Wrexham wrapped up their Wrexham Down Under tour with a defeat in New Zealand on Saturday, capping off a couple of miserable results for the Dragons.
Wrexham headed to Australia earlier this month for their summer tour down under.
Australia is the country that viewed the Welcome to Wrexham docuseries the most behind the US and the UK and so it made sense, from a business point of view anyway, to head there for a pre-season tour.
Wrexham played games against Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC and then Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand.
But results proved mixed as Wrexham beat Melbourne 3-0 before losing 2-1 against Sydney, and then 1-0 against Wellington on Saturday.
It was no doubt an experience of the players, though, and a good marketing mission for the club, whilst minutes in pre-season is always vital no matter the result.
Here we look at the winners and losers after Wrexham’s pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand…
The winners from Wrexham’s pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand
Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac
More than half of Wrexham’s revenue comes from international sponsorships. Branding is a huge thing for the club and whilst results were poor overall in Australia and New Zealand, Wrexham did a lot to get their brand out there.
The new Wrexham shirts went on sale during the tour, whilst Australian media reported heavily on Wrexham with Phil Parkinson and numerous players appearing on national TV channels.
And despite fears about the number of ticket sales for the tour, more than 100,000 spectators turned out in the end, with 25,000 coming out to watch the Wellington game. A big win for Wrexham co-owners Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds.
Ollie Palmer
Ollie Palmer may be in line for a chance at the Racecourse after putting in some decent performances on the tour.
Palmer impressed in the opening game against Melbourne, starting and playing the first half and generally just looking like a handful in attack.
Wrexham have several injuries in attack with the likes of Jay Rodriguez and Sam Smith carrying knocks. So going into the opening rounds of the Championship, Palmer may well get his chance to play and impress.
Harry Ashfield
19-year-old academy man Harry Ashfield was arguably the star of the whole tour, playing in all three games and looking like one of the Dragons’ better players in each game.
Wrexham fans were impressed with Ashfield’s performance against Wellington Phoenix in particular, describing the Wrexham-born player as lively and with the ‘fire in his belly’.
His strong performances in pre-season have surely put him in contention to be among the squad when Wrexham play Southampton on August 9th.
The losers from Wrexham’s pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand
Phil Parkinson
Going to Australia was no doubt a choice made in the boardroom. But deep down, Parkinson might have preferred to go somewhere much closer to home, and for a few different reasons.
Whilst Wrexham signed Liberato Cacace on the tour, being on the other side of the world and on the opposite time scheme no doubt hindered transfer dealings from Parkinson’s point of view.
What’s more is that the players will now have to quickly adjust back to the UK time zone which will no doubt result in a dose of jetlag for most.
Ollie Rathbone
One of the Dragons players now injured is Ollie Rathbone. Rathbone picked up an ankle injury in the game against Sydney and he didn’t feature against Wellington, with Parkinson confirming that the midfielder has a worrying injury.
Parkinson said of Rathbone’s injury: “Ollie went for an x-ray and there’s no break. He’s then had an MRI scan and we’re waiting to see the severity of the injury but it’s not looking too good at the moment.
“He’s in a boot for a couple of weeks and then we will assess it after that.”
It’s looking like Rathbone could miss the start of next season which is a real blow for him and for the club as a whole.