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By Martin Graham | 24th Apr 2023
Welsh side AFC Wrexham have secured promotion back to the professional English Football League on Saturday.
The small Welsh club was acquired by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) in 2021 and both men set about to making this a reality.
Using their celebrity status to attract investment and sponsorship for the club and rallying the fans to invest more emotion and financial support in the team, their dream has come true.
They achieved this by beating Boreham Wood thanks to a goal from Elliott Lee and a Paul Mullin brace. This also secured them the National League title, the top tier semi-professional league title in English football and their first trophy in years.
The crowd went wild at full time and ran into the Racehorse Ground turf to celebrate with the players. Co-owner McElhenney could not stop the tears from flowing while he watched the scenes unfold at the club which he bought on a whim.
Co-owner Reynolds was also as emotional, as he slumped in his chair after the final whistle to call his family and share the good news with them.
They achieved the feat in stunning fashion. Their 110 points haul is a record in the National League and Paul Mullin’s brace goal saw him hit 38 goals in the season.
The afternoon almost turned sour when Boreham Wood man Lee Ndlovu lobbed Ben Foster in the Wrexham post, but the home team responded finely and soon had their equalizer.
Elliott Lee equalized with a header for Wrexham before Mullin took centre stage and etched his name into the history books of Wrexham, football’s third oldest club.
“I am not sure I can process what happened tonight,” said Reynolds, in reaction to Wrexham’s promotion.
“I am still little speechless.”
“[People ask] “Why Wrexham?” This is why Wrexham. This happening, right now, is why.”
Asked what it means to the locals for Wrexham to return to the Football League, McElhenney said: “Well I think you can hear what it means to the town.”
“It’s a time of celebration and be welcomed into their community and be welcomed to this, it is the honour of my life.”
Reynolds added: “This entire story, the reason we are all on edge of our seats is because Notts County are so damn good.”
“They deserve to go up. We are rooting for Notts County. We want to see them go up.”
Martin Graham is an MFF sports writer
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