Why Wrexham are MY team

You might ask: How does someone born and bred in Leeds come to support Wrexham? Well, we (that is me and the wife) always come to Wales for summer holidays and me being a railway enthusiast, I go round the narrow gauge railways. In 1994 I came down to the Llangollen railway to drive and fire the famous steam engine, the Flying Scotsman, and as a result I am now a member, shareholder etc, and go down every weekend I can during the summer to help out as a volunteer. I work in Bradford, so there are Leeds, Man United, Huddersfield and even Halifax fans. All they talked about was football. So, at the start of the season before last I decided it was time to support a team. But which one?! It was as I was driving past the Racecourse Ground on my way to Tescos for a full breakfast that I thought: ‘Wrexham’. So, down to the local sports shop I went for a shirt - and every time I came down to North Wales the first thing I did would be to catch up with any team news. Even at work I was now getting a match report each week from all the other fans. But I hadn’t actually been to see them play and everybody was saying, ‘You can’t be a real fan’ and ‘You are just a sad case’.

Last year at the start of the season there were all the press reports about Ian Rush and ‘Will he sign for Wrexham?’ I was on holiday over in Porthmadog, so on 15 August I drove from Porthmadog and went to watch Wrexham play Colchester. Even though we lost 4-2 I had a fantastic afternoon. I really enjoyed myself. (You must remember that the last game I had been to was Elland Road in 1961!) Everyone was so friendly. I bought bits and pieces from the shop and a pie at half-time. I don’t think I stopped talking about it for a week. So it was down for Northampton and Stoke, and away at York.

I don’t go down to the railway during the winter. I start each year at Easter. Last season I went to see Wrexham at Blackpool and the wife came to watch the Bristol Rovers game (and Rockin’ Robin) with me at Easter. I spent ages finding a copy of that record, Rockin’ Robin, by Bobby Day. So if you go past my house about 10 minutes before kick-off you’ll hear Rockin’ Robin at full blast. I would have gone to the Huddersfield away game last season but I was on shifts, so I couldn’t make it. It is depressing that the local papers describe Wrexham as a ‘struggling Second Division side’. York were described in just the same way last season. I do believe that there should be some management changes. We’ve just missed out on the play-offs for a couple of seasons, and then last year we struggled. I was listening to a director of Bradford City on the radio the other day. He was saying that in four years the gates had gone from an average of 5,000 to 15,000 per game - and Bradford have had five managers during Flynn’s reign. And they’re now in the Premiership?

Are you a Wrexham fan 'in exile'? If you’d like to tell your story, please send it to RP (address on p.1)