- The two League One sides, owned by American megastars, did battle in Wales
- City were comfortable winners in the midlands in the previous clash last year
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! Why the Arsenal players will be laughing at Mikel Arteta behind his back
Football matches are evidently still very much a novelty for the Americans at Birmingham City. So much so that the club’s multi-millionaire owner Tom Wagner installed himself in the away end for the game they’d been calling the Hollywood Derby II.
Wagner, an asset manager, did a lot more jumping around than Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney ever did during their sole experience of being down with the fans – in the tight little away end at Maidenhead, where they took some stick from the locals and watched their side lose.
The closest McElhenney could get to Thursday night’s big match experience was a seat at the ‘immersive’ dome where this game was being screened. He’s only just returned to his home, having been forced to evacuate it during the LA fires.
Reynolds skipped the match too. He and McElhenney have only been here twice this season, but are now putting the pieces in place to take the club more self-sufficient. Chief executive Michael Williamson, appointed last summer, discussed in his programme notes a raft of new executive recruits and the club’s new investors – the New York based Allyn family.
The tough-fought match was testament to how far the north Wales club have come under the film-makers’ ownership, given that relegated Birmingham outspent everyone in this division last summer.
In the days when manufacturers of roof trusses and agricultural machinery were Wrexham’s prime sponsors, rather than United Airlines and Blake Lively’s health drink range, the notion of them going toe-to-toe with Birmingham in the league would have been far-fetched. When they beat the Blues in a Cup tie at St Andrews on the way to a giant-killing run to the FA Cup quarter finals in 1997, City promptly shelled out £1million on the North Wales team’s best player, Bryan Hughes. Hughes remains the only £1m player in Wrexham’s history.
Different days. Though City, top-of-the table and intent on an immediate return to the Championship, were by far the better side in September’s 3-1 win in the Midlands, Wrexham were ahead in the return before they could draw breath. Ollie Palmer harried Taylor Gardner-Hickman to shell possession and Ollie Rathbone, the local summer signing from Rotherham, seized the loose ball and unravelling a beautiful opener from 20 yard.
A sign, in that combination, of the way Wrexham have spent their big-ticket sponsorship cash in the past few years. Palmer was one of the first big buys, from Wimbledon. Rathbone was a £375,000 record signing from Rotherham last summer, yet barely appeared before October. No starting place here for Paul Mullin, a figure to the Wrexham documentary story, who is struggling for goals and form.
Birmingham were level within nine minutes, Wrexham dealing poorly with Marc Leonard’s deep corner, and allowing Lyndon Dykes to send in a header which grazed George Dobson’s back on the way in.
But the expensively assembled visiting team were without £1million Japanese Tomoki Iwata and South Korean Seung-ho Paik – the vital cogs in their midfield – and unable to find their usual superiority there. By the hour mark, Wrexham looked more likely to edge things. Full-back Ryan Barnett’s effort was palmed over by keeper Ryan Alsop, who then saved from James McClean.
There were more thrusts from both sides, with Wrexham the better. Mullin arrived from the bench and watched his deflected shot spool onto the roof of the net. A brilliant intervention from Ben Davies prevented Steven Fletcher, another Wrexham substitute, converting McClean’s cross at the death.
The spoils were shared and the people of North Wales were once again, pinching themselves, still scarcely able to believe how far their club have come.
