Now you’re gonna believe us
Some of it felt different.
The goths at the PS2 trade-in store on Queen Street were gone, replaced by craft beer connoisseurs pouring IPAs.
The Overton Arcade had new neighbours: Including a former Reds talisman serving Irish American whiskey.
And the classic “We are going up!” chant had been tweaked and retuned for the modern day.
But in other ways, Wrexham looked just like it did the last time we reached the third tier of the Football League.
A steamrollered opposition that didn’t know what hit them.
A spot in a new division with two games to spare.
A Racecourse pitch flooded with fans from all four sides of the stadium.
It’s taken us 21 years to do it again. Up until recently, the Wrexham supporters who are too young to visit Hollywood bars - and drink with the celebs who made this all happen - had never witnessed our players splashing champagne over a sponsored banner reading “WE’RE GOING UP!”.
But now they’ve seen it twice in 12 months.
Incredible, really, isn’t it?
But steady on. This isn’t an underdog story. We’ve been warned this simply isn’t true. How can it be, when we’ve dumped a wheelbarrow of Yankee Dollars outside Parky’s house to throw willy-nilly at superstars?
Rival fans have had so much Wrexham content shoved down their throats over the past three years, they’re unwilling to swallow the tale of a team that’s finally been rewarded with a drop of good luck that eluded us for two decades.
Maybe the critics would prefer another title to the Wrexham tale? “An Alpha Dog Story” could work: A headline that fittingly captures how we’ve roared up the divisions by asserting dominance over two different packs.
Is that better or worse? Ah, call us what you want. Wrexham can’t ‘win’ Football Twitter. But we don’t really need to when we’re winning all the things that matter.
Underdog, Alpha Dog, Dirty Dog, whatever. Wrexham has never been happier or more confident. We’ve moved from one promotion of perplexed relief, to a second promotion of fist-pumping triumph.
Everyone believes again. And you could see it in the streets. Big hugs exchanged on town hill. Chants rolling down the Mold Road. Even the unwitting hen party who’d chosen to perch in the private room of Hill Street couldn’t help but grin at the sight of Reds butchering the songs coming out of the speakers whilst sloshing lager onto the staircases.
We’ve spent years barking into the ears of people we’ve met at parties, in the takeaway or down the pub about how we’re really a big club in disguise. Now we have the proof. Wrexham are right alongside some top dogs again.
Townsfolk emerged from their pits on Monday morning like a butcher’s pooch after a barbecue - drowsy and delirious but well-fed and content. And the waterfall of celebratory footage that’s been pouring online has proven a nice distraction from our reluctant re-entry into the real world, whether that’s been slapping cement on bricks, stocking shelves, crunching numbers, or nodding along blankly to people using words like “synergy” on Zoom meetings.
It’s been brilliant. But it’s not quite over yet.
The Hatters have already done their bit to clinch top spot (which they’re guaranteed to milk with glee in the League Two curtain call on 27th April, so brace yourselves for that), but there’s still the little matter of exactly where we’ll finish.
This mini mission to grab the silver medal begins with Crewe (A). Police have desperately rearranged this for a lunch kick-off - hoping to avoid a repeat of the Royal Rumble the last time we completed a League Two season, when fancy-dressed fans in Pink Panther and Giant Bunny costumes launched Lincoln hooligans over the ropes of pub car parks.
Those who didn’t get tickets for The Ice Cream Van Stand can stop worrying now and go about their weekend as normal. Those who did should just about have recovered in time to reboot the party.
It could be another fuzzy flash of joy in a fever dream that refuses to end. So, until we’re abruptly shaken awake and told all this Hollywood malarkey was just a figment of our imagination, we can just keep carolling away…
Town are going up, ole ole! Town are going up, ole ole! Town going up! Town going up! Town are going up, ole ole!
I think, mayhaps, “Diamond Dogs”?