It was an auspicous day for Andy Morrell, and not only because he scored a hat trick – the first by a Wrexham player since Jake Speight put three past Alfreton in August ast season and the first we’ve managed at The Racecourse since Marc Williams kept the match ball against Eastbourne in December 2008. He also becomes the oldest Wrexham player to score a hat trick, but that’s just the beginning.
The goals take him into the top ten Wrexham scorers of all time, overtaking Billy Tunnicliffe. He now needs four more to catch Billy Ashcroft in eighth place, and eight more to become the eighth player in Wrexham’s history to score a century of goals for the club. It’s taken him 242 appearances to get to 92 goals – the same number of games that the third fastest Wrexham player to a hundred goals took to get to that figure. To be fourth fastest to a ton ahead of Graham Whittle he’s got another 66 games to get the remaining eight.
Furthermore, he now goes to equal second place in the list of players with the most hat tricks for Wrexham. He’s managed six for the club, equal with Gary Bennett, but Tommy Bamford’s club record of sixteen looks a little beyond his reach, I’m afraid!
Most Hat | Tricks for Wrexham |
16 | Tommy Bamford |
6 | Gary Bennett |
Andy Morrell | |
4 | Jack Boothway |
Karl Connolly | |
Juan Ugarte |
Morrell also rises in a category he probably wouldn’t want to climb! He’s now the third oldest scorer in the club’s history, overtaking Gareth Taylor. He’ll have a job to climb any higher though: he’s one year and one day younger than second placed Bert Goode was when he scored in a 5-6 home defeat to Accrington Stanley in 1925!
I wonder if you can help. My Dad took me to my first football match sometime in the mid 70s to early 80s. I don’t remember who the opposition were or even if it was at home or away. What I do remember was that there was a hat trick scored with one of the goals being an overhead kick. Do you when and where this was and who the scorer was?
Charles – charlesryle@btinternet.com
Do you remember if it was a Wrexham player who scored the hat trick? If so I can pull up a list of Wrexham players who’ve scored one and see if we can work it out!