At the end of the 2022-23 season I had the bright idea of coming up with a combined Wrexham team, made up of the year’s key performers from both the men’s and the women’s team. It was good fun, and commemorated a remarkable season so, I reckon I should give it another go!
Arthur Okonkwo
The sudden departure of Ben Foster could have been a disaster. We were shipping goals and, although Mark Howard is a more than capable keeper, the disruption around him threatened to get out of hand.
Enter Okonkwo. The perfect combination of a player with higher level skills who needed to gain first team experience, his imposing presence, soft hands and brilliant reflexes made him an instant hero.
Max Cleworth
It’s rather rare to have three breakthrough seasons, but this time it feels different! In the second half of each of the last 3 seasons, Cleworth has come in to play a key role. We seem to forget this every time he comes into the side, but his polished excellence in 2024 should put such talk to bed. Now all we’re saying is that he’s destined for greater things.
Eoghan O’Connell
O’Connell’s imperious presence at the heart of our defence was a crucial component in our superb end to the season. He essentially called time on Ben Tozer’s time at The Racecourse as he defended the box with aggression, and broke through the lines with his purposeful running.
Keren Allen
Brought in last Summer as skipper, Allen has been inspirational all season and capped the campaign as the outstanding performer in a Welsh Cup final defeat which saw the whole team perform superbly. Leadership and assertive defending are a given from Allen, who loves a determined foray into enemy territory.
Phoebe Davies
Davies has been supremely consistent this season, despite playing in every conceivable position across both a back four and a back three! Her aggressive tackling is an obvious strength, but her accurate forwards passing under pressure and ability to link up in attack have also been crucial to Steve Dale’s side.
Andy Cannon
I have to confess that when Cannon walked off the pitch following his red card at Crawley, I wondered if he had a future with us. Turns out he most certainly did! Until that point, he’d shown glimpses of his ability, but Parkinson put him straight back into the team following his suspension and he delivered with a tigerish display at Mansfield. That set the tone: in the second half of the season Cannon was magnificent.
Lili Jones
Jones has deservedly captured everyone’s attention on “Welcome to Wrexham”, but there’s a lot more to her than charm and a back story steeped in a love for the club. Jones’ quality has been obvious ever since she burst through from the youth team, and she continues to meet the high standards she sets herself. Decisive when driving forwards, accurate in her passing and equally comfortable at the back, Jones is a player who can take a game by the scruff of the neck.
Elliot Lee
When Paul Mullin was indisposed, Lee stepped up heroically. His transformation from number 10 to disciplined box-to-box playmaker has been remarkable, and the high point of his Wrexham career so far came in the first half of the season, when he embarked on a scoring spree which compensated for the absence of our stricken hero.
Carra Jones
Jones’ first season has been a terrific success. Her evolution through the campaign has been striking: her terrific energy, pace and will to win were obvious from the start, and as the games progressed the quality of her finishing, crossing and movement kept improving. She shone wherever she played, either wide in attack or on both sides as a wing back, and ended the season troubling Cardiff’s defence as a striker.
Rosie Hughes
Once again Hughes has been banging in the goals. She passed the 100 goal landmark in ludicrous time, comfortably the fastest anyone in a Wrexham shirt has done so. Injuries and a suspension disrupted her season, and she wasn’t always able to achieve her usual rhythm, but she went into the final league game of the season with a chance of being the division’s top scorer, which says it all.
Paul Mullin
Mullin’s season was remarkably similar to Hughes’. His pre-season injury tore a hole in his season, and was exacerbated by problems with his back. Yet he still enjoyed another prolific season, grabbed his 100th goal in crucial circumstances, and scored at better than a goal a game in the run-in. Finding his best form when the stakes were at their highest is what we’ve come to expect from this phenomenal leader.
It shows how terrific a season we’ve had that so many players have missed out despite enjoying terrific seasons. Also, it’s striking how many players put in a strong half season but were either troubled by injury or arrived in January. The likes of Liv Fuller, Tom O’Connor, George Evans and Louisha Doran sit firmly in that category.
I also can’t believe I’ve not found space for James McClean! Maybe next year, eh?
DragonHeart 