After 19 seasons, Wrexham secured their promotion back to Sky Bet League One, with a thumping 6-0 victory over Forest Green Rovers at the STōK Cae Ras.
With Mansfield Town’s 4-1 victory over MK Dons and Gillingham’s 3-0 win over Barrow, promotion was confirmed around seven minutes after the full-time whistle in Wrexham.
Phil Parkinson said post-match: “Everybody’s got to pull together at a football club to achieve days like this, and we’ve certainly had that from day one since I came in.
“The spirit and the mentality to produce two of the best performances of the season; on Tuesday night and backing it up today is a great tribute to the lads and the staff as well.”
As the results in those two games were apparent for a long time before their conclusions, the joyous scenes started immediately in North Wales, as fans and players got the opportunity to celebrate their hard work for the season.
The match itself had real potential to be a tough challenge for Parkinson and his side though, with Forest Green needing to win to help improve their prospects of survival in the Football League.
However, the fight from the Gloucestershire side simply never materialised on the pitch.
The first goal of the afternoon laid testament to that, as the Rovers players ran side to side in the goalmouth failing to clear Tom O’Connor’s corner; ultimately allowing Elliot Lee to poke the ball into the back of the net.
Just as they did against Crawley Town, the Red Dragons netted their second a few minutes later, with an unmarked Paul Mullin heading home from close range.
From a Forest Green perspective, the third goal was the biggest disaster.
Tom O’Connor telegraphed his pass down the wing to the on-running Andy Cannon for what felt like an age. The sporadically placed Rovers players failed to close Cannon down quick enough, allowing his pull-back to meet the boot of Eoghan O’Connell. From there, the defender’s shot ricocheted off Emmanuel Osadebe’s boot, onto Ryan Inniss’ and rolled mockingly over the line of Vicente Reyes’ net.
In comparison to the reverse fixture, Forest Green were shockingly uncoordinated at the back and Wrexham wreaked havoc.
The visitors failed to learn from their mistakes, letting Mullin peel away to the back-post from another corner, just as he did for the first goal. This time, his volley deflected past Reyes and into the far corner, giving Wrexham a four-goal lead at the break.
There was to be no managing the game out for the second half either, as Ryan Barnett took it upon himself to score arguably the goal of the season.
James McClean’s cross dipped over the head of captain Jordan Moore-Taylor, but Barnett was already envisaging the ball nestling onto his boot. With the perfect connection, the ball spun into the back of the net.
After not scoring in his 14 months at the Club, the wing-back has now netted two in two games... queue the famous old saying about London buses.
Jack Marriott also got in on the action in the 84th minute, tapping home a McClean cross at the near-post to score his first-ever goal for Wrexham.
The goal also signified a hat-trick of assists for McClean, all coming from pin-point crosses into the box.
The afternoon almost felt too good to be true, with all the results falling into place.
Stockport County too secured their promotion on Saturday, with the Sky Bet League Two title in their hands.
For the Red Dragons, a cross-border against Crewe Alexandra awaits for our penultimate game in Sky Bet League Two.
