agreements. Installing them needs to come with conditions of access to local clubs, which can’t be withdrawn by vindictive owners or committee men (hello again Des Williams). Engagement at every level is key. I’m also positive about the league moving to Friday nights, it has always felt like a more natural fit for games that I have been to, although we’ll see how they manage sending Haverfordwest to Flint then, that has to come with FAW assistance somehow. An increase in Premier numbers has been announced for two seasons time but we will see to how many that will be in September. I’m resistant to some of the other oft-mentioned ideas; splitting the league into North and South would only make a league with an image problem even more tinpot and a switch to summer doesn’t convince me either – people seem to forget that this opens up at best a few clear weeks of other competing football. Although I must admit that being positive about Fridays but not further regional groups may contradict each other, and nobody calls the NFL tinpot. It will also be interesting to see how S4C juggle more Friday nights – you don’t want your TV and live audience to cannibalise each other by too many schedule clashes.
If the promised investment into the league is to make a material difference it needs to be targeted in the right places – it’s a shame that some of it will have to pay for the dreaded VAR due to UEFA edicts, although at least they are contributing to that. Dare I suggest a Rugby League style cherry picking of who is deemed to add value to the Cymru Premier, encouraging a merger or two, a bitter pill to take you quicker to the outcome you’re hoping for organically? Including a one shot deal to Merthyr to sign up now into a 16 team top flight? It might need something as drastic as that to improve gates. I would also like to see the English based clubs have their arms twisted to join a revived Premier Cup; four groups of five with either a home or away game against an EFL team guaranteed in the group stage before quarters, semis and a final. This with no pressure on who the EFL teams pick to play but that the games must happen at their proper grounds. I loved the old tournament; it could give the domestic game a boost now and it’s the least the EFL clubs can do (Cardiff and Swansea played in the Nathaniel MG Cup this season anyway). There could be other pathway activities for players – a more formal system of loans for young players at the EFL clubs, or EFL trials for young players at Cymru Premier clubs to be part of the mooted plan perhaps. Maybe a mandatory slot in Wales under 21 and under 19 squads for a Cymru Leagues player as a carrot too? It would also help to enter a partnership with the EFL clubs to ensure their grounds are available for nearby Cymru Premier clubs to host European games, and/or ensure the bigger Cymru Premier venues are up to scratch in every region, as some of the scratching around for venues has been disappointing. It must be said that the England based clubs are the elephant in the room; while they operate there the league here will always be second rate, but they won’t be coming back this side of an independent Wales, a thing I would like but don’t expect to see any time soon.
Grassroots clubs face enough challenges as it is without the FAW waiting for things to go wrong and paddling clubs with fines and points deductions, and it was positive to hear the FAW acknowledge that even they want to see the back of that, and funded full time employees will help. If best practice is identified that helps clubs engage with their communities, don’t just wait for clubs to find it and keep it to themselves, but share the information and investment needed so everyone can do it, perhaps the central funding will ensure that happens. Recent focus is on the top division but we also need to help the pyramid lower down; I have enjoyed attending level 3 games at Brickfield, Penycae, Llay,Llangollen and Llansantffraid this season, and that those clubs have decent facilities for fans really does help, whereas others are basically parks with a 100 seat stand plonked next to them. For what is ostensibly a local league, some of the travelling involved is quite incredible and most people will have noticed that the league names and geographical reality don’t match up. An additional division at level 3 to cover mid-Wales, and ensuring that the North East and North West divisions mean just that, seems like a no brainer. One of this season’s positives was seeing the level 4-5 North East Wales League complete its campaign without any teams folding before the end of the season. I hope that this doesn’t mean they are forgotten, as it’s easy to only pay attention when clubs at that level are having a crisis or doing something wrong. You would hope for encouragement to help those teams progress if it suits them (Brymbo, Rhostyllen and Lex feel like clubs that should be playing higher), but also if it doesn’t (Queen’s Park seem to be doing just fine as they are).
Ultimately, we have to leave nothing concrete off the table and be prepared to listen to anyone. The strategy has been released but this should be a process rather than just an event. We need to open to spending the game’s money on anything that increases the numbers of people involved, on the field, in the stands, in the bars, and makes life simpler and more entertaining for those people. That simple then! No doubt, there are people whose desires are very different to mine, or whose methods to get there are different, and getting a unified approach is as big a challenge as anything else is. In the meantime, we should be backing the league rather than making every issue a showstopper. Welsh society is a bit like this anyway; we can’t just have unpopular policies from Welsh Government without a groundswell of opinion that Welsh democracy should be wholly absorbed into England’s (where they must have no issues of course). I would like to see Welsh football be more mature than this – it’s our league and we’ll get more out of supporting it than cursing not being able to allow clubs into the Northern Premier League. Early reaction to the still vague plan is still mixed so we could do with some people cooking their jets.
And finally…
My writing has been a useful project to me. It served a purpose to help me increase my Cymraeg skills in order to pass an exam, it continues to be my most reliable way to stretch my knowledge there and is the prime motivation for the site existing. I work from home and speaking opportunities aren’t what they could be. To make a tiny contribution to Welsh language culture is another motivation, despite occasional indulgences like this and the Welcome to Wrexham piece (by far the biggest driver of traffic to the site). It’s a niche pursuit otherwise, sometimes it is clear that I have written only for myself, but that’s worth doing as well. Social media is my only way to get any kind of audience, if indeed I get one at all, but it has its downsides. I’m more inclined to try to stretch myself on here in both languages rather than there in the future, to take the echo chamber to its logical conclusion, and use social media mainly just to promote this place and try to do a little better than be talking to myself here. It’s scary out there so maybe I’m better off here.
In the years leading up to Covid I was going to plenty of games but mostly Wrexham games at the Racecourse. When I decided that a season ticket there didn’t suit me anymore I hoped my seasons would look something like this one; I got the Wrexham games in that I needed, albeit I required the support of others for that. I must admit I gave the season ticket up not anticipating that I wouldn’t be able to bank on buying a ticket just when I wanted one, but my decision was the right one. I got enough time to support Welsh football elsewhere, internationals, women’s club games, men’s club games from levels one to five, a scattering of cups and cross border excursions. I could curse what I missed – no Ruthin, Llanrhaeadr, Guilsfield, Saltney or Whitchurch as I had hoped, and I still keep my distance from what was my favourite place at The Rock since Dirty Des did his dirty deeds there. However, it’s worth remembering that it shouldn’t be a tick box exercise, although I can lose sight of that.
It is also worth remembering that there are other things in life. One motivation to give up the Wrexham season ticket was to not be tied in to times and dates, so if a family trip to a trampoline park comes first, come first it must. Although the football has been a family pursuit as well. My daughter is autistic and has had a tough time of it lately. She’s not a football head but she has been my companion to about half of my games this season, and it’s nice to have something for us. On occasion the four of us have all clicked the turnstiles; hopefully this will continue. We should ignore the Barton-led footy lad backlash, it’s the last act of a dying breed. This is for all of us.
Taith Pêl-Droed 