Wrexham is the Game 11: Kit hits the fans
Formations, recriminations, a made up fella called Terry and why Rochdale is sh*t
ANDY: Something happened this weekend that shocked the world.
It was as bold as brass on a Saturday afternoon. In broad daylight in front of a huge crowd with many tuning in from around the world. The shouts were audible. The panic was palpable. Shots rained in.
Yes, Phil Parkinson changed his formation and things will never be the same again.
There's more about this cosmic event in this week's Wrexham is the Game.
Tim critiques the kit and the fan of the week is great and comes with its very own historic photo. There’s also TWO new signings!
Let's be honest. Many of you are reading the intro for free. So, we’re making this one FREE. It shows what you’re missing before the annual subscription goes up at the end of the July. At the moment it’s £15 a year (or 28p an edition). Don’t be a skinflint.
Do you want to miss Andrew Pollard’s irrational fear of sharks? No, no you don’t.
Just a quick note that next week's WitG will be a few days late. This is because both Tim and I are on the tour so best we soak it all up and do a 'Letter from North America'. Well, it's Canada, but that doesn't fit into The Proclaimers’ song.
Style council: New Wrexham’s kit scaled down
TIM: Deary me. I had hoped the wait would be worth it, especially seeing Macron drop absolute kit fire for so many other clubs - Crystal Palace, Blackburn. Hell, they even made a nice Stoke City shirt.
Surely Wrexham, propelled into the public eye like none of us could have ever imagined, would have a new home kit to leave us drooling.
Instead, it left me, a self-confessed kit nerd, frothing. The club opted for Welsh stereotyping and have attempted to lean heavily on our Red Dragons nickname of the past 23 years when it came to the design.
“Shall we just make it look like dragon skin?” is the sort of thing you'd expect a young Macron marketing executive to chime in with. Or Rob. Or Ryan.
“Also, let's film a bunch of random models up a mountain and get a voiceover pro with a very English drawl to narrate.
“We will even get a jacked one who looks like an AI Jordan Tunnicliffe.”
You can watch the video here
The glossy promo video, whilst trying to be grand – mountainous terrain and epic music, just came across a bit too sugar-coated for my liking.
The nondescript, moody-faced models cheapened it for me. One thing that isn't cheap though is the shirt itself.
It’s £60 (adult) for a dragon-scaled and embossed Dragon red kit, with white cuffs on the sleeves and a collar design that looks like it was drawn by a five-year-old who watches too much Welsh rugby.
SIXTY QUID TO LOOK LIKE THE MOTHER IN LAW. Or JUST £50 for youngsters and £40 for kiddies.
The Gresford Colliery Disaster tribute on the back is poignant, of course, but maybe put it front and centre or weave the wheel into the sleeve design in place of something that looks like a horny pair of fishnet tights.
The shirt is described as having “an elegant polo collar with a vintage feel, coloured in white, as are the sleeve cuffs.”
In the press release it says the collar offers a 'throwback to older Wrexham shirts'.
If the club are referring to the 1977/78 Adidas shirt with the sail collars, then I'm afraid they didn't throw it back far enough.
Macron have somehow managed to go back to the sort of kits we had pre-takeover, devoid of any bold creativity.
The first two Tik-Tok shirts were absolutely wonderful – clean, minimal, with classic V and round neck collars. Last season's, not so much.
Yes, people will argue there is only so much you can do with a red and white colourway. However, Google 'Wrexham concept kits' and you'll soon see that train of thought holds no weight.
There are an abundance of superb start-up graphic designers out there putting their own unique spin on the humble and sacred football kit.
The club could have invited some of these to pitch their ideas.
They could have at least asked Welsh orator, actor and Dragons’ fan Rhys Ifans to narrate over a launch video. They could have used local faces from the documentary to model the shirt.
They could have come up with a better slogan than the oh-so-predictable “the sleeping dragon has awoken.”
If it has, and saw its tribute to him, then it would have nodded straight back off.
Now, whilst I've no desire to resemble a mythical creature's ball bag, I AM hoping the gold third kit will make me look like Kylie Minogue's famous hotpants.
Not a Lukewarm reaction to Rochdale
TIM: Luke McNicholas must have a thing for proper grim Northern towns - he got "instantly excited" when he found out Rochdale wanted to take him on loan for the season. Can't say I've ever been turned on by anything to have come out of Rochdale, and I include Lisa Stansfield and Anna Friel in that.
Burning issue: Formation-ing an opinion
ANDY: "That Phil Parkinson's a dinosaur isn't he? Only likes a long-ball 3-5-2. Won't ever change. As bad as Southgate. In fact, have you ever seen them in the same room together?"
