In Tinseltown, where the Oscars crowd were once famously told “the British are coming” after Chariots of Fire had scooped a prize in the early 1980s, Wrexham’s own invasion of the United States continued at a pace.
On the field, Phil Parkinson’s side claimed their first victory of this summer’s U.S. tour, LA Galaxy’s second string proving no match in front of a noisy crowd as the Welsh visitors ran out convincing 4-0 winners. Off it, the League Two club once again proved to be a big hit — with fans flying in from all over the country to support a team most had only previously seen on a TV or computer screen.
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Ticket prices that, in the main, hovered north of the $100 mark couldn’t put off a growing army whose devotion to all things Wrexham has taken even Wayne Jones, landlord of The Turf pub and breakout star from series one of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary, by surprise.
“The response so far on the tour has been bonkers,” Jones tells The Athletic. “Everywhere we go, there seems to be a Wrexham fan. That’s how it feels. Once they find out where we’re from, that’s it — they all want to talk about Paul Mullin or the show or what The Turf is like.
“Who could have predicted all this? I’d had a taste through the pub, obviously, with all the tourists coming in during the past year — It’s been great to play a part in welcoming them — but even I’ve been surprised by the support that exists out here. I’m here with my cousin (Jack) and we must have spoken to the best part of 200 people during our first day in LA. All of them had flown in just for the game, coming from all parts of America.”

