How Wrexham are using ‘dark arts’ in another promotion bid as Welsh outfit co-owned by Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney look to win by any means necessary

The Welsh outfit – with Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney calling the shots – have not had things all their own way this season. They surged to promotion in record-breaking style last term, as they returned to the Football League, but are no longer able to roll rivals over with ease.

Clean sheets have been in short supply for Phil Parkinson’s side, while they had Andy Cannon sent off against Crawley, but three points were picked up in a 1-0 win at Broadfield Stadium.

Crawley star Danilo Orsi told reporters afterwards of Wrexham grinding out results: “We had a lot of the ball, broke them down a few times, created a few big chances. Dark arts is part of football and even more so in League Two. When you’re 1-0 up away from home, we would do the same. It wasn’t anything we didn’t expect and haven’t come up across in the past. Credit to them, they did it extremely well especially towards the end.”

Rather than criticise Wrexham for the methods that they adopted when finding themselves a man down, Orsi saluted them for picking up maximum points at a tricky place to visit.

He added: “It’s disappointing to lose as always. I felt we put in a good performance but you’ve got to get three points, at the end of the day, and we didn’t manage to do that. They went down to 10 men. Once you get a 1-0 lead here, they will naturally sit in as they know how good we are at home. You want to put the ball across the line. We created chances, kept the ball and recycled it well. You can see how tiring they found it. By the end they were thinking just don’t succeed. We’ve had belief this season and we think we’re going to get one but it didn’t come.”

Victory for Wrexham has lifted them back into the League Two play-off places – four points adrift of leaders Notts County – while they have now collected clean sheets in back-to-back games for the first time in fourth tier action this season.