Wrexham have become the talk of the town over the past few months.
The oldest football club in Wales found themselves thrusted into the spotlight after being taken over by two of tinsel town's finest in 2021.
Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over a club enduring a then 11-year exile from the Football League. But since then, the Red Dragons have roared onto a potential return to the place where they once called home.
But before the big bucks arrived to awaken the Red Dragons from their slumber, just who were Wrexham AFC?
A trip to the Turf
The Turf Hotel has most recently found fame for appearing in the Welcome to Wrexham documentary as the main stop-off point for fans on their weekly pilgrimage to the Racecourse ground on matchdays, with the pub having hosted countless faces decked in red for more than 150 years.
However, the famous pub has played a far more important role in the club’s history than just as a place for supporters to meet up before and after games.
In 1864, members of the Wrexham cricket club held a meeting in the pub in order to find a sporting activity for the winter months. The sport chosen?
Football.
And so, Wrexham AFC were born.
Welsh Cup success
In 1877 the newly-formed Football Association of Wales created the FAW Welsh Cup, which operated on the same lines as the English FA Cup but for clubs playing in Wales.
The first final was held at Acton Park in Wrexham, with the home side playing Druids FC, who still exist to this day as Cefn Druids.
Wrexham would go on to win the game 1-0, giving them what would be their first of many wins in the prestigious tournament.
The Red Dragons would later go on to win the cup a record 23 times, with their last coming in 1995, before they, alongside the other six ‘exile’ clubs, were barred from entering the competition as a result of playing in the English league system.
A night in Brussels
As a result of their success in the Welsh Cup, the Red Dragons have enjoyed their fair share of European trips despite mainly languishing in the lower reaches of the Football League for most of their history.
Starting in the 1972/73 season, the North Wales side competed in eight editions of the UEFA Cup Winners Cup (now known as the UEFA Europa League) and faced sides ranging from Spanish outfit Real Zaragoza to Croatian team Hajduk Split and even Italian giants AS Roma.
However, the Red Dragons’ most memorable force into the continent came during the 1975/76 season where they reached the quarter-finals of the tournament, before being knocked out by eventual winners R.S.C Anderlecht.
Giant killers
Besides their remarkable record in the Welsh Cup, Wrexham have also garnered a reputation in the English FA Cup as giant killers, with the Red Dragons performing several cup upsets over the years.
Clubs like Sunderland, Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Town, West Ham, Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace have all suffered at the hands of Wrexham.
But the most memorable of them all came in 1992 when Arsenal visited the Racecourse.
Going into the game the hosts found themselves near the bottom of Division Four (now known as League Two) while the visitors sat 7th in the first division.
However, the gulf in league position between the two sides - and an early opener for the Gunners - did little to dampen the spirits of the hosts, who, thanks to two late goals from Mickey Thomas and Steve Watkin, won the game 2-1. It led to Arsenal boss George Graham to describe the game as his “lowest moment in football".
Relegation and near extinction
Since joining in 1921, the Red Dragons enjoyed an 87-year spell in the Football League during which time they spent bouncing between the fourth and second tier.
But after finishing bottom of League Two during the 2007/08 season, the club were forced to play non-league football for the first time since the end of the First World War.
However, a fate worse than relegation was soon to rear its ugly head. In 2011 the north Wales club was faced with a winding-up order due to an unpaid tax bill of just under £200,000.
It wouldn’t be the first time the club would be facing a threat to its existence from off the pitch. In 2004 the club were placed into administration and even threatened with losing their tenancy at the Racecourse.
Fortunately, just as they did in 2004, the club would survive, thanks to the efforts of their supporters who raised the amount needed to pay off the unpaid tax bill, before the club was eventually taken over by the Wrexham Supporters' Trust.
Hollywood comes to town
Before both Reynolds and McElhenney came to town, Wrexham did come close to returning to the Football League in 2013, when they were beaten 2-0 at Wembley in the play-off final by fellow Welsh side Newport County.
The club would then spend the remaining years struggling along in the National League before the arrival of the North American duo in 2021, when their application to buy the club was approved by the Supporters' Trust.
Since then, the Red Dragons have found themselves the subject of global attention and now stand of the verge of a first return back to the promised lands of the Football League in 15 years.
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