Yeah that may sound like your average pub bore Terry, a staunch Man United off the telly fan, who found out Wrexham existed in 2022 despite living his whole life in the town. He definitely voted for Sarah Atherton too.
But you'd be surprised how many others still hold the same opinion of the gaffer. Something that comes out more after a defeat and is the big stick to beat Parky with, despite two promotions on the bounce.
They say he never changes, but really his 3-5-2 has developed over the past few seasons.
At the start of his reign he didn't have a big man to hold up play and the system floundered. Once he brought in Ollie Palmer it got effective.
But even after that it evolved. Last season he had ball-playing centre backs in O'Connell, Cleworth and O'Connor who developed play from the back and stepped out of defence.
The 3-5-2 became less rigid and the Dragons ended the season well to win promotion with games to spare.
So the fact that he's trying new formations in pre-season shouldn't surprise our Terry.
Parky used a back four (this is not a misprint) against Hanley. A 4-4-2 diamond formation in the first half and a 4-3-3 in the second.
It could just be that he was lacking enough fit centre-halves with O'Connor and Brunt nursing knocks, but he has used the latter before, especially when Wrexham are behind in games.
So, will he move away from 3-5-2 next season? In a word, no. It's his go-to formation and the one he feels comfortable setting up his team.
And as I said earlier, he's now got the personnel to really evolve it too, so I can't see him deviating from it too much.
However, I do think having a different formation that he sometimes starts specific games is a useful tool. It puts the seed of doubt in opposition minds that we're not going to always play the same formation and it’s just another trick in the book to try and get us out of League One.
There's a lot of talk about Parky's 'ceiling' – and perhaps in League One his tactics will be found out by more forward-thinking managers.
But let's look at this another way. Parky is a realist. He plays the percentages and gets his team to do whatever is needed to get out of that particular league.
In Non-League he needed experienced “mentality monsters” who could bully oppositions. In League Two he needed more skilful players who could control games by keeping the ball.
In League One - which is not an unknown division for him - he will know how we survive and thrive.
If that is more formation changes, that old dinosaur Jurassic Parkinson will do it. Because he really does know what we need. And Terry probably doesn’t.
The pain from Spain falls gently in McClean
James McSpain, I mean McClean boiled the dehydrated p*ss of England fans everywhere by pinning his Euro 2024 final colours to the mast via his Instagram account. Hala Sh*thouser (or is that sh*tcasa)!
Blue murder on the Orient Express
TIM: If there was ever confirmation needed that Wrexham remain one of the main draws as they ascend up the leagues, then look no further than Leyton Orient's matchday pricing structure.
Following Bolton's lead, the London club have decided our game at Brisbane Road on September 28 will be a Category AA game, corporate speak for "let's fleece everyone".
They've afforded the same courtesy to Birmingham and Charlton fans too - £32 will gain you access to one of 1,459 away seats in the East Stand. If you are old, it'll cost you two quid less. Under 18? That's 15 rips to you pal.
O's CEO Mark Devlin said the pricing had been 'carefully considered' but went on to use words 'balance' where there is none, 'affordable' when it isn't, and 'tried' to minimise costs when it's clear they haven't tried too hard.
"The increases are needed to partially counter to the higher operational costs that we will face next season, including higher matchday staffing costs and utilities."
For Wrexham fans, factor in at least £30 for bus, even more for train, your food and drink costs, then it suddenly becomes a triple figure away-day.
Problem is, even if regular match-going fans decided to boycott, there are now plenty of others ready to step in for a rare glimpse of seeing Wrexham play in the flesh. It might also cost you loyalty points too, should a system materialise.
ANDY: For me it’s simple. By all means reward (fleece) your fans for the big matches by charging more. That’s your prerogative as a club. But don’t do it to the away fans of a small working class city as we will be hit by it every single time.
So Leyton Orient are charging £37 for us and it’s usually £25. If you take that £12 difference and add it on to the other 23 aways days we’ll have that’s an extra £276 per season just because you’re a Wrexham fan. “Wrexham Tax” as it were.
You’re hitting your own fans once or twice for a category AA game and they may be okay with that, but if everyone does it, we’re the team and fans that suffer.
In the Premier League there is a limit on the price of away tickets just for this reason. I think we need the same in the EFL.
