Promotion-winning former Wrexham managers on the class of 2024’s chances

“Momentum kicked in for us and teams became fearful of playing Wrexham,” says Brian Flynn when asked about his experience of successfully navigating a promotion run-in with the Welsh club.

“It’s all about managing people when the pressure is on,” adds Denis Smith, his successor in the Racecourse Ground’s home dugout.

With the current League Two season into the final straight as Wrexham chase a return to the domestic game’s third tier, a level they last graced in 2004-05, who better to provide an insight into the pressures current boss Phil Parkinson will be facing in the coming weeks than the last two managers to take the club up from the EFL’s basement division?

Between them, Flynn and Smith boast almost 2,000 competitive games in management. Both are rightly still revered in north Wales for masterminding promotions which happened a decade apart.

“Wrexham is such a big club,” says Smith, whose success came in 2002-03. “You’ve got the whole of north Wales, all desperate for some success. That gives you huge drawing power. Look at the day we went to Cardiff (beating Southend United 2-0 in the 2004-05 EFL Trophy final at the then Millennium Stadium). We took 20,000 fans.

“The year we won promotion, those fans were brilliant. They willed us on, really making a difference.

“I’d say one of the hardest parts of my job during that run-in was trying to keep a lid on things, even when we were winning every week. I’d have to drill home the message: ‘You’re not there yet’. There was such a wave of support behind us, that I had to make sure no one got carried away and stopped doing the right things. Credit to that team. They never did stop.”

Today’s Hollywood-owned version of Wrexham is a very different beast to the club Flynn and later Smith inherited.

Flynn was appointed player-manager in November 1989 at a time when money was so scarce that Wrexham suffered the indignity of propping up the entire Football League in his first full season. Only through his acumen and a lucrative FA Cup run that included reigning champions Arsenal being humbled in front of the Match of the Day cameras was a remarkable overhaul, including the building of a much-needed new training ground, possible.

GO DEEPER

Brian Flynn – the man who built Wrexham

Smith, meanwhile, took over a few months into a 2001-02 campaign which ended in relegation to the fourth division.

From such inauspicious beginnings, however, both men brought glory to the Racecourse.

“What an experience,” says Flynn as he remembers his Wrexham team finishing as runners-up to fellow Welsh side Cardiff City in the fourth tier in 1992-93. “We were actually pretty average up to Christmas, probably in and around mid-table. We lacked consistency. But then everything clicked into place. We still lost three games (after Christmas), which wasn’t ideal, but we also won 16. Gary Bennett and Steve Watkin got 45 goals between them.

“I tweaked things a little, in that we had a talented left-footed winger called Jonathan Cross but I played him down the right. Everyone does it now but this was a long time ago. The opposition just couldn’t work it out. It was the same with Karl Connolly on the other side. He could play an inverted left-winger’s role as he was really good at picking up space in between the midfield and the strikers when coming from deep.

“I’ll never forget the day we clinched promotion at Northampton (with a 2-0 victory in the penultimate game). There must have been 5,000 Wrexham fans in a crowd of 7,500 (on a Tuesday night). So much hard work had gone into getting us to that moment. It was wonderful.”

The parallels between this season’s promotion chase and those previous triumphs in 1993 and 2003 are striking.

Like the current side, both those teams made a mixed start, with Flynn’s Wrexham only truly finding their rhythm during the second half of the campaign and Smith’s men still occupying eighth place as late as the middle of March.

Paul Mullin and Elliot Lee, comfortably the club’s top scorers this season with 15 league goals apiece (nobody else is in double figures), are also following in the tradition of two attack-minded teams.

Smith’s side, for instance, scored 84 goals in the 46 league games — 11 more than any other club in the division. Andy Morrell got 34 of those, supported by the mercurial Lee Trundle (11) and Trinidad & Tobago international Carlos Edwards (eight).

“The way I set my teams up was to make sure we were challenging,” says Smith, whose career also included leading York City, Sunderland (twice) and Oxford United to promotion. “I don’t see the point otherwise. The key is getting that approach across to the players and finding a system that suits them.

