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Wrexham Association Football Club (nicknamed The Red Dragons, or more traditionally, The Robins) is a football team based in Wrexham in north-east Wales. It competes as part of the English football league system, in Football League Two in the 2005/2006 season, after being relegated from Football League One in 2004/2005.
The club plays at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham. Its manager is Denis Smith.
They have been regular winners of the Welsh Cup and in the 1990-91 Cup Winners Cup campaign were knocked out by Manchester United who went on to win the trophy. A year later they knocked Arsenal out of the F.A Cup.
Brian Flynn managed Wrexham from 1989 to 2001.
History
1872 - 1905
The club was formed by members of the Wrexham Cricket Club, who wanted a sporting activity for the winter months, on 28 September 1872 during a meeting held at the Turf Hotel in Wrexham (this is despite the club's modern badge stating they were formed in 1873).As the rules of football were still somewhat fluid at the time, early matches featured teams with up to 17 players on each side (16 players when playing the Provincial Insurance Office and Chester College, 15 players against the Volunteer Fire Brigade). In these early years Wrexham were leaders of the campaign to restrict teams to 11 players. The club's first match against an outside team was a 12-a-side game against past and present members of Grove Park School played at Wrexham Cricket Ground, which Wrexham won 2-0 on 19 October 1872.
In 1876 the newly formed Football Association of Wales saw Wales play their first International match, against Scotland, featuring Edwin Cross and Alfred Davis as the first of many Wrexham A.F.C. players to play for Wales.
In the 1877-78 season the FAW inaugurated the Welsh Cup competition, to run on similar lines to the English FA Cup. Wrexham got to the final of the inaugural competition, where they defeated Druids F.C. 1-0, but thanks to lack of money at the fledgling FAW they did not receive their trophy until the next year. For their first decade, Wrexham mostly played friendly matches against both Welsh and English opposition, with the Welsh Cup providing most of their competitive football, Wrexham winning it again in 1883.
1883 also saw Wrexham's first appearance in the FA Cup, when after receiving a bye to the second round of the competition they were defeated 3-4 at home by Oswestry. Crowd trouble at the game led to the club being disbanded, although a new club, Wrexham Olympic, was formed a month later and which reverted to the original name after three years.
Thanks to a dispute with their landlords, who had raised the rent of the Racecourse Ground to £10 a year, Wrexham played their home games in the 1881-82 and 1882-83 seasons at Rhosddu Recreation Ground (changing the club's name to Wrexham Athletic for one season), before moving back to the Racecourse Ground for the 1883-84 season, where they have remained ever since.
In 1890 Wrexham joined the Football Combination. Their first game was played against Gorton Villa on 6 September 1890, with Arthur Lea scoring Wrexham's only goal in a 5-1 defeat. Lea played for the club despite only having one arm as did playing colleague James Roberts. Wrexham finished the season second from bottom in eighth place.
Wrexham played in the Combination for four years before a rapid increase in costs resulted in the club joining the Welsh League in the 1894-95 season. Wrexham won the Welsh League both years that they were in it, but they then decided to return to the Combination, as the reduced support they received meant that the savings they made on their travelling expenses were outweighed by the reduction in gate revenue.
1905 - 1960
The club then remained in the Combination until 1905, winning the title four times. After several unsuccessful attempts Wrexham were elected to the Birmingham and District League in time for the 1905-06 season. Wrexham's first ever match in this league was against Kidderminster Harriers at the Racecourse. Two thousand spectators saw Wrexham win 2-1. Wrexham finished sixth in their first season.During their time in the Birmingham and District League, Wrexham won the Welsh Cup six times, in 1908-09, 1909-10, 1910-11, 1913-14, 1914-15, and 1920-21. They also reached the First Round proper of the FA Cup for a second time in the 1908-09 season before losing a replay 1-2 to Exeter City after extra time.
In 1921 Wrexham were elected to the newly formed Third Division North of the Football League. Their first League game was against Hartlepool United at the Racecourse in front of 8,000 spectators. Playing in blue shirts Wrexham were defeated 0-2. The following week Wrexham gained revenge when they travelled to Hartlepool and earned a 1-0 victory.
During that season Ted Regan scored the club's first ever hat-trick, while Brian Simpson became the first Wrexham player to be sent off in a League game when he was ordered from the field of play against Southport in January 1922. Charlie Hewitt was the clubs' first ever manager.
In the 1926-27 season the club got past the first round of the FA Cup only to be knocked out by Rhyl. The following season Wrexham fought their way to the Fourth Round before they lost 0-1 to Birmingham City. A record 32 League goals from Albert Mays helped Wrexham to third position in the division in the 1928-29 season. Later in that season Tommy Bamford made his debut for the club. He went on to score 201 League and Cup goals for the club. During the 1929-30 season the club recorded their best ever League win when they defeated Rochdale 8-0.
Wrexham enjoyed their best ever Third Division North season in 1932-33, when they finished runners-up to Hull City and won 18 of their 21 home games. The club first appeared in their now-familiar red and white strip for the short-lived 1939-40 season.
During the Second World War years, Wrexham played in the Regional League West against teams from Merseyside and Manchester, among others. Wrexham's position as a barracks town meant that the team could secure the services of many famous guest players such as Stanley Matthews and Stan Cullis.