Quotes of the week: “I doubt I will ever do a North American trip as I’m scared of sharks” - FiD podcaster Andrew Pollard on why he won’t go to the US. This is despite a) he’s in a plane b) if the plane crashed he’d die before the sharks got to him c) they usually fly over Greenland so there’s no sharks anyway, except Greenland sharks and they’re hundreds of years old so just twat them d) how is a shark going to get him in landlocked places like Chapel Hill? e) how unlucky are you to be a victim of a plane crash AND a shark attack?
Wrexham fan of the week
Name: Lewis Bull
Worst Moment: Getting relegated at Hereford was my worst moment. Brian Little playing the kids when we still had a mathematical chance of staying up was criminal, and he can never be forgiven for that. I really felt for the youngsters having to come over to the away end to applaud—they did get a great reception from us fans, but it really wasn’t fair that they ended up in the history books as the 11 that took us down . What were you thinking, Brian?
Best Goal: Boxing day 2005, Darren Ferguson volley 30 yards in front of the Kop. Think the goal Wayne Rooney scored against Newcastle when arguing with the referee and then imagine a Wrexham player doing that in front of a fully-functional Kop stand!
Most Surreal (with a pic to prove it): Losing 1-0 to the mighty Wealdstone with minutes to go, Rhys Hall-Johnson scored a last-minute winner. As soon as the ball hit the back of the net, my emotions got the better of me. I jumped straight across the advertising hoardings and rugby-stepped a steward who tried to catch me. The next thing I knew, I was in the middle of all the Wrexham players, hugging Dan Jarvis and shaking Luke Young’s hand while he politely asked me to leave the pitch, not wanting me to get into trouble. Luke Young then acted as my defense barrister, convincing a steward to let me be.
Two minutes later, back on the correct side of the hoardings, disaster struck—the dreaded tap on the shoulder. A massive wave of anxiety ripped through my body as I thought, “Oh no,” and prayed it wasn't the old bill, or even worse, Fleur Robinson. It wasn't. It was a steward.
“Do you have AirPods?” he asked.
Strange way of him introducing himself, I thought, but "Yes, why?"
"You left these on the pitch," he said, handing me back my AirPods that had dropped out of my pocket.
"Oh, cheers buddy, appreciate it."
I got my opportunity to thank Luke Young for defending me a year later when I met him at Solihull. His face showed that he had no idea what I was talking about or who I was.
Greatest Moment: Shrewsbury away, our last trip to the Gay Meadow. We needed a win for any chance of avoiding relegation, a win for the Slops and they’d of almost certainly gone on to get promotion.
Cagey event, 0-0 with 10 to go. A ball comes across the 16-yard box, Chris Llewelyn swings a right boot at it (everyone knows he’s as left footed as Trundle and Arjen Robben) and he takes an airshot and lands on his back side. Three of the four stands of Gay Meadow erupt into a “wheyyyyyyyyyyy” followed by a passionate cry of “that’s why you’re going down” directed at the away end. Looking at the faces in the away end, unfortunately it felt like the Shrewsbury fans were right.
Two minutes later, Leeswood boy Simon Spender is clean through on goal, one-nil surely? He cuts it back to Michael Proctor (what are you doing Simon? Just shoot Simon!) Proctor then absolutely tw*ts the balls into the back of the net, the away end was carnage. We were still celebrating the goal when the referee finally blew for full time in what felt like 600 minutes later.
We stayed up that year and to the Shrewsbury fans “that’s why you’re staying down”
Best 11: It’s 3-5-2 as Carlos is first name on the timesheet and we’re building a side around him. I struggled to chose a keeper between Maxwell, Lainton and a young Ben Foster so I’ve gone for Foster for giving us the Notts County moment (despite being an old Ben Foster at that point). Back 3, Carey, Lawrence and Tom O’Connor. Carlos right wing back. Andy Holt left wing back – he once played with a lump the size of an egg on his head, hard as nails. Midfield three of Mark Jones (Jonah), Keates and Fergie. Morrell and Trundle up front.
(Ed’s note: What, no Mark Howard in the best XI Lewis???)
Best Chant: Kidderminster away, their poor goalkeeper was called “Alcock”
“All cock, no balls, All cock, no balls!”
Dinner Guests: Brian Flynn – his stories are excellent, and he can talk Wales too. Melvin Pejic in case any of us fall off our chairs laughing whilst listening to whatever comes out of Glen Little’s mouth. Darren Ferguson must have some great stories, although he may be too busy being appointed Peterborough’s manager for the 17th time!
Question of the week
New Kop Fan Zone. It does seem that actually building a new permanent Kop seems a very long way away doesn’t it?
https://images.app.goo.gl/tGjNt4m9aUCJSRDYA