With 16 games to go, Wrexham are fighting tooth and nail for automatic promotion, but one thing may be standing in their way unless they improve rapidly.
After Saturday’s 2-0 win over Northampton Town — twinned with Wycombe Wanderer’s 1-1 draw against Crawley — Wrexham are still third in the League One table, but have closed the gap to just two points as they hunt second place.
Goals from new signing Sam Smith and midfielder Ollie Rathbone secured the victory within the first 22 minutes at Sixfields Stadium, in what Phil Parkinson described as a ‘professional’ win for the Red Dragons.
But, when it comes to the grand ambitions of gaining promotion to the Championship this season, Wrexham are going to have to go against a 20-year old record that’s holding them back.
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Wrexham’s away form is not good enough to secure promotion
Much has been said about the need to improve Wrexham’s away form this season. While the Red Dragons have lost just one game at the Racecourse in the 2024/25 campaign, they have lost five out of 14 on the road.
That record would have Phil Parkinson’s side 10th in the League One table based on away results alone, a long way behind promotion rivals Wycombe Wanderers and Birmingham City.
| 2024/25 season | Games | W | D | L | Pts | L1 rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wrexham home | 16 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 39 | 2nd |
| Wrexham away | 14 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 19 | 10th |
And, according to a report from The Athletic, that away form is simply not conducive to a successful promotion push, and there are cold, hard facts to support that theory.
Indeed, no team over the last 20 years with an away record akin to Wrexham’s right now have managed to finish in the top two in League One.
With 1.36 points-per-game (PPG) on the road for Wrexham so far, they would have to look at Hull City’s 1.43 PPG return way back in 2004/05 (when they finished second in League One) for inspiration as to what can be achieved on such a paltry record away from home.
Even more worrying, perhaps, is that seven teams in the last 20 years to go up via the play-offs have also had a better PPG tally in away games. But, there is still time to change things.
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Wrexham have shown signs of improvement away from home
Yes, Wrexham’s win away at Northampton this weekend goes a long way to fixing that record, as did the win over Crawley at the start of February.
The Red Dragons will get another chance to build on that when they travel to Mansfield Town next weekend.
They’ll certainly need to keep up this momentum on the road if they have any hopes of catching Birmingham City at the top, with the Blues seemingly relentless wherever they play. Indeed, Wycombe too are impervious away from home, and that could end up being the difference for Mike Dodds’ side in this unlikely promotion charge.
But, as per the report from The Athletic, Parkinson’s men have always shown marked improvements in their away form as we hit the business end of the season, and we could see history repeat itself again this term.
In the last two promotion-winning campaigns, Wrexham’s away record was second-best in the National League and fourth-best in League Two. So, it’s clear they can do it, it’s now just a case of rallying together and putting a run of results together to climb that away table as quickly as possible.