In the first post war season Wrexham equalled their best ever position when they again finished third in the Third Division North. In the summer of 1949 the club made its first ever tour abroad when it played three games against the British army in Germany.
The club reached the Fourth Round of the FA Cup in 1956-57 where they played Manchester United's Busby Babes in front of a crowd of 34,445 people. The 5-0 defeat did not spoil the occasion. Later that season Wrexham won the Welsh Cup for the first time in 26 years.
1960 - 1993
In 1960 the club were relegated for the first time, to the newly created Fourth Division but performances improved following the appointment of Ken Barnes as player-manager. He led Wrexham to promotion in his first season and oversaw a 10-1 trouncing of Hartlepool United, the club's record League victory. Unfortunately Wrexham were relegated to the Fourth Division again two years later and in 1966 they finished rock-bottom at 92nd in the Football League.John Neal's arrival as manager saw a considerable improvement in the club's fortunes. In 1969-70 he led them to promotion and two years later he led them into European football for the first time following another Welsh Cup victory. The Robins' first European match was against FC Zurich and resulted in a 3-2 aggregate win for the Welsh club.
In the 1973-74 season Wrexham made it to the FA Cup quarter finals before losing 1-0 to First Division Burnley. Two years later Wrexham made it to the quarter finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup before losing to the eventual winners, Anderlecht.
At the end of the 1977-78 season John Neal left the club to join Middlesbrough and was replaced by Arfon Griffiths. Griffiths brought Dixie McNeil, Dai Davies and Les Cartwright to the club strengthening the team to such an extent that it immediately won the Third Division Championship, reached the last eight of both the FA Cup and the League Cup as well as winning the Welsh Cup.
Wrexham enjoyed four seasons in the Second Division before consecutive relegations sent them back to the bottom division. In 1989 they lost out to Leyton Orient in the Fourth Division playoff Final. In January 1992 Wrexham produced arguably their greatest ever piece of giant-killing when they knocked the previous year's League Champions Arsenal out of the FA Cup with goals from Steve Watkin and Mickey Thomas.
1993 - 2000
In 1993 Wrexham won promotion once more, this time to the reorganised Division Two where they remained until they were relegated in 2002. They were promoted straight back the following season and remained in Football League Second Division (now Football League One) until relegation in 2005.In 1997, the club reached the quarter finals through dispatching premiership side West Ham and Division One Side Birmingham City before losing in the quarter finals to fellow second division club Chesterfield in a somewhat anticlimatic quarter final cup-tie.
Stadium trouble, administration
Recently, the club has been dogged with problems, including the chairman Alex Hamilton attempting to get them evicted from their stadium so that he can sell it for development purposes, a saga involving the dubious sale of the Racecourse Ground to a separate company owned by Hamilton immediately after he became the club's chairman. In the summer of 2004 Hamilton gave the club a years' notice to quit the ground.
The club's fans have since developed an affinity with those of Brighton & Hove Albion, who successfully deposed a chairman who sold their ground in almost exactly the same circumstances.
On 3 December 2004 the club was placed in financial administration by the High Court in Manchester as the club owed £2,600,000, including £800,000 to the Inland Revenue in unpaid taxes. Wrexham became the first League club to suffer a ten-point deduction under the new rule for being placed in Administration, dropping them from the middle of the League One table to the relegation zone.
Despite their financial troubles, Wrexham went on to win the 2004-05 LDV Vans Trophy by defeating Southend United 2-0 after extra time, in Wrexhams' first appearance in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. It was Southend's second consecutive defeat in the LDV Vans Trophy final.
Amazingly, Wrexham still had an outside chance of escaping the drop in the 2004-05 season after an end-of-season winning streak; however, their faint hopes of staying up ended with a 2-1 home loss to Brentford on 3 May 2005. The 10-point deduction proved decisive in determining Wrexham's fate, as the club finished with 43 points compared to 20th-placed Milton Keynes Dons' 51.
In October 2005 Birmingham High Court decided that Mr Hamilton's company CrucialMove had improperly acquired the freehold of the ground. Mr Hamilton then took this to the Appeal Court in London and it ruled on 14 March 2006 that the stadium must remain in the hands of the club's administrators. On 30 April 2006 the Administrators reached an agreement with local car dealer Neville Dickens, subject to agreement by the shareholders and creditors (which was achieved on 30 May), for Mr Dickens to take over the club. Had the club still been in Administration on 3 June then it would have automatically been expelled from the League.
Wrexham still continue the rivalry with Chester City F.C. to date. The results in 2006 being a home 2-1 win and an away 2-1 loss.
Current squad
Correct as of 4 July 2006
Literature
The Wrexham football team plays a significant role in the 1994 Peter Davies book Twenty Two Foreigner's in Funny Shorts which was written for the upcoming World Cup in the U.S. It also profiles the Robin's ongoing and ultimately successful promotion effort.
Player Records
- Most league goals in a season - 44 Tommy Bamford (1933-34)
- Most league goals in total - 175 Tommy Bamford (1928-34)
- Most league appearances - 592 Arfon Griffiths (1959-61, 1962-79}
Club Legends
External links
"Wrexham A.F.C."