The ‘Year of the Dragon’ is the billing that 2024 enjoys in the Chinese calendar but there are a few thousand football fans in north Wales who may beg to differ.
Wrexham, nicknamed the Red Dragons, have had a stellar 12 months, even allowing for the rare stumble that was Friday’s 3-1 defeat by Walsall.
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Records tumbled throughout 2023 as Phil Parkinson’s side slugged it out with Notts County in the most relentless title race in National League history before eventually prevailing with a game to spare.
Then came the long-awaited return to the English Football League — Wrexham had been away so long, the competition was no longer known simply as the Football League — and a truly chaotic start that included conceding a dozen goals in their first three home matches.
That the newly-promoted side also scored a dozen times in those opening suggested life was not going to be dull now back in League Two and this has certainly proved the case with late goals, red cards and dramatic comebacks aplenty.
Perhaps appropriately, the final game of 2023 served up more of the same with Wrexham twice hitting the crossbar in defeat as the two teams mustered an impressive 39 efforts on goal between them.
With the visit of Barrow, one point and one place behind Parkinson’s men in the table, kicking off the new year at the SToK Cae Ras, there seems little chance of the drama easing up any time soon.
Let The Athletic salute what has been a remarkable year…
104… points across the year, a remarkable return from 47 matches in the National League and League Two. To put this into the context of their 2023 peers, Stockport County managed 96 from 49 outings solely in the fourth tier and Notts County collected 92 from 47 across the two competitions. Chesterfield, this season’s runaway leaders in the National League, bagged 97 from 48 games at that level.
104… goals scored. Of those, 56 came in the National League and 48 have come in League Two.
97… minutes played when Ben Foster made ‘that’ penalty save against Notts County.
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88… the points tally that Wrexham are on course to achieve this season based on their performance in the first 24 matches.
63… points won on home soil in 24 matches, including a hugely impressive 20 victories and three draws.
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For-Against | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022-23 | 12 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 32-10 | 34 |
2023-24 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 37-20 | 29 |
Total | 24 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 69-30 | 63 |
60… goals scored in the second half, a little under 60 per cent of their total output. Wrexham conceded 36 times after half-time.
46… appearances out of a possible 47 in the league by Elliot Lee, the highest tally in the squad. He started all but one of those, his one outing from the bench coming at home to Sutton United. Even then, Lee came on to bag the 88th-minute winner. Sam Dalby was involved 45 times (26 of them as a substitute), Ben Tozer 44 and Ollie Palmer on 43 occasions.
44… goals scored in the first half. At the other end, Wrexham conceded 23 times in the opening 45 minutes.
31… victories in 47 games, including 11 on the road.
29… goals scored by Paul Mullin, making him the club’s top goalscorer for 2023 in league action. Elliot Lee bagged 21 from midfield, while Palmer (9), Sam Dalby (7), James Jones (6) and Jacob Mendy (5) also contributed.
26… appearances from the bench by Dalby, the most by a Wrexham player. Jordan Davies, who missed the opening weeks of the year due to injury, managed 23.
25… times Wrexham led at the interval. Of those, they went on to win 20. The only game they lost from a winning position at the break was against Halifax Town on Good Friday.
18… different Wrexham goalscorers, starting with Joran Tunnicliffe at Solihull Moors and ending with Mullin’s 24th-minute penalty at the Bescot Stadium on December 29.
17… clean sheets kept in 47 league matches. Arthur Okonkwo leads the way among the goalkeepers with seven to his name, followed by Rob Lainton (4), Mark Howard (3) and Ben Foster (3).
17… minutes between the two players who spent the most time on the pitch, Tozer managing 4,330 minutes to Lee’s 4,313 minutes.
16… Wrexham’s league position five games into the League Two season. They head into 2024 occupying the final automatic promotion place.
10… goals scored in stoppage time. Mullin, James Jones and Lee have all bagged two apiece, while Lee and Sam Dalby both netted in the 96th minute to rescue a draw against Salford City and a 4-3 win at Aldershot Town respectively.
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5… red cards. Callum McFadzean (Barnet away) was the only dismissal in the first half of the year, while there have been another four since returning to the EFL — Ryan Barnett (Crewe), Andy Cannon (Crawley), George Evans (Colchester United) and James Jones (Swindon Town). Impressively, Wrexham did not lose a game when reduced to 10 men, winning three and drawing twice.
5… own goals by opposition players, though Mullin may quibble this as he still believes the strike credited to Corey Jordan in February’s 4-3 win at Aldershot belongs to him. Steve Arnold (Southend), Ryan Whitley (York), Joel Senior (Morecambe) and Zach Mitchell (Colchester United) also obliged.
4… defeats since returning to the EFL. Milton Keynes Dons, Stockport County, Accrington Stanley and now Walsall are the only sides to get the better of the National League champions in 2023-24.
3… times conceded five goals in a match. Two of those were at home as well inside the opening 15 days of the 2023-24 campaign and yet Wrexham head into the New Year riding high.
2…victories on the summer US tour that saw Wrexham watched by around 110,000 fans in four matches, the wins coming against LA Galaxy II and Manchester United.
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1… times beaten on home soil. This came on an opening day when Wrexham, perhaps too determined to make their mark back in the EFL, crashed to a 5-3 loss to Milton Keynes Dons. After watching his side concede twice in the opening ten minutes, Parkinson could clearly be seen urging his players to “calm the f*ck down”. They got the message… eventually.
All stats are league only.
(Top photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)