Ryan Reynolds made a beeline for the Wrexham dressing room after John Egan denied the non-league side a famous FA Cup win.
Sheffield United defender Egan struck deep into stoppage-time as the Championship high-flyers kept their own cup hopes alive, forcing a replay at Bramall Lane. The Blades were playing the final 20 minutes with 10 men after Daniel Jebbison's red card, but Wrexham, top of the National League, were unable to hold on.
Reynolds, who joined fellow actor Rob McElhenney in completing a takeover of the club in 2021, was bullish about his team's hopes before the game. They will have to try again, though, despite a spirited comeback against opponents more than 70 places above them in the football pyramid.
Reynolds handed a Wrexham shirt to host Gary Lineker and the BBC punditry team before kick-off, after amusing the panel with his comments. "This is the beautiful game. And I’m going to go on record and say there’s a chance…albeit a slim chance that Sheffield United pulls off a miracle today!” he joked.
"I think he'd have learned a lot about football today," Lineker said after the draw. "Apparently he's going straight to the dressing room to congratulate the players on a fantastic performance," he later added.
"I think he's learning every game that he's getting involved in, you can see the emotional effort he has to go through. Like of all us to be fair. It was a fantastic cup tie," pundit Mark Hughes said.
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When Oli McBurnie put the visitors in front with barely a minute on the clock, it looked like it could be a long afternoon for Wrexham. That feeling only intensified when they lost Jordan Tunnicliffe and Aaron Hayden to injury, but Phil Parkinson's side made it to half-time just 1-0 behind.
After the break, the crowd roared their team on and were rewarded with a turnaround. Substitute James Jones started the comeback, with Tom O'Connor putting the hosts in front, and Paul Mullin restored their lead after an Ollie Norwood effort for the visitors.
It wasn't enough, though. Despite the away side being a man down, Egan popped up at the back post to turn in Tommy Doyle's corner with the seven minutes of stoppage time almost up, and the two sides will have to both try again.
"Very disappointed," goalscorer Mullin told BBC One when asked to sum up his feelings. "To concede from one of the last kicks of the game from a set-play is gutting. If we just hold on against 10 men then we are through.
"I thought we were the better team throughout the game, creating chances and looking dangerous on the break. We limited them to not many chances in open play.
"I'm so proud of everyone. We've worked so hard to get here. We came into the game thinking we could win and we had a gameplan. Unfortunately it hasn't quite paid off but I think when the dust settles tomorrow we'll be proud of it."