Jones is among a small band of supporters who have flown out to the States from north Wales and are taking in all four friendlies, starting with last Thursday’s defeat to Chelsea in North Carolina, and continuing on from here to San Diego, also in California, and then back east to Philadelphia.
In many ways, these Welsh supporters are proving just as popular as their team, with some even finding it hard to pay for a drink thanks to the locals’ hospitality.
“We were out in the bars of Chapel Hill (in North Carolina) on our first day in America,” says Jason Roberts, a lifelong fan who has made the trip with his son Owen, 21. “The locals would hear our accents, ask why we were here and as soon as we’d say, ‘We’re Wrexham fans’, they’d insist on adding our drinks to their (bar) tab.
“That hasn’t just happened once or twice — some days, it has been every bar we’ve been in. It has been incredible. I thought I had an inkling of an idea before flying out as to what it might be like here for Wrexham. But the numbers of those who have caught the bug has been off the scale.
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“We’ve met Wrexham fans from Kentucky, Colorado, Toronto — you name it. One family drove 12 hours from Florida. I watched my first game 45 years ago and never thought I’d see the day when Wrexham were shaping up to be America’s football club.
“On what I’ve seen over the last five or six days, that has every chance of happening.”
Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach sits roughly 20 miles south of downtown LA. Lined with bars and restaurants, this pedestrianised street doesn’t usually resound with songs about a rivalry in the lower leagues of UK football.
Tonight, though, is different with Wrexham in town. And the seasoned supporters who have gathered in Patrick Molloy’s, an Irish bar. can’t resist getting a dig in at the club’s big rivals from over the English border by borrowing the melody of 1990s hit This is How It Feels To Be Lonely by the Inspiral Carpets.
This is how it feels to be Chester,
This is how it feels to be small,
Wrexham’s in America,
Chester’s in Ellesmere Port, Ellesmere Port.
Mischievously contrasting the glitz and glamour of a U.S. tour facing the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United to the more mundane existence of National League North, English football’s sixth tier, only added to the fun being had by the UK’s visitors to the Pacific coast.
What the impromptu singsong also underlined was that for the transformation effected by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s 2021 purchase of the club — who would have thought Wrexham’s players would ever be ferried around Hollywood on a club-branded red coach, as happened on Friday? — so much remains reassuringly similar to the pre-takeover days.
The club remains bound together tightly with its community and proud of its roots, with the upcoming second series of the documentary understood to feature McElhenney visiting the town’s Miners Rescue Centre to learn more about a disaster that saw 266 lives lost at nearby Gresford Colliery in 1934.
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Not every overseas owner who has come into British football has been so respectful of heritage, and the Wrexham fans appreciate that. Such consideration has been mirrored by many of those from the U.S. who have flocked to Wrexham games over the past year, with perhaps the most fitting quote belonging to a fan who attended last March’s match against Bromley as part of a whistle-stop tour of Europe that also took in Arsenal and Manchester City fixtures, plus El Clasico in Madrid’s Bernabeu.
Marcus Sandoval told The Athletic at the time: “I hope we, as Americans, never wear out our welcome with the Wrexham fans. We kind of see it partly as our club, too.”
This mutual respect perhaps explains why the new and old fans are getting on so well, with the odd U.S. accent clearly audible amid the anti-Chester chanting in Hermosa Beach on Friday.
“It is great how welcoming everyone is,” says Roberts. “By that, I mean both how the U.S. fans have welcomed us here and the welcome they get when visiting Wrexham for a match.
“There’s a few of us who have flown out from home to be here and everyone has been saying the same thing — this is where you can really grow the club. If we are going to be as successful as we all want, we need as many people as possible buying into that, both here and at home.”
This football version of the Special Relationship was again evident outside LA Galaxy’s Dignity Health Sports Park stadium as fans took advantage of the Californian sunshine to enjoy a few Wrexham-themed tailgate parties in the various car parks.
Joining the fun were Jamie Owens and his son Toby, both in the States on a family holiday. “We had to tweak a few things but we couldn’t miss watching Wrexham in LA,” says Jamie. “We are season-ticket holders with Toby’s grandad, so have become used to American accents at the Racecourse (the club’s home ground). It feels surreal for us to now be the overseas fans.
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“What has happened in recent years is fantastic for both the club and the town. For years, we struggled, with the steelworks closing along with the coal mines, but now there is a buzz about the town.”
As with North Carolina three days earlier, when a pop-up version of The Turf was erected outside Kenan Stadium and landlord Jones joined adviser to the board Shaun Harvey, chief executive Fleur Robinson and club ambassador Brian Flynn in a meet-and-greet with supporters, the fan zone in one corner of LA Galaxy’s home was very busy last night.
Defender Jordan Tunnicliffe, who will miss the start of the season next month after picking up a calf injury, joined the party along with Wrexham’s executive director Humphrey Ker.
Fans were also able to enjoy a light-hearted fans’ guide to popular Wrexham songs, complete with an amusing foreword from Ker about attending his first football game as an 11-year-old.
Such terrace standards as ‘Aaron Hayden’s Magic’ and ‘We Know Who We Are’ can be found within the pages of what is sure to become a collectors’ item, albeit with all the swearwords redacted via big black blocks.
This leaves the reader having to work out how certain chants end, including ‘The referee’s a ……’ and ‘Who the ……. hell are you?’.
Again, Turf landlord Jones proved a popular hit, with the unassuming Welshman besieged with selfie requests. “I still get surprised at all the attention,” he says. “Not just at the games, but all the time we’ve been here.
“I’ll be walking down the street and people will be coming out of shops and bars just to say hello. Or shout my name from the other side of the street and wave. That takes some getting used to. Crazy, crazy times.
“For the club, though, a trip like this is brilliant. Rival fans keep saying, ‘Oh, this will blow over and then what happens to Wrexham?’. But there’s no sign of that happening at the moment. I can only see it getting bigger and stronger over here.”
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The Turf will certainly be doing its bit to swell numbers when the tour rolls into Philadelphia, McElhenney’s hometown, later this week, with a group of regulars flying out. The London Reds, Wrexham’s supporters’ club in the UK capital, have a similar trip planned.
“We are catching the Tuesday flight to see the (Philadelphia Union II) game on Friday,” says London Reds co-founder and chairman Barry Jones. “I’m as excited as a 14-year-old, and am sure that it will be an unforgettable experience.
“These are strange times for Wrexham fans. Instead of turning up for pre-season friendlies at teams in north Wales who have little more than basic park-level facilities, we’re on tour in the U.S. playing in front of crowds over 50,000, with another 4,000 of us staying up to watch the Chelsea game (via streaming) — and it didn’t start here until 1am on Thursday!”

As with Saturday night against the Galaxy, Wrexham will face their fellow MLS side Philadelphia’s second string due to the first team being involved in the expanded Leagues Cup, competing against their Mexican counterparts from Liga MX.
This means the 4-0 victory here could be a good gauge as to what those making the trip to Subaru Park for the tour finale can expect.
Wrexham were simply too strong for a home side with an average age of 21, the floodgates opening once Andy Cannon had put them ahead just after half-time. Elliot Lee added a second before Mullin followed his two assists with a goal of his own, sliding it in at the back post on 64 minutes.
With LA-based co-owner McElhenney watching on, Parkinson’s response was to substitute all 10 outfield players. Wrexham, though, maintained their dominance as Anthony Forde’s well-taken strike rounded off a good night on the pitch.

Just as important, however, was what happened in the stands, with those in the 10,553 crowd cheering on last season’s National League title winners revelling in every moment.
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Keep this up, and Wrexham’s 2023 invasion may prove more meaningful than that British Oscars boast 41 years ago.
(Top photos: Getty Images, The Athletic)
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