Home, sweet home
More than once, it looked like we were done for.
Never more so than on that bleak, wet, blustery Tuesday night in Torquay, October 2019 - where a 1-0 defeat left The Red Ship anchored in the fifth tier drop zone.
New Captain Dean Keates had desperately been trying to galvanise the crew after his predecessor Yozzer had been thrown overboard with his FootGolf kit. Of course, it was a small miracle we were even afloat at all after the whole club nearly capsized like the Titanic in 2011. We were alive, and grateful. But the sight of our team taking another beating beneath the slate grey skies of Devon showed that we were painfully lost. The warm, bright, welcoming beam of the Football League lighthouse that we had been seeking for more than a decade was never further away.
Fast-forward to 2023, and that grim coastal scene had been dunked in colour.
Rob Lainton and Luke Young were the only survivors. And again, we couldn’t find a way to win. But the mood was bright. The sun was shining. And we were back on dry land. Everything had turned out ok, after all.
The big turning point came when two film stars choppered around the UK on a club hunt and stumbled across our defiant Welsh boat lost at sea for 15 years. Sympathetic to our spirit, the RR McReynolds ‘copter lowered a ladder and carried us to shore.
By April 2023, we were back, and completing our voyage at Torquay was symbolic.
This wasn’t just the fixture in which our two saviours saw our town for the first time in the flesh - it also put their remarkable work into context.
Wrexham were sinking when we visited Torquay in 2019. Less than four years later, we rode in on the crest of a triumphant wave as Champions.
Quite the turnaround.
Wrexham are back in the Football League. Do you think anyone missed us?
In all honesty, we’ve been Cast Away long enough to have been declared “missing, presumed dead”, and if it hadn’t been for the headline-grabbing heroism of Hollywood, we might have been forgotten by the 92 forever. Like Tom Hanks, we will also be reminded that civilisation isn’t perfect. Crewe is still a seaside town without a beach. Tranmere are still an angry, incoherent bunch. Newport fans still can’t tell the time.
League Two is certainly no utopia. But it is where we want to be, nonetheless.
By the time we kicked off against Torquay on Saturday, we were already there.
A win over Boreham Wood had sealed it, and that final surge towards the coastline was an adrenaline-fuelled ride into rapturous celebration. Tears of relief and joy and pride filled Y Cae Ras on April 22 to the point where our famous old ground had its own body of water.
Pele Mullin was the first to be hoisted from the deck onto the shoulders of an emotional welcome party - aptly recognised for his valiant efforts in helping to steer us back to the promised land.
The emotional reunion raged long into the night - with Ollie Palmer doing the Maccie Mile in a car boot and sweaty Reds busting shapes in 1-to-5 in their Wrexham clobber alongside the confused, ordinary clientele in heels and boots. One unfortunate young couple on a first date in another bar had to jettison their martinis after a mob staggered in through the door bellowing CHAMPIOOOOONNEEEEEEYS - and upon escaping outdoors they were greeted by hordes of wild-eyed fans scaling lampposts and leaping into bushes outside.
Punters lay strewn across kebab shops and taxi ranks. The roar of Wrexham anthems splashed up Pen-Y-Bryn and Madeira Hill and Holt Street and Rhosddu Road, trickling through to every corner of the town.
Those who bagged tickets to Torquay were able to rekindle those celebrations one last time with a beach-side shindig - and not a single Red cared about the fact we could only manage a draw on the pitch.
What did another little leak in the boat matter? We were already home. And there are no plans to get back in those waters anytime soon.
Thanks again for this brilliant read.
I was at the last Div2 game and the first in non league and to see us achieve what we have this season has help bury those memories.
Haven’t seen Wrexham live for the last 3 seasons due to various reasons and it hurts me more and more not to watch them.Your excellent posts have help fill that yawning gap so thank you once again and look forward to reading about our exploits in Div2.