Why Paul Mullin must get 'p*ssed off' to rediscover goal form - with Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney favourite at Wrexham lacking confidence at League One level

The 30-year-old frontman has been a prolific presence for the Red Dragons across their meteoric rise out of the National League and into the third tier of English football. He has hit 109 goals for the Welsh outfit through 165 appearances, but only four of those efforts have been registered this season.

Mullin has struggled for consistency after being forced to take up seats among the substitutes on a regular basis, and has failed to build on the spectacular strike that he registered in a 2-1 victory over Blackpool on Boxing Day.

His pedigree remains without question, as a firm favourite of Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, but legendary Wrexham striker Andy Morrell has told the Fearless In Devotion podcast of why it is not quite happening for Mullin at present: "He needed a goal, and then he got one, he hit a joke of a goal [against Blackpool] and you think ‘here we go’, and then it just doesn’t seem to be happening for him. He’s playing quite some distance away from Ollie Palmer and it doesn’t seem to be working the way it has in previous seasons."

Morrell went on to say: "I saw him get chucked into a barrier at Barnsley and his reaction, he came back on and he was angry. He was annoyed, but he ran harder than I’ve seen him run, he was getting in behind, he was a threat, he was putting himself about. He looked a bit p*ssed off.

"That’s the Mullin we know and love, who gets stuck in and really gives the defence a problem. For that half an hour I thought he was back, but then we don’t see it again in the next game. I don’t know what it is. Is it just confidence at this level? He can score, he scores brilliant goals and lots of them, so fingers crossed it does happen again and he comes good and scores regularly."

Mullin will be hoping to aid Wrexham’s bid for a historic promotion in 2024-25, but they will not be back in action until facing Shrewsbury on January 16. More firepower may have been added to Phil Parkinson’s squad by then, with the Red Dragons said to be in the hunt for another striker during the winter transfer window.