Book review: There’s Something About Wrexham – Deio Edwards with Iestyn Jones

Desmond Clifford

So strong is the gravitational pull of Hollywood’s magic, it’s hard to recall that not so long ago Wrexham AFC was an honourably obscure football club taxing the resilience of its famously dedicated supporters.

Like the hardiest shrubs, they came back gamely every season determined this would be the one to change their fortunes.

Their fan base was solid and loyal across north Wales, and beyond.  This was no mean achievement.

South Wales professional football loyalties divide up fairly naturally along the M4 between Swansea, Cardiff and Newport. Wrexham had north Wales all to itself, in the professional football sense, but, on the other hand, the footballing Celestial Cities of Manchester and Liverpool are within devilish easy reach.

Salutations to all those who chose Wrexham! When the fairy tale arrived, Wrexham AFC had as much claim on magic as anyone else.

There’s Something About Wrexham is a collection of twenty reflections (based on interviews) by former players recalling the spirit of the club in former times.

Dean Saunders will learn who kicked a dent in his BMW X5 in Aberystwyth – ask Mark Creighton, a defender who put in 86 appearances from 2010-13. We hear of players stripping naked to run around the pub and a litany of excesses which were anachronistic even then and may partially explain why Wrexham was mediocre for so long.

Once upon a time, lower league football was all about passion on the field, and practically any excess off the field was tolerated.

Alcohol

The book is a reminder – rather grimly, behind the jape-ish “weren’t-we-fun” tone – of just how big a part alcohol played in the lives of some pro footballers.

As Andrew Dibble (goalkeeper, 2002-05) notes, “I can’t emphasise enough the amount of time you spend with each other as a team.” Masculine peer pressure can be quite a force and alcohol features heavily in these accounts – before training, after training, after matches.

Then as now, footballers have lots of time on their hands. Training can only fill so many hours. Those who can’t manage their own time, or find some activity outside of football to occupy themselves, probably have a tough time.

I assume alcohol plays a smaller part in the lives of footballers these days and is much less tolerated by the clubs who are paying fortunes for their players to be fit and on-point for fans.

Ian Edwards (forward, 1979-82) describes playing through a large part of his career with a damaged knee which prevented him from even training properly. It’s a sober reminder, in among all the joshing, of the physical price pro sportspeople have to pay for what they do, especially in those days when physical care was so much less developed than today. I imagine there are few former pros who don’t carry the marks of their former profession.

On a different note, Ian Edwards refers to crowds at the Racecourse dwindling, during a particularly lean period, to 4,500. Well, I was a regular at Ninian Park in the 1990s and at times we’d have regarded anything over 3,000 as half decent!

Pride

Unsurprisingly, all the players in this book record their pride in playing for Wrexham but Gareth Owen (midfield, 1989-2001) possibly offers the most complete account of that sentiment.

Originally from Connah’s Quay, he conveys the passion that drove him to play for Wrexham 476 times, through thick and thin – of which Wrexham offered plenty.

As a local boy, the club meant more to him than money and he walked away from chances to go to bigger clubs because of his commitment to his home club and its fans.

There was a time when most clubs had at least a couple of Gareth Owens; local talent whose roots were in the community they played in front of. It hasn’t completely disappeared but is rare enough in today’s increasingly franchised mercenary business, even in the lower leagues.

Mickey Thomas was the stand-out Wrexham player and personality of his generation. He was the player most likely to be known to non-fans and he achieved that subtle footballing accolade of “cult status”.

In 1992 Thomas scored what still stands as Wrexham’s most celebrated goal, a free-kick equalizer which

paved the way for a famous FA Cup 3rd round victory against Arsenal. The salient background is that Arsenal were then, as now, one of the giants of football’s top division (the First Division in pre-Premier League days) while Wrexham languished, as they were wont to do, in the fourth tier. At times Wrexham could barely afford to pay the staff and keep the lights on.

The match stands high in the rankings of memorable FA Cup giant-killings, a deep source of romance to the English leagues (in which the few Welsh clubs play anomalously, reflecting a positive facet of British cultural oddness).

Joey Jones

One person not in the book with a chapter to himself, sadly, is the late Joey Jones, a contemporary of Micky Thomas and one of his best buddies.

Jones had a serious football career, including a stint with Liverpool, with whom he became the first Welshman to win a European Cup winners medal in 1977.

From Liverpool he returned to Wrexham for a second stint in 1978 as a record signing.  After further peregrinations he returned to Wrexham for a third and final stint before finally retiring in 1992.

The book’s author is Deio Edwards (assisted by Iestyn Edwards), a proper fan and a presence in Wales’ footballing community.

Football has a massive literature and it’s being added to all the time.  There are some classics which transcend the sport.  This volume belongs firmly in the “committed fan” department.

Anyone who supports Wrexham, or is a complete Welsh football nerd, will be happy to get it in the Christmas stocking.  That’s a decent market.

Nostalgia

Football is cloaked in mania for nostalgia and reflection on former times, and there’s plenty here to tickle memories.

For the most part, although charting relatively recent careers, it’s a world gone by.

Hollywood, money and global attention have changed things. Who’d have thought a few years ago that it would be Wrexham rather than anywhere else in Wales which attracts curious visitors from around the world.

Wrexham’s is a great story and richly deserved.  The club began in 1864 and has been sustained from generation to generation by its fans, through good times and bad. It’s currently enjoying a golden period, but the club’s true fans will be there whatever, still believing, still hoping, still supporting.

There’s Something About Wrexham is published by Y Lolfa and can be purchased here and at all good bookshops.