Exactly 40 years ago, one of the greatest upsets in European club football history took place just a hefty clearance from where Manchester United will tonight face Porto in the Europa League in Portugal.
Wrexham, then struggling near the wrong end of the Fourth Division, faced the Portuguese heavyweights in the first round of the European Cup Winners’ Cup — the epitome of a sporting mismatch.
Porto had pushed Juventus hard in the previous season’s final, a 2-1 defeat, and also contributed nine players to the Portugal squad who had recently reached the semi-finals of the 1984 European Championship.
In contrast, Wrexham had only qualified for the UEFA competition as beaten Welsh Cup finalists because Shrewsbury Town’s location a few miles across the border in England made them ineligible as winners.
The Welsh minnows had finished 88th out of the 92 English Football League teams the previous season and were so skint they only had 14 professionals.
Cue mission impossible, as told to The Athletic by people there for two legs of knockout football that left the continent stunned.
September 19, 1984, the first leg at The Racecourse.
Jake King, full-back: “The club was really struggling. Some weeks we would not get paid, as the wages would be late. There had been some really good players at the club when I joined in 1982, lads like Joey Jones, Eddie Niedzwiecki and Dixie McNeil.
“But they’d all gone, leaving a very young squad with a few older heads like myself. Things had got so bad the season before that (manager) Bobby Roberts had been forced to play in goal for us in the Welsh Cup against Worcester. He was 43 at the time, our manager and also a former midfielder!”
Andy Edwards, forward: “I remember Bobby calling us all in after training to say we had drawn Porto and then saying, in this thick Scottish accent, ‘We can only do our best, lads’. Clearly, nothing was expected of us.”
John Muldoon, Wrexham winger: “The night before the first leg, a few of us watched them train on the Racecourse pitch. I wish we hadn’t, they were so good.”
Edwards: “Bobby was old school, with tea cups flying everywhere. So, the only real preparation we did was extra work on corners. We had Sir Alex Ferguson to thank for that, as his Aberdeen side had played Porto (in the Cup Winners’ Cup semi-finals) the year before. Sir Alex told Bobby that Porto were really vulnerable at set pieces. So, we practised and practised these corners.”
Wrexham almost scored first, as 6ft 3in (191cm) forward Jim Steel headed a sixth-minute free kick against the crossbar. But Porto soon settled, Fernando Gomes twice hitting the woodwork in the first half and Steve Wright heading against his own crossbar from a corner.
Muldoon: “We went close early on through Jim but, really, Porto could have scored four or five goals easily.”
Barry Horne, Wrexham midfielder: “We rode our luck at times. But it was only my 10th or 12th game, as I’d only just left university, and I can’t ever remember thinking, ‘We’re going to get battered here’. I hit the crossbar with a shot. I thought it crossed the line and I still do.”
The game’s big moment comes on 77 minutes when Steel collects the ball 30 yards from goal and spreads the play wide to Muldoon on the right flank.
Muldoon: “The last thing I’d been told before coming off the bench was, ‘Get the ball in the box’. So, I put a bit of whip on it. Straight away, the keeper comes to try and claim, and I’m thinking,’You’re not going to get this’.
“Sure enough, Jim nipped in front and got the goal. A few days later, Saint & Greavsie (ITV’s lunchtime football show) showed the goal and really went to town in praising the delivery. I loved that.”
Edwards: “The manager was made up with the 1-0 win in the dressing room. Telling us how we’d be all over the papers in the morning. The lads were really enjoying the moment. But then he says, ‘Forget about all that, though, as we’ve a job to do in the league’. Talk about crashing back to earth.”
Back-to-back defeats against Crewe Alexandra (0-3) and Stockport County (3-4) meant Wrexham slipped to 19th before attention switched back to Europe and the second leg.
Geraint Parry, now Wrexham’s club secretary but a supporter back then: “These were the days before budget airlines so we went by train, setting off straight after the Stockport home game with a month’s Interrail Pass that allowed you to travel all over Europe for £100.
“We headed to France via the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry and then carried on from there. It took the best part of two days. Funnily enough, we bumped into quite a few Portuguese migrant workers coming back from Germany.
“A few were Porto fans, all saying how Wrexham were going to get hammered. Most of us agreed.”
October 2, Estadio das Antas. As stipulated by UEFA, Wrexham were scheduled to have a training session on the eve of the match.
Muldoon: “Things started badly when the coach taking us to the stadium clipped this archway on the way in. The roof started to come in and the driver had to reverse back out.”
Edwards: “Once inside, we were told the pitch was out of bounds because of the heavy rain. It hadn’t stopped all day. So, we were given this all-weather gravel area behind the goal to train on. Even that, though, was like a swimming pool so all we could do was a bit of running. Not even a few corner routines.”
Horne: “I’d only been abroad once before in my life and that was on a university football tour. So, I’m expecting a sunny trip. My dad was the same. He travelled with just a couple of T-shirts and a pair of shorts. He ended up wearing a shower curtain from the hotel to the match.”
King: “The rain just never stopped. At first, I’m thinking, ‘This might work for us’. I remember telling (team-mate) Jackie Keay, ‘At least they won’t be able to play their nice, slick football on a pitch as heavy as this’. Half an hour in, we were 3-0 down.”
Porto levelled the tie within six minutes, Gomes finishing from close range. Jamie Magalhaes then added a second with a stunning left-foot volley before Gomes made it 3-0 on the night from the penalty spot.
