April 24 – Wrexham secured a fairy tale return to the English Football League after a 15-year absence with their Hollywood owners watching on as they beat Boreham Wood 3-1 to win the National League with a game to spare on Saturday.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (pictured) cried tears of joy as they watched the Welsh side, who they bought in 2020, secure their passage to the fourth tier of the English football pyramid.
Wrexham have become globally recognised since Reynolds and McElhenney took control from a supporters trust and invested hugely. A fly-on-the-wall documentary series ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ has captured the highs and lows of the team and their celebrity owners.
Boreham Wood threatened to spoil the party in front of 10,000 expectant home fans when they opened the scoring inside the first minute. Wrexham soon levelled, however, and went on to win comfortably to open up an unassailable four-point lead over Notts County with only one game remaining.
It is Wrexham’s first league title at any level since the old Division Three – then the third tier in the English game – in 1977 and they have done it in style, collecting a record 110 points so far and winning 34 of 45 games.
Wrexham boast a proud history as the third oldest professional football club in the world. But they had fallen on hard times as financial problems saw an 87-year stay in the Football League come to an end in 2008.
Now they are back in circumstances any Hollywood script writer would struggle to match and thousands of supporters spilled on to the pitch in celebration at full-time.
“One thing that is running through my head over and over again,” Reynolds said afterwards as he took in all the euphoria, “is that people said at the beginning, ‘Why Wrexham, why Wrexham?′ This is exactly why Wrexham.”
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