The Red Dragons take on Newcastle United U21s in our first appearance in the revamped EFL Trophy competition.
It’s a tournament that has brought Wrexham success, as Denis Smith’s side lifted the LDV Vans Trophy back in 2005, with a famous 2-0 win against Southend United.
Juan Ugarte and Darren Ferguson scored in the fixture which took place at the Millennium Stadium, and the squad also featured our former goalkeeper, Ben Foster.
Callum McFadzean is the latest winner of the competition, as he was part of the Sunderland squad that beat Tranmere Rovers 1-0 in a behind-closed-doors clash at Wembley Stadium in March 2021.
Tonight’s EFL Trophy clash at the STōK Cae Ras will be streamed live on WrexhamPlayer and will kick off at 7:30 pm BST.
THE RECAP
At the weekend, Phil Parkinson’s side ran out victorious on derby day, with a 1-0 win over rivals Tranmere Rovers.
It was the first time the two sides had met since 2018, and Aaron Hayden’s second-half header proved to be the difference on the day.
Mark Howard was left relatively untroubled by the Rovers frontline, as he kept his second clean sheet of the season.
There was a late debut for deadline day signing George Evans, who came on for Elliot Lee to see out added time.
The other deadline day arrival Arthur Okonkwo was watching his teammates on from the stands, as he signed after the registration deadline to be involved in the fixture.
Victory at Prenton Park saw the Red Dragons climb to 13th in Sky Bet League Two, adding to the unbeaten start away from home.
After the full-time whistle on Saturday, Parkinson explained to the press that there will be couple of changes to the squad ahead of tonight’s game.
He said: "Obviously there will be changes. We will freshen the team up and hopefully continue the run we are on."
EYE ON THE OPPOSITION
The Magpies sit 22nd in Premier League 2, enduring a tough start to the campaign, with their most recent defeat coming at the hands of Manchester City.
They fell to a 4-0 defeat on Saturday lunchtime, with Will Dickson scoring twice in the last ten minutes to put the game out of sight.
In last season’s competition, they finished bottom of their group, with Lincoln, Barnsley and Doncaster all finishing above them.
The last time the young Magpies qualified out of the group stage was in 2018/19, when they topped Group Seven.
Since then, they have finished bottom of every group they have been a part of, however, this time around they are hoping for a more positive return.
Speaking to their official Club website, youth prospect, Jamie Miley hopes that they can find more success in this year’s competition.
He said: "I think it's massive for the group (to start strongly). Looking at previous years, we haven't done as well as we'd like to in the EFL Trophy so, hopefully, we can get off to a good start to give us that head start to try and qualify from the group.”
HOW TO WATCH
You can tune into tonight’s EFL Trophy fixture between Wrexham and Newcastle United U21s live on WrexhamPlayer, via the iFollow platform.
The game is available to be streamed worldwide, so if you can’t make it to the STōK Cae Ras this evening, you can watch it wherever you want to around the world.
You can listen to our WrexhamPlayer commentary team led by Mark Griffiths, on both our audio commentary and our video stream.
Match, Month and Season passes are available on our website, and you can find out further details here.