Today I'm going back ten years to 2011 and York City's visit to the Racecourse Ground to play Wrexham in the Conference, then known as the Blue Square Bet Premier Division and now known as the National League Premier.
The Racecourse Ground has an impressive history in British football and proudly stands as the oldest international football venue that still hosts international matches, albeit infrequently these days. It is also Wales' most used venue for international matches. Wrexham FC, the oldest Football Club in Wales, have used the Racecourse Ground since 1864 and were a Football League club for 87 years from 1921 until 2008 when they were finally relegated into Non-League's Conference. Wrexham are currently the longest continuous members of the top flight of Non-League and are surely one of the biggest clubs outside of the Football League. Earlier this year Wrexham were suddenly thrust into the Hollywood spotlight as the club was taken over by new owners: Deadpool actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and the club is now in the process of making one of those fly on the wall documentaries that seem to be all the rage these days called "Welcome to Wrexham". You can certainly see a few zombies playing in Wrexham's defence in the highlights video!
In front of an attendance of 3,872, this game was one of the most enjoyable League games in an ultimately successful promotion season for York. Wrexham were felt to be one of York's chief promotion rivals and so, to go to the Racecourse Ground and win so comfortably, really sent out a message that York were serious contenders. York, resplendent in their all blue away kit got their first through a well worked free kick routine with Paddy McLaughlin lashing home from just outside the area. It was all York and they could have had three or four more before Ashley Chambers cantered through the heart of the Wrexham defence to slot home when one on one against the keeper. In the 23rd minute, Jamie Reed turned with the ball in the area and struck a superb third for York. The travelling fans simply couldn't believe it was quite so easy. We didn't know it at the time but there was to be no further scoring with York perhaps guilty of taking their foot off the gas but that's understandable and it made sense to keep energies and powder dry for future challenges. The 0-3 home reverse for Wrexham was all too much for them and they appointed Andy Morrell as their new manager the following week.
With Morrell in charge, Wrexham actually ended up having a very good season and finished second to promoted Fleetwood Town with 98 points in the 46 game regular season, some 15 points more than York achieved in finishing fourth. Wrexham met Luton Town in the resulting Play-Off Semi-Final whilst York faced Mansfield Town. As is the way of these things sometimes, it was the teams finishing second and third that were eliminated in the Play-Off Semi-Finals with fourth placed York and fifth placed Luton Town who advanced to Wembley for the Play-Off Final. The rest, as they say, is history.
CRB Match No. 1840
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