“Stick that in your documentary.”
A gleeful demand from rivals that Wrexham’s players and supporters have had to get used to in defeat, perhaps most famously after the 2023 FA Cup replay at Sheffield United when the teams clashed in the Bramall Lane tunnel.
Had the producers of Welcome to Wrexham heeded such a call, series three would have been little more than a string of losses rather than the chronicling of a second successive promotion for Phil Parkinson’s men and a hugely encouraging first season in the Welsh top division for the women’s team.
That, though, hasn’t stopped the mocking spreading to the Genero Adran Premier League, as the women’s top flight is called. Most recently it was heard when Steve Dale’s side lost 3-0 to Briton Ferry last weekend.
In many ways, the jibe can be taken as a compliment. From almost a standing start when Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took charge of the club in 2021, the women’s team have earned their place at the top table of Welsh football, alongside perennial title challengers Swansea and Cardiff City.
Last season’s third-place finish and an appearance in the Bute Energy Welsh Cup final is seen as just the beginning for Wrexham. A maiden pre-season tour of America may have brought three heavy defeats against vastly superior opposition in July, but there was also a record attendance of more than 10,000 in Portland.
Another important step on that road comes this Sunday, as they face Swansea at home, a fixture Wrexham lost 3-2 last season, prompting that documentary mockery again. Most of the women’s matches are played at The Rock, around seven miles from Wrexham in Rhosymedre, but this fixture will once again be at The Racecourse.
“Playing here again is brilliant,” says Liv Fuller, the 27-year-old defender and former Wales youth international, who signed in February after recovering from a horrible knee injury.
“The more we play here and the more big occasions we can play in, the more it will raise our profile. Just as importantly, we want to win the game. After losing our first two games this season, there’s a sense of having a point to prove.”
Those defeats to reigning champions Cardiff on the opening day and newly promoted Briton Ferry last weekend have left Wrexham playing catch-up in what promises to be another hard-fought competition.
The hope is pre-season preparations in the United States will stand the squad in good stead. They played SoCal FC, Tigres Femenil Under-19s, and Portland Thorns Academy over a fortnight, during which the players trained full-time at top-class facilities and got a taste of the club’s growing support base in Los Angeles and Portland.
“America was incredible,” says Fuller, who captained Liverpool to FA Youth Cup success in 2014. “A real eye-opener. We travelled out with the men’s team, who had previously been out there. They were trying to give us a heads-up, but seeing is really believing.
“In Portland, we played in front of 10,000 people. There were drums, flares and all sorts going on. Me and Del (Morgan), our goalkeeper, have been best friends since we were kids. She lives on the next road.
“Every night we kept saying the same thing. How are we, as two girls from Prestatyn, here in America? It felt crazy.”
The Welcome to Wrexham cameras joined the team in America, capturing the highs and lows of a tour that saw Fuller celebrate her birthday with an enjoyable team night out to Top Golf in Portland.
After initially joining in with pre-season last year to aid her rehab and then signing for the club in February, she’s now well used to the presence of the cameras.
“It is good for the youngsters to see it isn’t just the men (getting coverage), but the women as well,” says the defender. “There was massive hype for women’s football around the Euros, but it has kind of died down a bit.
“Wrexham have got it spot on by still including the women in the documentary. It’s also great how supportive the owners are. When we were in America, Rob was at all our games. We didn’t expect that.
“It was good enough for us to be going to America, let alone him being at every game supporting us. Even coming to chat to us, it’s the little things like that that make it special.”
As with all the Wrexham players, Fuller is semi-pro. Her day job is as a teacher at St Martin’s Academy, Chester, so she needed special dispensation to finish term three days early to join the U.S. tour.
It probably helped sway an understanding school hierarchy that her pupils are all huge football fans, many attending last season’s clash with Swansea at The Racecourse.
“The kids are brilliant,” she adds. “When I was out injured for those 18 months after doing my ACL and both menisci, I’d say the school girls’ team got me through all the rehab. For the past three years, we have been to national finals.
“We’re only a small school in Chester with 175 pupils and we’re up against schools with 350-plus kids. That kind of drove me in my rehab. The kids will also pop up at (Wrexham) games.
“At The Racecourse last season, I spotted them in the stand. I had no idea they were coming, so that was really nice. I found out later that they’d also made banners for the game, one which read, ‘Go Miss Fuller’.
“One of the parents told me on the Monday, ‘Unfortunately, Miss Fuller, they took the banners off us’.”
Let’s hope the kids have a bit more success in showing their support as The Racecourse hosts the women for the third time. The first game, in 2023, drew a then-record crowd of 9,511, including co-owners McElhenney and Reynolds, for the visit of Connah’s Quay.
The crowd won’t be anywhere near that level this time but, after those two early defeats, this is a big game for Wrexham at home to the team who finished as runners-up in 2023-24. No doubt footage will feature in series four of the documentary, regardless of the result.
“This season is a whole new ball game for us,” says Fuller. “Last season, we were the underdogs, having just been promoted. People didn’t think we would do anything, so to come third was massive, whereas this season we have a target on our backs.
“We’ve been away in America, which was absolutely incredible, but now we have to prove why we had those privileges and what we can offer to the league.”
(Top photo: Gemma Thomas/Wrexham AFC)
