With Wrexham closing in on the never-before-seen feat of three-straight promotions, one of the men at the top has admitted things are getting real.
Humphrey Ker, executive director of the Welsh side, joined talkSPORT to discuss his side’s incredible journey from the fifth tier which may now end in the second.
The Disney+ documentary Welcome to Wrexham that has followed the feat so far is sometimes comical in detail, but with the Red Dragons now on the brink of the second tier, the mood has certainly changed.
“Yeah absolutely [it’s got more serious than ever],” Ker began.
“I think we’ve always taken the responsibility to the town and the team very seriously and one area where Rob [McElhenney] and Ryan [Reynolds] got it spot on from the start is we always made sure that we were supporting the people who knew what they were talking about.
“With Phil Parkinson and John Harvey and Fleur Robinson initially, and now Michael Williamson our CEO, we would just be like, ‘Look, you guys know how this works, we’ll back you, we’ll give you the support and we’re not going to stick our fingers on the scale’.
“But, as it’s gone further up the football pyramid, the numbers get bigger and the expectations get larger and that does come with an added degree of pressure.
“But Phil and the squad have absolutely risen to that challenge and we’re trailing along in their wake trying to do the same.”
Wrexham are co-owned by Hollywood duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney who took over the team in 2021 but needed two attempts to get out of the fifth tier.
Since then it’s all been upwards, with just one season in fourth tier League Two, and they’re now three points clear in the automatic promotion spots in League One.
Should they finish the job and reach the Championship, just one step from the Premier League, it would be the first time a team has achieved three-straight promotions in the top five tiers of English football.
Yet Ker and Co are keeping their feet on the ground, despite being well aware of what’s at stake.
He explained: “You can’t discount Stockport or Charlton, who are both flying.
“If we or Wycombe go off the rails, either one of those could sneak up the inside. I’ve spent enough time in football now to dish out some mega cliches, so we’ll take it a game at a time.
“It’s in our hands, which is an amazing position to be in four years after taking over in the National League, and just missed out on the play-offs.”
League One leaders Birmingham have already achieved promotion, with a win over Peterborough on Tuesday night booking them a Championship spot next season.
Wrexham currently occupy second – the remaining automatic promotion spot – three points ahead of Wycombe with five games to go.
The last time Wrexham were in the second tier of English football was back in 1982, and they spent 15 years in the non-league fifth tier from 2008 to 2023.
