Video nasties featuring those eleven blokes in red and white

Buy it for one goal

Wrexham FC Highlights 1998-9 (Part 2)

This video is odd and eccentric – just like Wrexham’s pre-Christmas form. It covers the games from Bristol Rovers away – and that Russell sending off – to Notts County at home (when Rush hit the bar with a gorgeous header; the closest so far?) It’s odd and eccentric because there are so many bizarre variables: the quality of the film, the subtlety of the editing, and the excitability of the commentator. Things aren’t helped by the fact that October and November were not vintage in terms of WFC form, and somehow it’s surely a video you’ll never be dead eager to get out of its case (its case by the way has a picture of Spink looking very strange on it); there are no great moments and not many great goals. You get Wycombe away, Oldham away and Fulham at home – a continuous stream of not-very-pretty defeats.

The editing is very ropey in parts; occasionally the commentator is cut off in mid-sentence as the video rolls on to the next inglorious Wrexham performance. The clips of the Burnley game are also incredibly pale, and somehow not quite perfect in quality. Furthermore, the ‘commentator’ at the Oldham game sounds as if he wasn’t actually inside Boundary Park (I wish I hadn’t have been there). The atmospherics on the Oldham segment of the tape are almost nil; was the ‘commentator’ there or not?

Overall, the commentators used the video company are crazy, highly excitable people. The guy at Bristol Rovers wins the ‘Mad Commentator’ award for the second year running with his mumbled off-air comments to his mate in the box and his outrageously partisan remarks: for example, he tells Russell to ‘Get off! ’ as the ref brandishes the red card to Rooster. Neutrality? What neutrality? There’s also the chappie at Wycombe who persists in calling Ridler ‘Rideler’ and the guy at Burnley who pronounces Brammer as ‘Brummer’. Why exactly? The commentator who does the Wrexham games also has his moments. He sounded positively orgasmic as Brammer rammed home his last-minute winner against Peterborough and talked about Blackpool as Wrexham’s ‘bogey team’. Have we just got one then? Mark Cartwright also comes in for a wide range of comments: ‘bad luck’ at Burnley but a ‘horrible moment’ against Oldham. But the chap at Oldham said that Cartwright deserved a bit of sympathy after his crucial error (the first goal – remember?) because he’d done so well this season in general. Discuss.

This video also has other strange features: Skinner’s all-round promience in the introductory title sequence; the ghostly and ghastly atmosphere at the Swansea and Millwall home games, and the name of the editor of the whole production: Matthew Dunger (don’t think he’s Brazilian). One great moment? Roberts’ goal at Oldham from Cooke’s ‘dainty’ chip. Buy it just for that.

Peter Davies