As Wrexham continue to lick their wounds following Sunday’s shock FA Cup first-round exit, it is perhaps worth taking a stroll back to this time last season.
Portsmouth, then the unbeaten leaders of League One, the English game’s third tier, had just gone out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 loss to non-League Chesterfield. “Probably the worst (performance) I have seen since I have been here,” said manager John Mousinho, just as Wrexham counterpart Phil Parkinson did at the weekend after his League One side’s 1-0 defeat to Harrogate Town, of League Two, bemoaning his lads conceding the tie’s only goal from a set piece.
Paul Warne was similarly frustrated after his League One charges, Derby County, were humbled at home by fourth-tier Crewe Alexandra. “We weren’t good enough,” he said, following that 3-1 first-round replay loss last November.
Six months on from those chastening cup exits, however, both Mousinho and Warne were toasting automatic promotion to the Championship. Neither is likely to have dwelt too long on those cup disappointments during the celebrations, just as Plymouth Argyle’s 5-1 first-round thrashing by fourth-division hosts Grimsby Town in 2022-23 will not have dampened the League One title party at their Home Park stadium come the end of that season.
Parkinson’s challenge is to ensure Wrexham navigate the fallout from Sunday in Harrogate in a similar manner, starting with Saturday’s televised lunchtime game between his third-placed side and visitors Mansfield Town, who are fourth. With Stockport County away next up after that and the three teams, last season’s promoted trio from League Two, separated by just four points in the top 10, it won’t be easy.
Where their FA Cup exit could, ironically, help that push for the second division of the English game (a level Wrexham haven’t played at since 1982) is with a slight easing in the schedule at the busiest time of the season.
Wrexham are scheduled to play six league fixtures in both December and January, with potential EFL Trophy round of 32 and round of 16 ties midway through each month, should they progress that far. But thanks to FA Cup second-round weekend now being blank for them, Parkinson’s players will get a break between the home games against Lincoln City (Tuesday, November 26) and Barnsley (Tuesday, December 3).
Further, the weekend set aside for round three may be another blank affair as their scheduled league opponents on that date, Reading, have been drawn at home to seventh-tier non-League minnows Harborough Town. If that second-round tie follows the form book, Wrexham’s January 11 trip to Berkshire will have to be postponed.
Considering an already hectic January schedule that includes a return meeting with current League One leaders Birmingham City, this might not be a bad thing. The only shame is how it would deny Wrexham’s supporters a likely big away day at what was a Premier League stadium as recently as 2013 with a rearranged fixture against Reading on a midweek date later in the season likely to see travelling numbers reduced.
Of course, any potential benefits in the league to going out of the FA Cup will only be known come the final round of third-tier fixtures on May 3. For now, the pain of losing to a Harrogate side sitting 38 places below them in the pyramid remains.
Part of that is a sense Parkinson’s side missed a big opportunity. Had they eased past Simon Weaver’s lads as expected, non-League Gainsborough Trinity would have been next up at home in round two. The Northern Premier League club have reached round two for the first time in 72 years and will be rank outsiders, even against Harrogate. A win over the seventh-tier side would have opened up the tantalising prospect of a competitive meeting with a Premier League team for the first time in a decade.
Imagine Wrexham being drawn at home against Arsenal or West Ham United, two clubs who know all about the perils of visiting The Racecourse Ground in cup football. Or even Tottenham Hotspur and their captain Son Heung-min, a self-confessed fan of the Welcome To Wrexham documentary series.
It was Son, let’s not forget, who unwittingly helped spark the post-match tunnel clash with Sheffield United, then of the Championship, at Bramall Lane in February last year after Billy Sharp accused the then fifth-tier side of showing disrespect.
The United players had taken exception to a photo of Wrexham’s players mimicking Son’s famous ‘camera’ celebration appearing on social media after Spurs had already been drawn to visit the winners of that fourth-round replay in South Yorkshire in the last 16 after the original tie in north Wales had finished 3-3.
Unknown to Sharp, the picture had actually been taken months earlier after Spurs’ Ben Davies had let Elliot Lee know about the South Korean’s interest via Davies’ fellow Welshman Tom Lockyer, a former team-mate of the Wrexham midfielder at Luton Town.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s takeover had already caught the imagination of sports fans before that cup saga against Sheffield United. But there’s little doubt those two matches — particularly the first clash at The Racecourse, when Reynolds was interviewed live on BBC flagship show Match of the Day by host Gary Lineker — really propelled the club into the spotlight.
That run to round four, which included a thrilling 4-3 win over Coventry City from three divisions above, also seriously boosted revenue, with the two televised matches against Sheffield United bringing in a combined £165,000 in live broadcast fees. Then there was the prize money that amounted to just shy of £215,000, plus a share of the gate money from seven ties, including a sell-out at The Racecourse and attendances of 18,218 and 20,310 in Coventry and Sheffield respectively.
It was all timely income during a season when Wrexham lost £5.1million in their ultimately successful pursuit of an EFL return. A repeat boost for the coffers this time around would, no doubt, have been just as welcome.
It isn’t just the money, however, that makes the FA Cup so special to a club who boast a proud history in the competition, with Wrexham having delivered a host of high-profile giantkillings down the years and made three quarter-final appearances. There’s also the competition’s ability to engender belief.
Big moments have also represented important milestones on the road to success under Hollywood ownership. These include that first live appearance on primetime terrestrial TV at home to Sheffield United, and even last season’s third-round victory over cross-border rivals Shrewsbury Town — a sweet moment for fans after being lorded over by their English counterparts for years.
It would have been great to add to those memories by ticking off another major milestone with a first competitive fixture against Premier League opposition since January 2015. They lost to Stoke City in the FA Cup’s third round on that day.
Losing to Harrogate means that particular target will have to wait until at least next season. Whether that shock defeat to the League Two side will be a price worth paying, we’ll only know come the campaign’s end in six months’ time.
Wrexham will now look to follow the example of Portsmouth and Derby by brushing off an unexpected first-round exit to go on and clinch a place in the Championship.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
