Football Manager 24 is out and The Athletic’s Richard Sutcliffe is attempting to take Wrexham all the way to the Premier League.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5
Beware the Ides of March? Julius Caesar might have come a cropper during the year’s third month, but I’m feeling upbeat about Wrexham’s promotion prospects. Or at least I was until Kevin Mulholland, our head of medical, poked his head around my office door.
“Morning, Gaffer. You wanted an update on the walking wounded from Wednesday night at Charlton.”
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I wince at his use of “walking wounded”. Not only did we lose our goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo to a fractured wrist but then Duncan Watmore limped off near the end.
To then add insult to the injuries we’d suffered, Charlton scored twice in stoppage time — the second a penalty after Eoghan O’Connell needlessly handled Alfie May’s cross — to draw 3-3.
“Arthur is not as bad as we feared,” he says. “The fracture is only a slight one so he should be back in two to three weeks.”
I’ll take that. I’d been expecting Okonkwo to be out longer. So, why is Kevin’s expression not matching the relief I feel at not losing our first-choice ’keeper for the season? Especially when he then adds that Watmore’s hamstring tweak should also keep him out no longer than a fortnight.
“I’m afraid we’ll also be without a couple more, Gaffer. Ian Poveda suffered a gashed leg last night, while Matthew Pennington has an ankle problem and Ateef Konate is struggling with his groin. None of these three will be available for Orient on Saturday and probably not Port Vale the week after.”
Maybe old Julius was right. March really is the month when the world starts to conspire against you.
Losing five players has put a real dampener on things. What makes it worse is we’ve worked ourselves into a hugely promising position, even allowing for those two dropped points against Charlton. With six games of the 2024-25 season remaining, we are second in the League One table.
After the difficult start to the year that brought five defeats in nine league matches, including a truly shocking 4-1 loss at home against Millwall, we rallied well. Back-to-back wins over Fleetwood Town and Barnsley saw February end with Wrexham back in the top two.
A kind-looking fixture list then further raised spirits, with seven of our final nine opponents in the bottom half of the table. Even Leyton Orient and Huddersfield Town, the two play-off hopefuls among our remaining fixtures, are hardly ripping things up, sitting seventh and eighth respectively.
Of course, what looks good on paper doesn’t necessarily turn out well once you get out on the grass. But, credit to the lads, they started the run-in with back-to-back wins over last-placed Stevenage and fourth-bottom Wycombe Wanderers. That meant we’d taken a maximum 12 points from four fixtures.
Dropping those points at Charlton was a blow but nothing like as damaging as this injury list I’ve just had dropped on me. Not that I have time to dwell on things. With those five players in the treatment room, we need a new plan.
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In come Adam Montgomery and Billy Waters for rare starts as Will Boyle, Jordan Davies and backup keeper Matt Macey also make the XI. Sean McGurk, the midfielder on loan from Leeds United, is fit enough for the bench after three months out.
After naming my team 24 hours before kick-off, I decide now is the time to sit down with Paul Mullin to discuss his form. Our talisman — 23 goals last season, another 14 this time — last found the net in January’s FA Cup third-round win over Rotherham United. That’s almost 15 hours of playing time ago. His two missed two one-on-ones against Charlton were painful to watch. I pull him aside after training.
“Mulls, I appreciate you’re going through a rough patch in front of goal. But I want you to know you’ve got my 100 per cent backing. The goals will come.” He nods along, but I’m not sure he believes me. When a gilt-edged opportunity goes begging inside 60 seconds against Orient in our next match, I’m not sure I believe me, either.
Twenty minutes later, however, Todd Kane gets away down the right flank. Our chief assist provider — he’s managed 16 already, 10 more than anyone else — looks up and sees Mullin unmarked. The cross is perfect, as is the connection in the penalty area to put us 1-0 up. I jump on assistant Steve Parkin in the technical area, as Mullin is mobbed by his equally delighted team-mates.
Dan Agyei threatens to spoil the party by equalising 13 minutes from time only for Brooklyn Lyons-Foster to put us back in front. Moments later, the fourth official’s board goes up to indicate there will be five minutes of stoppage time. We’re almost there.
I take Mullin off and replace him with Ollie Palmer, just to eat up a bit of time. But Orient come straight at us from the restart and, suddenly, we’re panicking.
“Calm down! Stick to the plan and keep the ball moving.”
The words have only just left my mouth when Pennington passes straight to Jordan Brown, who cannot believe his luck — 2-2. I could scream on the sidelines.
Promotion is still very much in our hands, even allowing for the four points we’ve squandered in stoppage time over the past few days. Our closest rivals Reading and Oxford United being equally careless has seen to that.
But I still believe a team meeting is in order. Basically, I need to spell out what is required to ensure this opportunity to make history — no club has ever gone from non-League to the Championship in three seasons — is taken.
The message seems to hit home.
The hoped-for response comes a few days later, George Evans and McGurk scoring in a 2-0 win against Port Vale. Mullin, his recent struggles now forgotten, then gets a hat-trick on Okonkwo’s return from injury as Exeter City are thrashed 4-0.
With Reading and Oxford again dropping points, suddenly we’re one win from clinching promotion regardless of how either of those two clubs do in their final three matches. Standing between us and a first opportunity to book our ticket to the second tier are Huddersfield.
Poveda, Watmore and Konate are back for this Good Friday game, meaning I’m able to choose effectively our first choice XI.
A capacity crowd of 16,000 is squeezed into the Racecourse Ground. The air is thick with expectation. I share that belief. Where I’d been nervous a year earlier, when promotion had been clinched at home to Harrogate Town, now I’m ultra-confident.
With good cause, as it turns out.
McGurk puts us ahead inside eight minutes. Then a long throw from Jack Robinson finds fellow January signing Ismaila Coulibaly, and he puts us 2-0 up. Elliot Lee adds a third before half-time and the old ground becomes a sea of red and white, as flags are waved and scarves held aloft.
Huddersfield pull a goal back early in the second half but barely anyone notices. Konate makes it 4-1 before Watmore adds a fifth just before the final whistle blows. Up in the Mold Road Stand, our co-owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds embrace as thousands of fans pour onto the field.
It’s a special moment. This being football, though, the feeling isn’t allowed to last.
Barely have the Champagne bottles been cleared away than Mullin is making clear he wants a new contract. So, too, do Tom O’Connor, Kane, Lyons-Foster and Evans, despite all having more than a year left on their existing ones. I stall them all, though I’m under no illusion that this is the last I’ll hear about the subject.
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We suffer the ultimate ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’ comedown in our next fixture, a 1-0 defeat at Cambridge United. But we bounce back via a final day 4-1 thrashing of derby rivals Shrewsbury Town, Mullin again getting the ball rolling with a 16th-minute penalty as we clinch the League One title in style.
Reading join us in next season’s Championship, as, eventually, do Stockport County via the play-offs.
It’s been a champion effort, with Mullin leading the way on 19 goals, closely followed by Poveda (15), McGurk (11) and Lee (10). Retaining the services of loanees McGurk and Coulibaly will be a summer priority, especially the latter after the Mali international’s average rating of 7.22 meant he topped the list of signings made in the past 12 months.
Kane was again voted Wrexham’s Player of the Year after contributing 21 assists from right-back. He was joined by fellow full-back Lyons-Foster in the League One Team of the Year for 2024-25.
Above all, though, this title success was a real team effort.
More of the same will be needed next season if the Wrexham bandwagon is to continue rolling forward.
GO DEEPER
Wrexham lay past ghosts to rest in derby match that reached boiling point