Night Out

First Class Service

Simon Irving and John Gibson report on their night as VIP Red Passion sponsors…

When the Red Dragons eased past Wigan in the LDV Vans Trophy, our 2nd Round pairing with Huddersfield Town gave the club a relatively short-notice home fixture squeezed in on the last Tuesday in October.

Commercially, this inevitably meant a struggle to gain sponsorship support for the match with little time to play with. As regards matchball sponsorship for the game, Red Passion ably stepped into the breach - all part of our continuing efforts to help the club financially as much as possible with the monetary proceeds of the scribblings of fandom at the Racecourse. Being an all-round caring sharing chap, Pete Davies (RP editor) weighed up who should represent RP at the game as the official sponsors. John Gibson and I were selected to be those lucky people, and we felt honoured to do this. I was determined to learn as much as I could during the evening about how the club manages things commercially, how attractive a package 'being a sponsor' would be for a local business, and also to make it clear that RP are a hardworking team of supporters who have the interests of the club firmly at heart, and are keen to help whenever we can.

Arriving at the ground two and a quarter hours before kick-off (5.30pm), we met Phil Sadler in the Centenary Club lounge. A champagne reception is an option for the sponsor at this point, but, all things being equal, I gladly sank a pint of Tetley instead. Phil spent that first 20 minutes chatting about the current commercial position of the club, and about the team in general. He proved, right from the word go, to be an excellent host and an all-round splendid chappie - perfect for impressing a visiting businessman. 

At 6pm we took a walk around the various club lounges and Mr Griffiths' office and mini-bar. A bottle of whisky sits in a small wall-mounted glass cabinet - in case of emergency he can smash the glass! Various classic team photos adorn many walls, along with a selection of other memorabilia. A trophy cabinet in one of these rooms prompted Phil to inform us of his dream to have a much larger club shop, which would be combined with a trophy room and mini-museum. This would attract much interest, and would draw people into the shop thereafter. Obviously a larger shop in itself would make the products more accessible too - a real problem at the moment. 

A quick visit to the home dressing room followed, and a few of the players were already getting prepared. Blackwood looked momentarily lost in thought, but the sight of Joey walking in immediately lifted him into a big smile - that's a measure of Joey's influence. Big Brian was watering the horse. I took an interest in the wipe-boards that depicted the suggested positioning of our players in relation to corner kicks being taken from either side. Back in the tunnel, Ferguson was ribbing Chalky, and I was struck by the excellent camaraderie that seemed to be very much in evidence among the players - everyone seemed to get on great.

We walked around the pitch and had a quick look around the backrooms of the PGS, then back across the pitch, noting the exaggerated humps on which both goalmouths are raised to enable better drainage. It looks very pronounced when you are on the pitch itself. 
Back in the tunnel our party carried out the by now customary non-acknowledgment of Mr Rhodes as he surveyed his empire. Denis Smith was now in the changing room having a chat with the players. From here, we were given a match programme signed by the team, and were escorted back to the lounge for dinner.

At 6.30 we were offered a very attractive menu, and the resulting food was absolutely superb (with a glass of wine too). The service and the quality were top drawer, and I found all the staff in the lounge to be extremely personable. There was so much food, it was a major challenge to finish it! Pictures were taken of the pair of us at our table too, a nice touch, ably taken by the very accommodating chap in charge of the photography side of things for Corporate Entertainment.

We were gently lowered to the pitch by a crane after the feast, and stood in line while the teams came out of the tunnel. At the centre circle I moved to shake hands with Gray, the captain of Huddersfield Town. He was a big guy, same height as me, and I thought I'd give him a real Wrexham welcome by crushing his hand. Imagine my surprise when the opposite happened. He's not someone I would particularly wish to go in for a 50/50 challenge with - a real hard tyke. I shook hands with the referee, who makes Chalk or Hector look like a WWF wrestler by comparison, so I crushed his hand instead. Pity it didn't stop him blowing his whistle later though. More photos were taken of this line-up, including the mascot. The floodlights are superb at pitch level - if only the lights on astro pitches at sports centres were the same lux as these! Just like daylight - superb.

After that, it was a grudging exit from the pitch (I wanted to stay on and get stuck in) and up to the Directors Box. At half time it was refreshments, and just

David Walsh - Simon and Phil's MOTH

 prior to full-time we were asked by Phil to nominate the Man of the Match. I suggested that Walshie had played very well in goal, but felt it might look negative on our other players if we didn't consider any of them too. I thought Keith Hill had a solid game, and I believed that Blackwood had worked tirelessly to craft an opening throughout the match. John, my colleague, was squarely in Walshie's corner. I thought I'd play devil's advocate, so I went for Michael. After much debate, we agreed on Walsh! We were photographed presenting DW with his bottle of bubbly in the lounge shortly afterwards, and were given a memento each.

In hindsight, I firmly believe that this package is a very attractive programme of entertainment for any would-be sponsors out there. I don't think that anyone who has enjoyed this hospitality could possibly fail to have been massively impressed. The warmth of the hosts, Phil Sadler and his staff, the waitresses and bar staff in the lounge, the photographer, and others was overwhelming. I sincerely hope that this area of the club gets the credit that it deserves, for all the good work everybody involved is doing.

As I take my place back on the Kop hereon, I will always remember that there is another enjoyable way of watching our team. If only I were an MD!