Cold sweats and corruption

There's only one team in Wales. But VAR still stinks.

Business as usual…

Wrexham was in no shape for another football match last Tuesday.

The whole city was covered in a cold sweat ahead of kick-off against Hull, having spent the previous three nights plagued by nightmares of referee Peter Bankes drawing a square in the air.

Saturday’s pre-game pub concerns about Chelsea’s Liam Delap, Pedro Neto, and that defender who won’t cut his hair were all misdirected. It was VAR that was to prove our downfall.

This universally-despised Dementor of football - a monster that thrives on sucking the joy out of the game’s great moments - had never darkened our door until Saturday. But we know all about it now.

Developing some sort of mental defence against VAR will be necessary if we make it to the Premier League: A division where this tech regularly swoops in to steal happiness from supporters after sensing someone’s nose might be offside.

Granted, this all might come across as lemon-bitter. So, in the interest of fairness, it’s right to point out that the game hasn’t all ‘gone’ and some modern additions have been successful. Goal-line technology, for instance, is pretty flawless. It’s fast, it’s accurate, and it makes fair decisions at speed. In other words, it works.

But it is so much more difficult to get behind VAR: A piece of technology that makes offside decisions based on the length of toenails and brings games to a screeching halt, leaving fans to shrug and stare blankly around the stadium for an indeterminate period of time - like passengers on a platform when their train is simply marked ‘DELAYED’.

The fact that VAR still angers almost every football fan in the world says something. But alas, it seems destined to stay. And we were still cursing its existence by the time the Hull team were filing out of the tunnel at Y Cae Ras on Tuesday evening.

If there was ever an indication that Wrexham AFC is currently occupying heights so dizzying that we have lost all sense of perspective, consider the fact that a tie against play-off rivals was largely ignored until kick-off time - with all the talk still about the proud but ultimately unsuccessful push to topple Chelsea.

Everyone was too tired and distracted for this one to have a happy ending, and when the final whistle signalled a defeat, no one was particularly surprised.

The one silver lining of the Hull game was its ability to put clear blue water between the FA cup hangover and our all-Welsh grudge game with Swansea - who rolled into Y Gogledd full of swagger and hot on our heels for a play-off spot.

This author incorrectly predicted an incoming brawl between the two clubs over who held the biggest star power - RR McReynolds or Snoop Dogg - but in the heat of battle on the pitch, supporters seemed far more interested in labelling each other as ‘English’ instead.

It was a feisty atmosphere at times, and after a hard-fought, morale-boosting victory - much needed after the debacle we saw down in South Wales earlier this season - the noise of the Swans’ honking disapproval as they waddled out of the stadium was only the beginning. It wasn’t until full-time that they really started flapping - as SKY SPORTS shared footage of Rob and Ryan on their comms table.

The sight of our chairmen in the media box was treated like the biggest American-powered corruption scandal since a gangster conspired to fix the World Series, with the Swans (and indeed other fans) criticising its heavy bias.

RR McReynolds cheered when Wrexham scored, of course, but otherwise seemed to be there mostly for comic relief. I’m not sure their presence hurt anyone. Indeed, the quips being made on comms had no influence on Swansea’s inability to find the better of Big Arthur, or handle the inexplicably talented Callum Doyle (who is fast becoming a late contender for Player of the Season).

It’s always nice to triumph over a fanbase that detests the Red rise and everything that’s come with it, and that victory over the wrong side of Wales could prove to be a big one.

Another three points at Watford will keep us pushing towards the Land of VAR. Is it something we’re ready for?

Ah, no point in worrying about that yet. It’s all hypothetical right now.

As Parky will surely be telling his team, this is just another league game. Business as usual.

COYR.