The mural on the gable end wall of a terraced house in Crispin Lane, two minutes from the football ground, was the most eye-catching sign of Wrexham’s new-found fame.
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ it proclaimed and the women walking their dogs in front of it on Friday evening bore testament to the way that the town has found itself again.
‘I just think it’s other people coming in and seeing the town for what it is,’ said Clare Johnson. ‘The outside perspective has been so good for us.’
The town had so much that is smart and innovative before Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds arrived.
The Wrexham Lager brewery, which has won some of Europe’s top prizes for its ales had seen its direct sales soar in lock-down as it teamed up with Bootlegger, the Wrexham supporter whose YouTube videos had made him an internet sensation.
A huge ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ mural can be seen on one of the house walls in the town
Wrexham owners Rob McElhenney (left) and Ryan Reynolds, pictured on Saturday, have transformed the town’s football club and popularity in a very short space of time
Wrexham Revival Trainers at the Ty Pawb market, where worn-out shoes are transformed. The beautiful Miners Rescue cafe on Maesgwyn Road – saved from the bulldozers a decade ago to become a place commemorating 266 miners – many of the Wrexham fans – who died in the 1934 Gresford put disaster.
None of these places has featured hugely in the story of Wrexham that McElhenney and Reynolds have told so far but people know a lot more about them, now.
The effect here is something that can hardly be defined by a 20-part documentary series, or its sequel, which will conclude with Saturday’s game.
It is not so much the fact that McElhennney and Reynolds have funded the club – with a lucrative TikTok sponsorship deal helping to fund the purchase of stars like Paul Mullin, Elliot Lee and Ben Tozer – but the way they have embraced and connected with the community.
They follow some of those at the heart of the place on Twitter. Their support for Go Fund Me campaigns have led to local people supporting local people far more.
For a time, the sight of the two of them materialising at The Turf pub next to the ground was surreal, though now less so. McElhenney, who arrived in Wrexham in time for Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Yeovil, tends to make longer trips.
Reynolds has been known for his flying visits, sometimes arriving at the local Hawarden private airport from New York in time for a 3pm kick-off and striding straight across the pitch for the 20-minute drive for the return flight, at the end.
Wrexham’s Paul Mullin (second left) has been one of the club’s star players since his arrival
Reynolds has embraced the Wrexham community which has thrived since his arrival
They knew that this was a world of the unknown for them but nothing quite prepared them for the way the town embraced them. Local singer, poet and songwriter Michael ‘Scoot’ Hett wrote what has become a terrace anthem, ‘Always Sunny in Wrexham’ with references to the town’s struggle with the Spice epidemic of a few years ago which brought the place notoriety.
Less than a mile from the centre of town/Famous old stadium tumbling down/No one gave so much as a penny, bring on the Deadpool. And Rob McElhenney.
McElhenney was reduced to tears when it was sung at The Turf on one recent visit and when he arrived on a visit, Reynolds held a phone out inside the stadium for McElhenney to hear it. Before all this, Hett and his band Declan Swans were singing at pubs and Wrexham FC fundraisers in the club’s Centenary Suite, trying to get a party started.
Now they have a strong US following, have put their work to vinyl and will support Kings of Leon, when they play The Racecourse this summer. ‘The first time the owners came over, Ryan shared one of our videos on TikTok,’ Hett said. “It had had just over 1000 views before he posted it, but it’s now been seen by over 18 million people. Unbelievable really.’
The US dimension is the really extraordinary part. McElhenney and Reynolds’ Welcome to Wrexham documentary has brought thousands of Americans to this place, with Cherie Franczak one of many imagining that they would arrive here and simply buy a ticket. It didn’t work out that way but she was just happy to be here, enjoying the promotion party, on Saturday. ‘I loved the community I saw on the show and I wanted to be a part of that,’ she said.
There was heartbreak as Grimsby Town denied them a route back into League Two last season
Behind the idyll, some hard-nosed football calculations were needed to win this promotion. Wrexham bought players from the place they want to reach in a hurry – League One – and became the biggest spenders in National League history.
The general plan was that the team would be quickly promoted to League Two, though they discovered how tough the National League – with its solitary automatic promotion place – actually is. Last season, Stockport County took top spot, having also spent heavily and started their own rebuild earlier.
After Wrexham’s 5-4 play-off semi final defeat by Grimsby Town last season, there was a general belief that this title would be sealed very early but no one reckoned for Notts County and arguably the most titanic promotion battles the non-league has ever known.
As the long hours to kick-off were filled on Saturday, some in Wrexham worried about the high profile build-up, which has seen the town and club on national breakfast television and CNN, among others, this week.
Supporters celebrate after the club sealed their Football League return on Saturday night
They remembered some of the worst of days in 15 years of non-league – losing at Wealdstone, Maidenhead, Fylde and Ebbsfleet – and wondered if all this was tempting fate.
At the Wrexham Lager brewery, they have been prepared the labelling for a new ‘Champions’ brew, which will now go on sale in supermarkets this week. ‘Don’t share that we’ve planned it,’ said the brewery’s sales manager Joss Roberts on Friday. ‘We don’t want to jinx it.’
But the result they wanted came to pass, with McEhenney and Reynolds on-hand to watch. Clare Johnson, the owner of the dogs, wasn’t there to see it.
Like so many fans, tickets have become impossible, but she lives a few streets down the ground and could open her windows to know that the story was unfolding. ‘We didn’t hear any of that for years,’ she said. ‘But now the place is alive again.’
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