Woah. Three in a row.
One of the biggest internet phenomenons in those early days of YouTube was a clip of a kid who had been left absolutely pickled by a big dose of anaesthesia following dental surgery.
“Is this real life?” asks the bug-eyed boy on camera in David After Dentist, gawping in confusion at the world around him.
It’s fitting that Wrexham fans - the viral superstars of modern times - spent Sunday morning looking and feeling like the lad in that early internet hit: High as a kite, wondering where the hell we were and how we got there, with millions of people watching us.
The hours following Promotion III were fuzzy, at best. Reds woke up on sofas, toilet seats, and kebab tables across North Wales, wondering whether this had all just been some mind-boggling dream: The kind of weird hallucination you get after a long evening at Anise washing down a vindaloo and chilli naan with big bottles of Cobra.
Had this all definitely, actually happened?
It seemed like it might have done. All the signs were there. Our ears were ringing, our throats were stinging, and our chins were carrying a stupid smile which wouldn’t seem to go away. We had blurry memories of players on shoulders, grown men sobbing in the concourse, and strangers hugging us on the high streets. We remembered watching Wycombe on the TV, trudging off the field with their heads in their hands, knowing they’d blown it. And we recalled the sight of the Charlton clown car - driven madly by Nathan Jones in full circus make-up - failing to tailgate our promotion parade (and ending up looking like the latest victims of the city’s fast-rising bollards).
It was all a bit wild. But too vivid to be a fever dream. When that first cup of coffee kicked in and the fog cleared, there was no denying the reality. Wrexham were Championship.
We flicked on the news, and sure enough, it was all there. Three gorgeous goals blowing the roof of Y Cae Ras and leaving Jones looking like a defeated Pennywise with a drooping pocket flower soundtracked by a slide whistle. The performance was practically perfect and our famous ground was as loud as it’s been all year.
It really was one of the great days to savour. Even more incredible still was the fact that others seemed to be enjoying it almost as much as us. Even the harshest critics were caught engaging in a unified slow clap to sound their acknowledgment that this was a job well done after all. Three straight promotions was apparently all it took for RR McReynolds to be taken seriously. Turns out they just had to achieve something that nobody ever had before…
One week on, the noise persists. Despite Champions League semi-finals, Birmingham setting a new EFL points record, and Ian Wright warring with Eni Aluko, little old Wrexham are still dominating all the football headlines. In three short years, our opposition of Weymouth and Woking have morphed into Watford and West Brom. No wonder we have to keep pinching ourselves.
At one point in that viral David After Dentist video, the doped-up kid asks: “Is this going to be forever?”. And indeed, everyone is asking us a version of this question. How far can it go? When will it end? What comes next?
All we can be sure of right now is this: The Wrexham Rise could finish tomorrow or in ten years’ time, but this b2b2b feat will be etched into the history books for eternity. For as long as the sun comes up, Wrexham will always be the club that secured a straight hat-trick of promotions before anybody else.
The 24/25 season officially ends at Sincil Bank on Saturday. Last time we were in Lincoln, supporters spent the whole day punching each other in fancy dress costumes, on a dark day that could easily have been our last ever game in the EFL. Now we return to the very same stadium as Championship-elect.
Is this real life?
Amazingly, it seems to be.
HERE WE GOOOOO, THREE IN A ROW!
Wrecsam am byth!
P.S. £1.7M for grass. It's never-ending!
The best promotion yet, what a day!