Wrexham AFC: Standings, schedule as Red Dragons inch closer to Championship promotion

Since 1982, Wrexham has not played in the second level of English football, but promotion is seductive within reach for the oldest club in Wales, because the competition -one season is his succession of the population. However, it is not in their hands after a 2-2 draw to relegation scrappers Cambridge United on one night where their nearest rivals took over the Red Dragons the chance of checking the Promotierace.

With six more own games to play, the side of Phil Parkinson is in second place in the table. League leaders Birmingham City Streaking to the championship, 11 points free from the field with two games in hand on Wrexham. Behind them it is shaping to be a decent scrap for the second automatic place.

Wycombe Wanderers have their fate in their own hands, despite the fact that 30 shots at the bottom of the Shrewsbury Town table have not become goals while they were made to settle for a point. In the meantime, Charlton Athletic and Stockport County both gained ground on Tuesday evening and started the stage for an exciting race to the finish line on 3 May.

League One Automatic Promotion Race

The parties that end first and second are automatically promoted to the championship with teams in third place arranged to the sixth that the play-offs enter, a two-legged semi-final followed by the final at Wembley on 25 May.

The remaining luminaires of Wrexham

• April 5: Wrexham 3, Burton 0
• April 12: Wigan (A)
• April 18: Bristol Rovers (H)
• April 21: Blackpool (A)
• April 26: Charlton (H)
• May 3: Lincoln (A)

So what should Wrexham be promoted?

There is no scenario in which Wrexham can be absolutely sure of a top-two finish. If Wycombe won their remaining seven games, even a 100 percent run for the Welsh side would leave them on points with their promotion rivals. That would mean that target difference breaking the draw, and in that respect Wycombe has a healthy advantage of five (they have also scored considerably more if it is necessary to break the draw).

From a realistic point of view, such a ruthless run of winning is unlikely. Instead, it can amount to a series of crucial luminaires for both parties. In theory, the meetings of Wrexham with Burton Albion and Bristol Rovers should be simple, given the 30-plus points that separate them. On the other hand, in this phase of the season there are little more difficult assignments than those parties that scrape their lives to prevent relegation as those opponents are.

Perhaps the most important game for both Wycombe and Wrexham, however, falls at the end of April. In the five -day room, Charlton first travels to Adams Park and then the Racecourse Ground. If the side in the fourth victory in both places, this can form a decisive swing in the Promoter’s race. Win both and Charlton himself would be firmly in the mix.

Has a team ever risen as fast as Wrexham could?

If Wrexham Wycombe and the rest of the contenders will stop, they would make it three promotions in so many seasons. In 2022-23, after an absence of 15 years, they returned to the English football competition, immediately afterwards by reaching comfortable promotion of League Two in second place.

Various other teams in English have risen by three layers of the pyramid in consecutive years – indeed, Truro City and Shaw Lane went up four times in a row, but no one rose so quickly due to the highest levels of the English pyramid. FC United of Manchester, for example, went up three levels after their foundation by dissatisfied Manchester United supporters in June 2005, but thereby reached the Northern Premier League Premier Division, level seven on the pyramid.

For Wrexham, the opposition has been a higher figure while haunting the second layer. The National League 2022-23 consisted largely, if not entirely, consisting of professional clubs. Each team in competitions two and one is completely professional. Of course it should be noted that Wrexham, owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney, has had the financial muscle to focus on any level of competition in which they have been so far. That leads to the most important question that will come up with possible promotion.

Can Wrexham survive in the championship?

Park the prospect that this team will go up a row and reach the Premier League. Back-to-back promotions from League One to the top flight have been done, indeed, indeed Ipswich Town did this last season, but teams who manage that that are usually some of the big animals of the English competition. Wrexham has perhaps developed an avid global fan base since their takeover, but the championship is an expensive competition to be in.

In competition two, Wrexham had a wage account of more than $ 14 million a year, a figure that will certainly have risen with the recruitment of former Premier League players such as Jay Rodriguez and Matty James. Even those a solution for a salaries, a richly promoted side, perhaps still a third of what the richest clubs of the championship pays, perhaps still spend. Wrexham director Humprey Ker even spoke about the salary spending that are needed to continue to follow four -time after promotion.

That investment is perhaps the more necessary because the underlying figures from Wrexham do not shout that this is a team that is ready to compete against Southampton and Leicester. The Parkinson’s men have converted 48.1 expected goals (XG) into 56 goals scored and have had to deal with shots worth 42.4 xg, with 32 goals. They can be second in the League One table, but rank the clubs based on non-Penalty XG difference and Wrexham are ninth.

That is not something that is good for Wrexham’s ability to protect promotion in their remaining six competitions, let alone survive in the championship when they arrive there. On the other hand, the story of this club has been a club since 2020 that is willing to increase the moment when it is pushed on them. If they do indeed come from the League One, expect the wealth that enters the championship to be invested to keep Wrexham there.