Edwards: “Before kick-off, Bobby had pulled me to the side and said, ‘I’ve got a job for you — right side of midfield, marking Paulo Futre’. I had no idea who this fella was. I told the gaffer this and he just said, ‘You’ll find out soon enough, lad’. He was right about that.”
King: “It could have been seven, never mind three. Porto were brilliant, absolutely brilliant. We couldn’t get the ball.”
Parry: “The 20-30 Wrexham fans who made the trip were all sent to completely the wrong section of the ground by the stewards. We were on the side opposite the main stand, which was where the more lively home fans congregated.
“It got a bit nasty. Most Porto fans were great but there were some who started taking their belts off and swinging them round their heads. A few of us ended up with bruises.”
On a rare attack, 39 minutes in, Wrexham won a free kick on the left side of the penalty area. Kevin Rogers crossed for King to meet sweetly on the volley. Four minutes later, the full-back struck again to level the tie at 3-3 on aggregate.
King: “The funny thing about the first goal is it was my left foot. I played 500-odd Football League games but never scored with my left foot. I’m not sure who was more shocked — me or Porto.
“For the second, a corner came in and I just managed to nip in front of the centre-half to meet a flick-on. Everyone was delighted at half-time, though we knew there was still a long way to go as Porto would be getting a bollocking for letting us back into it.”
After 61 minutes, Futre sparked wild celebrations among the 25,000 crowd by firing in from 20 yards out. Porto were leading 4-2 on the night, 4-3 on aggregate.
Muldoon: “It was a blow to fall behind again. But I could see from my place on the bench how nervous they still were, as the guy who scored went racing off to the corner flag to celebrate, only for his captain to straight away pull him back to his feet, as if to say, ‘The job’s not done yet’.”
Edwards: “I was tightening up with cramp so needed to come off. But the gaffer was having none of it and told me to stay on. Eventually, though, I had to give in and John came on for me. The rest is history.”
After 89 minutes. Muldoon collected a pass wide on the right from Steel, who was clattered to the ground. As the referee waved play on, the substitute looked up to see Horne racing towards the penalty area.
Horne: “One of my biggest strengths was fitness, so off I went despite John being 30 yards further up the pitch. At some point, I caught John’s eye and pointed to where he should put the ball. His big strength was putting the ball exactly where he wanted it to go. Sure enough, he put it bang on the money.”
Muldoon: “The wind was a factor, as I crossed the ball into the wind expecting it to curl away from the keeper — which is exactly what happened. But how Barry got on the end of it, I still don’t know. It was like a kung-fu kick, real flying-through-the-air stuff.”
King: “The whole ground fell silent when Barry touched it over the keeper. Total silence. Never known anything like it.”
The final whistle blew. Wrexham had achieved the impossible, knocking out a member of Europe’s elite on away goals after the tie finishes 4-4 on aggregate.
King: “Bobby Roberts ran on the pitch at the end. He couldn’t believe it. None of us could. We’d just beaten one of the best teams in Europe.”
Edwards: “We tried to celebrate with our fans but the police were having none of it. Barry Horne’s dad was up on the fence at the front, as we ran around waving a Welsh flag. The police pulled him off the fence and wouldn’t let us anywhere near.”
Horne: “These were the days when the big fences were still up and my dad saw that as a challenge. Unfortunately, the police didn’t agree with him. Dad took a bit of a pasting.”
Edwards: “A big regret is the club wouldn’t let us swap shirts. They’d made that clear before the game, they just couldn’t afford to replace them. We weren’t even allowed to keep the Wrexham shirts we wore that night.”
Muldoon: “The dressing room was incredible. I’m not sure if the chairman (Pryce Griffiths) got thrown in the communal bath. Someone certainly did.”
King: “Porto were a bit naughty afterwards. They wouldn’t let us in the bar to celebrate, instead they shut it down. All we wanted was a pint.”
Edwards: “With nowhere to get a celebratory drink and the police not letting us out of the stadium due to trouble with the angry home fans, we cracked open the free bottles of vintage port that Porto had presented to us all beforehand. We all had a good drink in the dressing room before heading back to the airport, where some Benfica fans opened the bar for us as a ‘thank you’.”
Horne: “I was on the gin and tonics by the airport. The vintage port had been like treacle. To this day, I can’t drink the stuff. Some of the lads were in a real state by the end, luggage trollies and all sorts being used to get people on the plane.”
Edwards: “The funny thing is Manchester United’s squad landed back (in Manchester) at the same time (after returning from Hungary, where United had knocked Raba ETO Gyor out of the UEFA Cup). All these cameras were waiting, presumably for them.
“But it turned out the cameras were there for little old Wrexham and not Manchester United.”
Wrexham drew Roma in the next round, losing 3-0 on aggregate to Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side. The club continued to struggle in Division Four, losing 4-3 at Torquay United just three days later and eventually finishing 15th. Roberts was sacked as manager in the March.
As for Porto, Artur Jorge’s men bounced back to win the league title later that same season. The feat was repeated again in 1985-86 and was followed by the ultimate success, as Porto lifted the European Cup in 1987. Seven of the players who faced Wrexham over the two legs also appeared in the 2-1 final victory over Bayern Munich.
(Top photos: Richard Sutcliffe & Getty Images)
