Wrexham – the forgotten club of Wales ?

27 August 2009 One Comment

Dean Saunders has a tough task on his hands at Wrexham

Whilst Swansea and Cardiff city are living the Championship high-life in their new stadiums , Wrexham are playing at the historic and recently improved Racecourse ground in the Conference National having been relegated from the Football league in 2007-2008 after 87 consecutive seasons.

Wrexham have a proud history stretching back to 1872, but have most notably earned fame as cup giant killers. Although their league honours are patchy at best they have won the Welsh Cup 23 times, been runners up 22 times, and they reached the quarter-final of the European Cup winners Cup in 1975.

Their most notable giant-killing scalp was knocking the mighty Arsenal in the FA Cup third Round January 1992 whom they beat 2-1 with goals from Steve Watkin and Mickey Thomas.

Their modern history though has been largely a tale of woe, in 2004 the clubs then chairman Alex Hamilton gave the club a years notice to quite the Racecourse ground, in December that year the club went into administration and became the first club to be docked 10 points, effectively condemning them to relegation from League One. they had a brief bright spot winning the Football League Trophy against Southend but eventually were relegated.

In 2006 a decision in the Appeal court in London ruled that Hamilton had improperly acquired the freehold to the ground and local car dealer Neville Dickens took control of the club.

Manager Denis Smith was sacked in 2007 and replaced by Brian Carey. Under Carey, Wrexham rallied and sent down Boston to the conference on the last day of the season, saving themselves.

A poor start to the 2007/2008 campaign though saw Carey replaced, although he remains on the clubs coaching staff. In November 2007 Brian Litle was named manager.

However, Little couldn’t halt the decline, and he was forced to result to drastic measures, bringing in eleven new players and former Port Vale boss Martin Foyle as a coach, and although this had an immediate result when they went on a six match unbeaten run injury decimated Little’s side and their stay in the the Football League was confirmed when they lost 2-0 to Hereford.

Frank Sinclair in jovial mood during his Burnley days...

Little embarked on another purge and told 22 players that they could leave, leaving a core of eleven players, then he brought in team of experienced non-league players to try and recapture Wrexhams’ status. However, the season ended badly with Wrexham ending only four points above the Conference relegation places.

In September 2008 Little left the club following a 3-0 home defeat against Rushden and Diamonds, and the club appointed former Welsh International Dean Saunders in October 2008 after a spell under Carey and Foyle. Saunders became Wrexhams fourth manager in 22 months, combining the position with his role as assistant manager of Wales.

Saunders got off to an excellent start winning his first five league games, however the Red Dragons ended the 2008/2009 season wretchedly.

This season, Wrexham have got off to a patchy start, with wins against Eastbourne and York City at Home, but they have yet to win an away game and suffered a home defeat to Kettering Town.

shared by members of the Redpassion.co.uk forum

One Comment »

Protect The Racecourse said:

Nice write up, although most supporters are behind Dean Saunders. When we’re allowed to play the way he wants us to play, we are capable of some lovely stuff – but when the opposition do anything to upset Plan A we go to pieces… Saunders just needs to wise up a little tactically.

Anyhow, the Red Passion supporters website is currently lobbying for the Racecourse to be included in the local council’s Local Development Plan (LDP), which would safeguard the ground. This is so that the club will not fall victim to property developers – which it is prone to do because the value of the land the ground is on is far more valuable than the club. Our Kop end has already been shut to make way for commercial development of the land, and as yet there is no funding or guarantees in place that it will be replaced.

We are collecting signatures – the aim is to get to 10,500, which is the current capacity of the stadium.

It would be great if we could get a few more names! You can access the petition here: http://www.redpassion.co.uk/

Thanks!

# 29 August 2009 at 8:32 pm