Wrexham play their first home game of the Championship season this weekend welcoming West Brom to the Racecourse.
Wrexham played at the Racecourse in midweek kick-starting the 2025/26 season on home soil with a dramatic win over Hull City.
In the EFL Cup first round Wrexham eventually beat Hull City on penalties thanks to some late heroics from striker Ollie Palmer whose future becomes more uncertain by the day.
But in their opening Championship fixture, Phil Parkinson’s side suffered a disappointing late loss. Wrexham lost 2-1 away at Southampton despite having the lead for all of 90 minutes.
Though two late goals from a Saint side inspired by Ryan Manning saw them claim the opening day win. West Brom meanwhile beat Blackburn Rovers in their opening game of the season before losing to Championship rivals Derby County in the EFL Cup in midweek.
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EFL announce the referee for Wrexham vs West Brom
As ever in the Championship, who the referee is could have a huge say on how the games pan out. The level of officiating in the second tier in particular has been scrutinised over the last few years, with many managers left fuming at certain decisions last season. The referee for the game between Wrexham and West Brom is John Busby.
The EFL have confirmed that Busby is the man in the middle on Saturday, and it will be only his second ever Wrexham game. But the Dragons have a 100% record under Busby who officiated their 2-0 win over Newport County in League Two during the 2023/24 season. West Brom meanwhile have played five games under Busby, winning three, drawing one, and losing only one.
Busby has overseen 97 Championship games in his career, giving out six red cards and 354 total yellow cards.
John Busby had an ‘absolute shocker’ last season
Like so many others, Busby has come under the spotlight in the past. Just last season in a game between Luton Town and Bristol City in April, then-Bristol City manager Liam Manning didn’t hold back in his criticisms of Busby.
Manning felt as though Bristol City were denied a stonewall penalty, with Manning saying after the game that Busby had an absolute shocker.
He said: “The key moment is the ref makes an absolute shocker. I don’t want to sit here and blame the referee as ultimately we needed to be better as well, but I think everybody felt he was taken out. It was ridiculous.
| Games | Fouls-per-game | Penalties-per-game | Yellows-per-game | Total yellows | Reds-per-game | Total reds |
| 97 | 20.90 | 0.14 | 3.65 | 354 | 0.06 | 6 |
“Everybody apart from the referee did (feel it was a foul) I think. I just didn’t think he managed the game very well second half. I thought he was okay first half, but yeah, just a bad decision.”
Parkinson though is experienced enough to know that if his team are good enough to win on Saturday, and really deserve to win, then they likely will do.
Wrexham go into this one with momentum after that Hull City win and in front of a roaring home crowd, it should be an exciting game and a tough one for the Baggies to navigate.