Wrexham’s unbeaten run in League One came to an end on Monday night after losing 3-1 against Birmingham City.
Rob McElhenney was in attendance at St Andrew’s along with celebrities David Beckham and Tom Brady but the action on the pitch was all that really mattered as Wrexham fell short.
Jack Marriott fired the visitors into an early lead but that dream start slowly faded as a Jay Stansfield brace and a Tomoki Itawa strike handed the Blues a 3-1 win.
Ryan Reynolds sent a classy message to Birmingham City after the game, as did co-owner McElhenney, who thanked the fans and Birmingham for their hospitality.
Despite the defeat on Monday night, it’s still been an incredible beginning to their League One journey as they sit top of the table.
Birmingham, though, are now level on points after last night’s win however, there is still confidence that a historic third successive promotion can be achieved.
Simon Jordan’s Wrexham promotion verdict
Many outsiders looking in couldn’t believe that last night’s game was being played in League One given the celebrities in attendance and the fact there were close to 30,000 fans watching live.
The driving force behind the magnitude of the game is the appeal of Birmingham’s Brady locking horns with Wrexham’s McElhenney and Reynolds.
Both clubs now command a large fanbase from overseas, with an increasing number of people now tuning in from the United States.
Simon Jordan, former chairman of Crystal Palace, has seen the power that Reynolds has at Wrexham with his commercial income and is ‘convinced’ the clubs business model can help them achieve success.
Speaking on TalkSPORT via YouTube, Jordan said: “It will be interesting to see if they can go the whole and come out of this division into the Championship but what they’ve got, and they’re convincing me more and more because I’m seeing the power of the media is influencing the commercial income that this business can bring in.
“So they’re getting associated partners that are sponsoring Wrexham that have never heard of Wrexham football club wouldn’t know where they were if you gave them a map. Yet they feel now because of the Netflix documentary and Ryan Reynolds that there’s an opportunity to endorse something so thats why I think Wrexham have a chance.”
Can Wrexham win promotion to the Championship?
Although Wrexham have achieved successive promotions to the third tier, few expected them to be top of the table after six matches.
The lower level of expectation has perhaps worked in their favour but they’re also fully deserving of the position they’re in, especially after drawing against Bolton and beating Peterborough.
Of course, they came unstuck against Birmingham however, they did put in a respectable effort against the Blues, who are expected to storm the league.
Nonetheless, there is every chance that Wrexham can keep up their forward momentum following this start and become serious promotion contenders.
That all depends on whether they avoid injuries and Parkinson adapts when the opposition figures out how to nullify his tactic.
Either way, a play-off finish would be regarded as a great season for the Reds while anything better than that would be a bonus.