Utter Slops
What goes around, comes around, it turns out…
An outdated old story…
“Fuck Wrexham!” screamed a duo of pudding-heads in a Subaru Impreza as they razzed around the Maccie Mile in the hours after derby day, hurling containers of suspicious-smelling liquid at pedestrians in red shirts.
They missed their targets of course - taking inspiration from their team - and that driver probably woke up on Sunday morning with his motor parked in a Shropshire ditch whilst he stared despondently into his bowl of cereal, cursing the fact that reality had reared its ugly head. His team had lost their cup final.
It must be a weird feeling for Shrews fans, given how the derby bragging rights have remained safe behind an electric fence in Shropshire for so long. Our FA Cup victory last year was just a one-off, they reminded us. In the league, they always bested us. And they clung to that proudly.
Indeed, Shrewsbury’s mirth in the aftermath of their 3-0 win at New Meadow in 2008 - the result that effectively sent us into non-league - was so intense The Joker would have told them to reel it in a little. Salop have enjoyed prouder chapters in their history than hammering a side featuring Drewe Broughton and Richard Hope, but nonetheless, that 3-0 is a tale they’ve dined out on for well over a decade.
Turns out, what goes around, comes around. Shrewsbury suffered their own hiding in the most recent derby - by that very same scoreline - and their favourite anecdote about battering their worst enemies suddenly seems outdated.
Young Reds who observed the cross-border derby on Saturday afternoon - a game in which an utterly hapless Salop side slipped and fumbled and rolled around on the floor when they weren’t trying to to rile up James McClean - will struggle to envisage a time when Shrewsbury reigned supreme.
The bookies odds for this one were firmly in our favour given our respective starts. But anything can happen on derby day, and Salop fans arrived in Wales wearing brave faces: One actually soldiered through town and kissed his badge when Reds booed him through the open windows of Hill St bar.
Even when the game was dead and buried, many of them stuck it out to the bitter end, despite the fact their team looked desperate to be anywhere else. Shrews’ goalkeeper spent much of the second half turning around to check the clock on the Tech End, apparently willing the minutes away. Reds, on the other hand, could have stayed there for hours.
“Everything is going a little too well at the moment, isn’t it?” chuckled one Red studying the image of a league table which featured Wrexham on top and Shrewsbury in the relegation zone, alongside a scoreline that you’d once only associate with a Salop win.
It’s still hard to get our heads around the fact we’re currently the best team in a division featuring heavyweights like Bolton, Birmingham and Huddersfield. These are Wrexham’s glory days: And it’s deeply uncomfortable viewing for our rivals.
One Salopian seethed on social media: “Can't wait for the arse to fall out of this monstrosity of a football club.”
That might be a while. We know all about waiting. We did 16 years of it. Now it’s Shrewsbury’s turn.
Enjoy your week, Reds. Not that you need a reminder.
This is absolute quality. As soon as I'm not completely broke I'll be upgrading to a paid sub. Please keep up the good work!