Wrexham on Tuesday suffered a cruel FA Cup plot twist as the non-league club conceded two stoppage-time goals in a 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United.
Owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney since 2020, Wrexham had become the headline act in this year’s FA Cup.
They beat second-tier Coventry City in the third round and took EFL Championship promotion chasers Sheffield United down to the wire before bowing out in a fourth-round replay at Bramall Lane.
Photo: AFP
Anel Ahmedhodzic put the Blades ahead, but Wrexham equalized through Paul Mullin’s penalty to spark dreams of another against-the-odds result straight from the pages of a blockbuster movie script.
Mullin then missed a penalty that would have given Wrexham the lead, and Billy Sharp and Sander Berge played the villains with goals deep into stoppage-time to earn Sheffield United a fifth-round tie against Tottenham Hotspur.
Despite the lack of a Hollywood ending, Reynolds, unable to attend the match, saluted his fifth-tier team immediately after the final whistle.
“So proud of these boys. And the 4,000 plus away supporters who gave it all,” he wrote on Twitter.
Second in the National League, three points behind Notts County with two games in hand, Wrexham’s main ambition this campaign is securing a return to the fourth tier for the first time since 2008, but the FA Cup has always been an enjoyable diversion for the north Wales club, who famously knocked out Arsenal and West Ham United in previous years.
Only a stoppage-time Sheffield United equalizer had denied Wrexham when they drew 3-3 last month, and Phil Parkinson’s side acquitted themselves well again.
“Obviously we are disappointed we haven’t gone through, but seeing how the Sheffield United players and staff celebrated at full time is a mark of how we pushed them,” Parkinson said. “There are so many positives for us to take into the second half of the season.”
Sheffield United took the lead in the 50th minute as Ahmedhodzic exchanged passes with James McAtee before sweeping into the roof of the net from a tight angle inside the penalty area.
Wrexham drew level in controversial fashion after 58 minutes when a tug on Mullin was ruled a penalty even though replays showed the offense took place just outside the area.
Mullin smashed in the spot-kick in front of 4,000 jubilant Wrexham fans for his 29th goal this season.
If Wrexham’s first penalty was dubious, there was no doubt about their second in the 72nd minute, when Oliver Norwood’s rash lunge on Mullin sent the striker crashing to the turf.
This time Mullin fluffed his lines from the spot, as Wales goalkeeper Adam Davies plunged to his right to make the save.
Sharp made Mullin pay for that miss as he cleverly worked space to slot home from the penalty spot in the fourth minute of stoppage-time.
With Wrexham stretched in search of an equalizer, Berge clipped in their third goal in the final seconds.
“I could not be more proud of those men than I am right now. They gave it absolutely everything,” McElhenney wrote on Twitter.
Sharp was less enamored with the Wrexham story, saying: “I wasn’t happy with a few of their players... The way they were as a club, eyeing up Spurs. They had not even beaten us. I’ve got a smile on my face now.”
Elsewhere in Tuesday’s fourth-round replay action, EFL League Two side Grimsby Town earned a trip to English Premier League strugglers Southampton.
Their surprise 3-0 win against Luton Town, who sit fourth in the Championship, moved them into the last 16 for the first time since 1996.
Championship leaders Burnley needed a stoppage-time winner from Nathan Tella — his second goal of the game — to seal a 2-1 victory against third-tier Ipswich Town at Turf Moor.
Burnley’s fifth-round opponents are third-tier Fleetwood Town, who won 1-0 against EFL League One leaders Sheffield Wednesday.
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