LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS
Pure Hollywood as non-league’s A-listers square off for a return to the big stage
THE stage is set at Wrexham... and in front of another full house as well.
For today, the Racecourse Ground hosts two clubs hellbent on recapturing the lost glory years of their Football League past.
Victory for Stockport, for whom George Best made a few fleeting appearances and can count on local lad Manchester City star Phil Foden as a committed fan, will end their 11-year exile from the EFL.
A win for Hollywoodbacked Wrexham – 14 years in the non-league – will ensure the battle for the one automatic National League promotion place will be extended into the final week of the regular season.
Whoever misses out will assume the favourites tag in the play-offs for the one remaining slot to replace relegated Oldham and Scunthorpe in League Two next season.
Ambition for the pair does not come cheaply with the respective managers – Wrexham’s Phil Parkinson and Stockport’s Dave Challinor – believed to be on wages comparable to some bosses in League One and even the Championship.
Wrexham’s leading scorer Paul Mullin turned down a couple of Championship clubs to join, while Tinseltown pair Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney wrote out a cheque for £300,000 to bring AFC Wimbledon striker Ollie Palmer to the club with a salary to match that ambition.
Stockport owner Mark Stott has also been prepared to splash the cash, which included luring Challinor from League Two Hartlepool after the controversial decision to sack ‘Mr Stockport’, Jim Gannon.
The statement from both boardrooms has been replicated in the amazing response in the stands with Wrexham’s average crowds more than 8,000, while Stockport attracted in excess of 10,000 to Edgeley Park against Chesterfield and have averaged around 9,000 in their last two home games.
Wrexham’s season average dwarfs many in League One and Two.
They also beat Stockport to gain a place in the FA Trophy final against Bromley at Wembley on May 22. But the club’s legendary former winger Mickey Thomas admitted: “Promotion has to be the priority. “Wembley is a nice bonus for the fans but everyone wants to get back into the Football League because there have been some dark days. Now you can feel the excitement every time you step into the town.” For Challinor, – he of the recordbreaking long throw as a Tranmere Rovers player – promotion would be vindication of his decision to leave Hartlepool so soon after guiding them back into the EFL.
He said: “We’ve given ourselves a chance of winning the league.
“We are good enough to achieve that. Now it’s a case of the players having to back themselves to do it.
“It will also show that it wasn’t such a daft decision to leave Hartlepool for a club still in the National League after all.”
For Parkinson, a win will take the automatic promotion push to the wire.
“There might yet be another twist along the way,” he said.
“The odds might be against us, but we will keep going.
“If not it’s the play-offs and many fans would have settled for that at the beginning of the season.”