Wrexham's A-list co-owner Ryan Reynolds delighted in his side's come-from-behind opening day win on Saturday. And that was just reward after the movie star's good deed to help out a local shop owner in the town at the weekend.
Rob Clarke, who runs the Mad4Movies entertainment store in Wrexham Butcher’s Market, was stunned when he received a boatload of free DVDs from the Deadpool star and his wife Blake Lively.
The shop owner posted on Facebook : "Just when you think things couldn't get more surreal in this town of ours... I'm still figuring out Twitter, but last week I got an inbox off none other than Ryan Reynolds! He told me that he and Blake were having a clear out of their office and came across multiple DVD/blu-ray copies of some of their films. He proceeded to tell me that they have signed every one of them and are sending them to me!
"Anyway, today they arrived – a box of over 100!! These are Region 1 / Zone A American releases. Since they arrived, and with Ryan's blessing, we have decided that we will use some to raise funds for ITP support, which is a condition our eldest son Charlie lives with. Once we figure out the finer details of how we will go about it, we will do a new post with the details. So if interested, keep you're eyes peeled."
The charitable donation came on the same weekend that Wrexham got off to a perfect start in the new National League season.
Phil Parkinson's side beat Eastleigh 2-1 at the Racecourse in front of almost 10,000 fans. Elliot Lee's brace on his debut secured a comeback win after Eastleigh's George Langston pounced on a goalkeeping error in the first half.
The first day win meant it was a perfect weekend for Mr Clarke whose store will appear later this month on the much-awaited documentary series 'Welcome to Wrexham '. The series will be first broadcast in the UK on the Disney+ streaming service and will be available to watch from Thursday, August 25. It will chart the experiences of Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the A-list pair who completed a deal to buy the Welsh club back in February 2021.
Reynolds and McElhenney have not been shy about their long-term aims, with the latter touching on what would be a remarkable rise to the Premier League, saying: "I don't understand why, if that you can theoretically get there - we clearly have the structure and the system potentially to allow for us to grow at scale - why not dream big?"
For now though, the immediate aim is promotion into the Football League and to that end the win over Eastleigh was just the start manager Phil Parkinson was after.
"It was important to get three points on the board on the first day," said the former Sunderland chief. "This is a reminder teams will disrupt the game here, it's all about being patient and not trying to force it."
