SOUTHAMPTON, England — Welcome to the big leagues, Wrexham. This isn’t what you’ve become accustomed to. As a season opener, this sowed all the seeds that ought to bloom over the coming episodes/games. The stars of the screen were valiant; they gave it their all and made their supporters believe again. This time, though, it might not be enough.
These early scenes came with a lesson that the audience, the hierarchy, and above all, the players, will need to take away. You can defend with the same vim that made you a force in the lower leagues, win all the flick-ons on halfway that got you to the Championship, but still, someone might just stick the ball top bins and spoil your big day.
Of course, it is worth stating from the outset that over an hour leading Southampton, probably the biggest beasts in the Championship, would have been an unimaginable thrill for Wrexham supporters on the day that Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac (why has he changed his name though? Is that a bit? Like when Mac packed on mass in Sunny season seven? Who is he doing this versus?) bought in less than five years. On the day, if you offered anyone at the Racecourse Ground the chance to be beaten by two late Southampton goals, they would surely assume something had gone very, very wrong at St. Mary’s before imagining what might have gone right for them.
Still, if we approach Wrexham as a football club rather than a content vehicle, Saturday was a clear sign of the work that needs to be done, no matter that they found themselves top of the Championship for more than a moment under the beaming south coast sun. Ronnie Edwards’ clumsiness chasing a flick-on handed the Red Dragons their first goal in the second tier for 43 years, and there were more than occasional flashes of something that could discomfort even the best Championship sides.
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Phil Parkinson has not adapted his approach for life in the second tier; Wrexham are going to play to win the ball in the air and get to the flick-ons first. When Kieffer Moore rises highest, there is no easy answer, particularly for a team like Southampton that are perfectly prepared to stick their center backs near the halfway line and defend from there. Had Gavin Bazunu not hurled a left glove in the direction of Ryan Hardie’s late effort, then this would have been another of those unimaginable days for the travelling Wrexham faithful.
There is much to admire in the spirit Parkinson has instilled into this ever-changing team. When the ball comes near them, they are aggressive in the tackle. Matty James spent most of the 40th minute committing a string of fouls inside and just outside his penalty area. They are organized too. There are players such as Lewis O’Brien, Conor Coady and Moore who can make their game plan relatively effective at this level.
However, Wrexham are also a team who, at this level, are going to learn some hard lessons. Few players in Leagues One or Two continually make runs quite as intelligent as those of Southampton’s front three, even in a rather abject first half from the hosts. Ryan Fraser cut elegantly from the right flank to the space between the middle and right center backs only to see himself denied from a tight angle by the excellent Danny Ward. Jay Robinson, too, was a handful.
At times, it seemed Reynolds and Mac had invested in some plot armor for their goal, along with everything else. When Ward was beaten by Robinson late in the first half, but the ball struck the post, Coady somehow contrived to block Adam Armstrong on the rebound not once but twice. If Wrexham ever find themselves in the Premier League, they’ll have to accept VAR calling back hand-first blocks like Max Cleworth’s to deny Shea Charles.
In the lower leagues, Wrexham could survive these pressure moments. Their defenders were better than the other team’s attackers. That won’t be true anywhere near as often in the Championship. Even if Parkinson does not want to change his formation or approach, he must ensure that his team do not allow anywhere near the same amount of time they gave Southampton on the ball in the attacking third. Sometimes their organization seemed to be to a fault, defenders unwilling to leave their zone to deal with the opponent. If you give up 26 shots worth three and a half expected goals, something is badly wrong, no matter the context of the game.
The high-value chances hadn’t been going Southampton’s way, but they had a player of sufficient quality to exploit one of the lower probability looks. Wrexham had ridden their luck for 89 minutes, but there was nothing to break their way when Ryan Manning stood over a free kick 30 yards from goal. In such circumstances, it is rarely, if ever, the case that the team that has been pummeled into the corner can get back up off the mat.
Still’s side kept stretching the play, pulling Wrexham’s 5-4-1 to its limits as they flew to the byline. Manning won the sort of ball over the top that the Red Dragons cannot afford to lose at any point in this season, and this time, there was no one in yellow and green to cut out his cross. Damion Downs should have converted it; Jack Stephens did.
If nothing else, this will all make for great content on the next season of the Wrexham project. What could be more effective for recalibrating audience expectations than a bruising, dramatic but ultimately deserved defeat like this? What the owners, Parkinson and everyone else connected with Wrexham will not want is for this to set the scene for the coming 10 months.