Set up for a stonker
Bold or timid? Fresh or stale? Jekyll or Hyde?
You just can’t predict what sort of Wrexham you’re going to get when those 11 red shirts trot out of the tunnel on Saturday afternoons, can you?
Every matchday invites the same set of questions: Will we see Pele or Paul? Ollie or trolley? Barnett or barn door?
Our players always look the same on the surface (true, Tom O’Connor’s Selleck ‘stash is still taking some getting used to) but they seem to morph into alter egos on alternating weekends. The production is either sublime or stagnant - and rarely anything in between - lurching from one extreme to the other.
This isn’t the best time in the season to be diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. But there’s no denying it makes things interesting. Particularly on the eve of a game as big as Good Friday 2024: Wrexham vs Mansfield Town.
You’d have to dig around in the attic and blow the dust off your VHS players to find a time when the stakes were this high in a Reds vs Stags FL fixture.
It was 2008. It was 24th vs 23rd. It was absolutely massive for both sides. And it was a more dispiriting experience than being forced to watch a loop of Joey Barton podcasts via the Ludovico Technique. Two teams who could barely play football tried their best to put on a show for a crowd crippled with nerves, but it predictably produced a result that nobody wanted: A 1-1 draw.
Our current form might seem exasperating, but we could only dream of inconsistency back in those days. Every week was worse than the last.
Both Wrexham and Mansfield would go down that season. But the good news is that things are very different this time.
29th April 2024 is a fixture that has gotten fans from Wales to Nottinghamshire more excited than Andy Cannon on safari - with all of us looking upwards rather than over our shoulders.
Our most recent outing at Blundell Park saw O’Connor conducting a beat where Mullin could get his groove back; creating space for our self-appointed big cat spotter to prance majestically on centre stage. It was music to our ears given we’re about to play the best side in the division.
Mansfield stubbornly refused to lose a single game this season until November and they will surely be playing in the next tier by summer. But crucially, they haven’t found a way to beat Wrexham yet.
So, Good Friday is all set up for a stonker.
The end is in sight now, and even with our capricious form, we’re still managing to piss off all the right people.
Fans on social media this week have been circulating “tier lists” ranking FL supporters based on loyalty and atmosphere - lumping Wrexham into the bottom rung alongside the likes of Forest Green Rovers, MK Dons, Salford City, Fleetwood Town and whoever the creator’s own personal arch rivals might be.
Many sober footy fans would agree that it’s head-slappingly half-witted to put Wrexham in the “shit supporters” tier - but it does reveal we’re the team people love to hate and love to beat. We’re still something to be feared. Even if we are up and down at the moment.
A few weeks back, some of us thought it would all be over by mid-April, and the Stockport (H) tie on the final day would merely be a formality - serving as an occasion to link arms with the Hatters in joint celebration for once, rather than pushing and shoving each other out of the promotion slots.
But as Stockport’s fanzine owner has already warned me: “It’s all coming down to that final day”. And I get the feeling he might be right.
Still, there’s no sense making predictions until we see which Wrexham side turns up this weekend. Will we choose to play like champions?
Godspeed anyone who’s brave enough to place a bet.