“I came in at a difficult time (Wrexham were second-bottom of the third tier with just one win in the 2001-02 season’s first 10 games). (Predecessor) Flynny was a big help, though. We spoke before I took the job and he filled me in on everything. Everything he told me was spot-on, as you’d expect.

“As with convincing the supporters, it took a bit of time to turn things around but once I’d got over how I wanted to play, they came on board. The players were great, too, and really bought into it.

“Morrell was a manager’s dream; an outstanding work rate and someone who just got on with his job. Trundle had so much skill and ability; he could do things with a football I could only dream about but sometimes he’d want to overdo it so we had to refine his game a bit. Not too much, you have to be careful with a talent like that.

“We also had pace out wide but the big thing we had, as a team, was balance.

Trundle, left, was one of the stars of Wrexham’s 2002-03 side (Barrington Coombs/EMPICS via Getty Images)

“Dennis Lawrence was huge for us at the back, even though, when I first arrived, I didn’t think he was for me. He was all over the shop — just didn’t look like a centre-half. But, fair play to the lad, he was brilliant. He didn’t sulk at being left out. We’d talk and talk and talk about how he could improve his game. In the end, he was one of the first names on my team sheet.”

Smith’s 2002-03 side confirmed promotion with two games to spare, getting the job done in style with a 5-0 home win against Cambridge United. A strong run-in that brought maximum points from the final eight matches was crucial as Wrexham finished in the third and final automatic promotion place, just as it had been a decade earlier when securing 15 of the last 18 points available helped Flynn and company seal runners-up spot in the same division.

Wrexham again occupy second place, with nine games remaining this time. Mansfield Town are two ahead while the gap to Crewe Alexandra in fourth is three points. With Mansfield and third-placed Stockport County, who play tonight (Thursday) at mid-table Salford City, still to visit the Racecourse on March 29 and for an April 27 regular-season finale respectively, Parkinson and company have their fate very much in their own hands.

“I’ve not seen the documentary (Welcome To Wrexham) but I’m told the place is bouncing,” says Smith when asked if the current crop can emulate those teams from 1993 and 2003. “I hear such good things in terms of the way they are selling the club around the world. That’s fantastic.

Brian Flynn guided Wrexham to promotion in 1992-93 (Paul Marriott/EMPICS via Getty Images)

“They have a good staff, too. Phil’s a great lad and vastly experienced. So is Stevie (Parkin, assistant manager), who also just happens to be a good Stoke lad (also Smith’s home town). That gives them every chance.”

Flynn agrees.

“I like how there’s total trust between the staff,” adds the 68-year-old, who was able to study the management setup at close quarters last summer as the club’s ambassador on their pre-season tour in the United States. “Just as I had with Kev (Reeves, his assistant) and Joey (Jones, coach) when I was the manager.

“It’s why I was able to watch games from up in the stand, rather than on the touchline. We all thought the same way so if something needed changing during the match, they just got on with it.

“Last year’s experience (winning the National League title) should also help. They’ve added experience since then, too, in former internationals like (the former Scotland striker) Steven Fletcher, who is 36, and James McClean (the 34-year-old, 103-cap Republic of Ireland international).

“It’s a little bit like what we did at the very start of my time as manager, by bringing in Alan Kennedy and Mickey Thomas (veterans in their thirties who had won trophies for Liverpool and played in an FA Cup final for Manchester United respectively earlier in their careers). Jimmy Case (another to earn a stack of medals with Liverpool in the 1970s and early 1980s) also signed at 38. McClean and Fletcher have really looked after themselves and have that class about them.

“I’ve been looking through the archives and every year Wrexham get promotion, March has been a big month. It was for us (in 1993) — we got three wins and two draws. Last year, they also had one of their best months (taking 13 points from 15).

“I can see the same happening this month and Wrexham getting another promotion.”

(Top photos: Smith, left, and Flynn; via Getty Images)