Wrexham 2 - West Bromwich Albion 3

Date:	Saturday 16th August 2025
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
Wrexham: 5.4
WBA: 7.1	Griffiths 6.0, Furlong 5.7, Phillips 6.7, Campbell 6.2, Styles 6.2, Fellows 6.7 (Wallace, 74 6.6), Molumby 6.2, Price 8.0 (Collyer, 87 6.1), Mowatt 6.1 (Diakité, 79 6.4), Grant 5.4 (Johnston, 73 7.2), Heggebø 6.9 Unused subs: Wildsmith, Bielik, Maja, Taylor, Cole Manager: Ryan Mason 7.3
Scorers:	Price (20, 81), Wallace (74)
Referee:	John Busby 6.4
Attendance:	10,656 Home Fans 5.3 Away Fans 8.0

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Ratings submitted so far: 20

Brendan Clegg:

A very encouraging win and it's brilliant to get the away day hoodoo gone at the first attempt after so long without winning a match on the road.

Heggem leaving was purely a matter of time and it was Campbell who got the nod to partner Phillips but it was otherwise as we were from the opener - with seeming nobody who came in for the Derby game in the cup doing enough to win a place despite a pretty good performance apart from the oh-so peak #albion that end to the tie.

You could've mistaken the pre-match coverage to have been given by Disney+ and not Sky/ITV, with all of the attention on Wrexham and their story but I will say, having watched the documentary and the one on Blues... I do find Wrexham's Hollywood owners to be far classier, humble and self-deprecating than their Yank-Brummie rivals.

All of the silliness out of the way and the game began... Albion's meagre away contingent out-singing the rest of the stadium which looked, sounded and felt a little bit like there might have been quite a few tourists and first-timers in the home end.

I thought Wrexham were quite predictable on their 3-5-2 that became a 5-3-2 when they lost the ball. They played short passes to suck in a press before going long to Moore and feeding off what he won - which to be fair was most things. they also looked to get it wide and cross early. In this, I thought we competed physically quite well with both Phillips and Campbell having a go and then being quick to the second balls, never shirking anything.

We tried to be more patient with it and it was really more just a frustrating lack of quality or decision-making that prevented us from doing more in the early stages - a few times where we broke the lines but didn't quite make the most of it. One moment though, where Grant went wide and crossed it presented a good opening for Fellows who flashed his shot over, demonstrated that there was opportunity there.

Not long after, solid work from Heggeboe in the centre allowed us to progress up the pitch as he played Furlong who in turn gave it Fellows on the run early. A stepover and clever cutback later allowed Price to arrive and steer a lovely finish in and put us ahead.

After that we were comfortable. Pretty disciplined, reserved, contained them quite well and you felt like things would open up for us as the game went on. The frustration was probably that we didn't look after it well enough when some moments came... Grant and Price especially I felt were just a bit careless or wasteful.

Still we looked okay but right before half time we conceded a really disappointing goal that undid all our hard work and which we had multiple opportunities to prevent. Firstly Styles went flying into a press when Grant was still out of position and didn't get near the ball, leaving us totally open on our left and as Moore strode down the pitch neither Phillips nor Campbell sorted out who was going to out to block and who was going to cover the box... they both ended up doing neither and although Phillips retreated into nowhere, Campbell didn't block the cross, Molumby didn't get enough on his headed clearance, Mowatt still seemed to be towing his caravan back from holiday and O'Brien bundled home an equaliser.

Frustrating then as the half closed but there was enough there to be ambitious about. I thought Wrexham looked short on quality in a few areas and ropey defensively if we could get at them.

We came out very lucky not to concede an early goal with Campbell getting robbed and the big chance flashing wide. We continued to work hard and battle but as the half went in it felt like we were losing a grip and I'll say again that, as good as Price is and he could be, his use of the ball was really cheap to the point where I felt like we might be better off without him... whereas on the left it was Grant's quality and ability to control the ball that kept us under pressure.

We had little of it and Wrexham slowly built momentum even though, when we did manage to get overlaps in down the right, we found it quite easy to get behind them and win set pieces. It felt like we needed legs and I was keen to see Collyer and Johnston get on, and I'm sure like many people Wallace would not have been the sub I'd have made at that point but within 30 seconds of coming on he'd slammed us ahead finishing with his left foot at the near post after really solid work by Heggeboe and MJ's liveliness to get on the front foot and play him in.

We again looked comfortable and added a third after good work from Molumby down the right ultimately led to nothing/a bit of a swing from Heggeboe on his left foot before Styles and MJ retrieved the ball and crossed for Price to flick in a point blank header.

Wrexham got a 2nd with the last touch of the game which soured it a bit... and it looked like another team failing with Styles, Campbell, the midfield and Furlong all a bit culpable.

But overall this was an impressive win.

It feels like a long time since we've had enough battlers and leaders with sufficient quality who could go to such a game, with everything surrounding it, having lost our best player (totally understandably) 2 days before and put in a winning performance.

2 games, 6 points, top of the league. We're fit, organised, disciplined and we know there is a lot more to come from the players we have already and hopefully the 1 or 2 we might get in. Cause for optimism, without getting carried away.

Griffiths - 6 Flapped at an early cross worryingly but otherwise did okay.
Furlong - 6 Generally sound and some good support play with Fellows
Phillips - 7 Good battle with him and Moore.. stuck at it.
Campbell - 6 Promising if a little raw... if he learns fast then looks very useful.
Styles - 6 I thought was at fault most for the first and some wild decision-making undid some otherwise decent play.
Molumby - 6 Battled and got about.
Mowatt - 6 Passed it well at times without standing out.
Fellows - 7 I thought he was bright when we got it to him. Should have hit the target with his chance, another assist.
Price - 7 In the goals... controversially, as good as he is, he really needs to sort out looking after the ball better although that might be the thing that's preventing a big bid coming... for now.
Grant - 5 Might be slightly harsh but I do think his quality and football intelligence are a bit below others.
Heggeboe - 7 Won loads, held it up well. I think we can see he's not going to be prolific but is a very useful option to have and will get stronger with each game.

Wallace - 7 Goal seemed to give him confidence
MJ - 2 assists in 10 minutes
Diakite - 6 I thought he was solid again.
I thought Collyer's mobility looked exciting... even though he only had two minutes.

Definitely a better start than I was expecting!