Wrexham striker Ryan Hardie bagged his first goal since joining the club as he found the net against Melbourne Victory on Friday.
Wrexham’s tour of Australia and New Zealand heads to Sydney, with Phil Parkinson’s side taking on Sydney FC on Tuesday morning.
Friday saw Wrexham beat Melbourne Victory 3-0, with Ryan Hardie scoring his first goal.
Wrexham signed Hardie for £700,000 earlier this summer and brought him on from the bench against Melbourne Victory.
The Scot showed fine predatory instincts to score at the near post and will be delighted to have scored in his first Wrexham appearance, even if it was only a friendly.
Ryan Hardie shares Wrexham goal target
Hardie will hope to nail down a starting role in the Wrexham squad ahead of the new Championship season.
Wrexham have landed Hardie due to his proven goalscoring record at Championship level, offering a reliable threat in Parkinson’s attack.
Hardie hit 10 Championship goals last season and 12 goals in the 2023-24 campaign, meaning he has managed 22 goals across two seasons at this level.
The 28-year-old has now told ESPN that he does have a goalscoring target in mind for the new season – and it’s simply to beat last season’s tally.
Hardie scored 12 goals in all competitions and wants to beat that mark before aiming for even more goals.
Hardie just wants to help the team in any way possible, but knows scoring goals is the best way to do that.
“I always set targets for myself: to beat the goals that I scored last season,” said Hardie.
“As a striker, I want to score as many goals as possible, but I start it off small by beating the target that I scored last season, and that was 12 goals.
“I’ll start there, then when I get to 12, I’ll make it 15, when I get to 15, I’ll make it 20. I want to get as many goals as I can, and if I’m scoring goals, then that means the team is doing well, generally, so that’s the plan – score some goals and help the team get up the table as far as we can,” he added.
Ryan Hardie on Ryan Reynolds message
Hardie also told ESPN that he received a video message from Ryan Reynolds upon completing his move to Wrexham.
Hardie previously opened up on his ‘surreal’ contact with Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and has now explained how Reynolds contacted him.
The Wrexham striker was sent a message from an American phone number, and it ended up being Reynolds offering him a welcome message.
Hardie noted that these moments just can’t be replicated at other clubs, and he loved sharing that moment with his family.
“The day that it was announced, the signing, I got a message from a +27 or something, it was an American number, and it was a video from Ryan,” said Hardie.
“It’s just things that you don’t get elsewhere, obviously to have that type of profile contacting you, it’s something that I was excited to get and, obviously, sharing it with the family, it was really good,” he added.
Hardie picked up a knock against Melbourne Victory but will hope to feature against Sydney FC and continue his impressive start to life at Wrexham.