Wrexham were unable to mark the 160th anniversary of their first ever match with a win as Huddersfield Town earned a hard-fought goalless draw in north Wales.
The Athletic picks out the main talking points.
Huddersfield’s slide a cautionary tale
With landmark moments — the Prince of Wales Fire Brigade were those first visitors to The Racecourse on October 22, 1864 — all the rage on Tuesday night, Huddersfield being in town felt like a timely reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in football.
This week seven years ago, the Yorkshire club beat Manchester United 2-1 in a sold-out John Smith’s Stadium to sit 11th in the Premier League. Even allowing for the battling 1-1 draw at Chelsea that secured their top-flight status for another year the following May, that victory over Jose Mourinho’s United proved to be the highlight of Huddersfield’s two-year stint among the elite.
On the same autumnal Saturday, Wrexham also collected a welcome three points. Theirs, though, came five levels lower in the National League, a stoppage-time own goal by Dagenham & Redbridge defender Craig Dobson gifting them a 1-0 win against 10 men in front of just 1,492 fans.
Huddersfield were only relegated back to the EFL in summer 2019, at a time when Wrexham had just been condemned to yet another season in non-League. Who could have predicted that a little over five years on, these two clubs would be content with a point apiece from league combat?
In many ways, this was the perfect fixture to follow the weekend win at Rotherham United. As with Steve Evans’ side, Huddersfield had spent last season competing two divisions above Wrexham, in the Championship.
That quality was evident, particularly in a back line containing Tom Lees, Matty Pearson (over 1,100 senior appearances combined, almost 700 of them in the second-tier Championship) and Nigel Lonwijk, who is on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers of the Premier League. The trio proved a cut above your usual League One defence, maintaining both their discipline and shape throughout. As a result, the hosts struggled for opportunities with Ryan Barnett’s first-half run and shot their only on-target effort. As if to illustrate how well they have adapted to the third tier in the past three months, however, Wrexham ensured a rare blank on home soil did at least earn a point by proving equally solid at the back themselves.
“I told the players in the dressing room that before the Rotherham game, we would have taken four points from these two games,” said manager Phil Parkinson, who will have to do without striker Steven Fletcher in the coming weeks due to a knee injury. “Two divisions separated ourselves and Rotherham and Huddersfield last year, and we have gone toe-to-toe with both.”
Huddersfield’s slide down the leagues offers a cautionary tale, underlining how the Premier League — the stated target of Wrexham’s celebrity co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney — is not necessarily the land of milk and honey that many believe.
Sure, they had the euphoria of beating Mourinho’s United and then avoiding relegation at Stamford Bridge against all the odds. But they also lost a demoralising 47 of their 76 league matches across those two top-flight seasons. Worse, they over-stretched themselves financially to such an extent when trying to compete with the very best that it’s taken two subsequent takeovers — plus a tumble into League One, a level they last competed at in 2011-12 — to get back on an even keel.
Parky and the riddle of the empty seat
In a managerial career fast approaching 1,000 games, Parkinson has experienced just about everything the job can conjure up, including one truly bizarre episode featuring Tuesday’s visitors.
Peter Jackson’s dismissal by Huddersfield (who were in the third tier at the time too) in the spring of 2007 had opened up a vacancy that interested Parkinson, then working as Alan Pardew’s assistant at Charlton Athletic. After an exhaustive interview process lasting around a month, Huddersfield duly offered him the job.
Parkinson, however, had developed misgivings. He wasn’t sure of the club’s direction and told their hierarchy that. Charlton, then still in the Premier League, were also desperate for him to stay. Despite that, Huddersfield called a press conference to announce their new manager for 9.30am on April 5, 2007. This duly went ahead despite Parkinson having by then turned down the offer, with a seat pointedly left empty between chairman Ken Davy and chief executive Andrew Watson.
Cue a totally surreal half-hour or so as the pair gave Huddersfield’s side of why the ‘unveiling’ had fallen flat. Parkinson, for his part, kept quiet. But, four years later, he did tell The Yorkshire Post newspaper there were “no regrets”.
“A contract had not been finalised or anywhere near being finalised, and I told the club I wouldn’t appear at the press conference,” he added. “But for some bizarre reason, the club decided to hold it anyway. I think they were under pressure from the supporters to make an announcement but hearing they had arranged the press conference helped make my mind up.”
Parkinson’s intuition has proved pretty reliable down the years. He left Bradford City in summer 2016, fresh off making the League One play-offs, after realising he could not work with their new owners, including chief executive Edin Rahic, who was later blamed by fans for the club’s subsequent slide back into League Two.
As for Huddersfield, they turned to Andy Ritchie as their new manager, but it was another five years — and a change of owner, as the ambitious Dean Hoyle took charge — before they escaped League One. Parkinson, meanwhile, stayed at Charlton and eventually succeeded Pardew as their manager in November 2008.
Settled side paying dividends
Injuries may be starting to bite, with Fletcher joining Jack Marriott and George Evans on the long-time absentee list, while Max Cleworth has been out a month. But Wrexham still boast the joint-highest number of ever-presents in League One with five — Arthur Okonkwo, Eoghan O’Connell, Tom O’Connor, James McClean and George Dobson. Only Exeter City can match that tally, while four players have started every Reading match.
Who’s next?
Another trip down memory lane for Parkinson on Saturday, as Charlton await in south-east London.
(Top photo: Robbie Jay Barratt/Getty Images)
This news item came from: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5862840/2024/10/22/wrexham-0-0-huddersfield-parkinson/
