Wrexham 3-3 Sheffield United: Non-League side come agonisingly close to famous FA Cup shock

It was grainy footage from a cloudy January night in this territory that helped persuade Ryan Reynolds to buy Wrexham, almost two years ago, and on Sunday night he was given a taste of what it felt like to be here on that occasion, beating champion Arsenal. in 1992.

There was not the same ending, of course. Soccer has that way of stirring up the narrative.

But the cameras focused on Reynolds showed a storyteller who understands the full gamut of emotions in the game: setback, hope, setback, hope, raging controversy, hope, and an opposing tie in death. It’s hope that kills you, Ryan.

Wrexham’s Hollywood owner, Ryan Reynolds (pictured), hit a tough patch when his non-league side came awfully close to an FA Cup upset in a 3-3 draw against Sheffield United.

Reynolds and the home fans were devastated after the Blades scored a last-gasp equalizer.

Sheffield United striker Oli McBurnie (second right) headed in a corner after two minutes

By the end, he was on the pitch, hugging club captain Luke Young, posing for photos with the player’s children and hugging forward Ollie Palmer before crossing the pitch to catch a plane to New York.

‘Documentary gold’ is what they call days like this around here and when the team has recovered, they’ll probably be grateful that they contributed to another Cup tie going down in history.

The game revealed the talent that the resources of Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have brought to a club that had begun to look terribly fragile.

There was Tom O’Connor, the excellent Irish midfielder who returned to defense when the team lost two members of that structure in the first ten minutes. Anthony Forde, as a winger, driving passes and defending the lines.

There was Paul Mullin, the Liverpudlian striker well known to fans of the Reynolds and McElhenney documentary series ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ who harassed, chased and damaged one of the best defenses in the Championship.

There was a composure in possession that deconstructed the popular image of the non-league giant-slaying team.

But above all else, there was recovery from Wrexham after an opening delivered straight from hell. If it wasn’t bad enough to concede on 65 seconds, Oliver McBurnie’s near-post run into Tommy Doyle’s corner went unchecked and allowed him to navigate on a header, two key components of the team’s defense had limped off with injuries in ten minutes.

First Jordan Tunnicliffe, with an ankle ligament injury that left him in a local hospital on Sunday night. Then Aaron Hayden, a mainstay at the back, with a calf problem.

For a while, McBurnie and 19-year-old forward Daniel Jebbison provided a pace and force that the home team’s redesigned defense couldn’t live with. Local goalkeeper Mark Howard was called in to save them.

As manager Phil Parkinson said afterwards, minor teams would have collapsed with a 4-0 or 5-0 loss after a sequence like that. But Mullin is a fearsome presence.

It was a bold move to invest so much in a player who had only really blossomed in one of his seven seasons in football, but who has the pace, control and pre-calculation of a championship player. The strategy was not complicated: drive balls past United’s pressure for him to chase. It worked.

By half time the National League team was becoming a threat and two goals in 11 minutes soon after put them ahead.

O’Connor headed in one of Tozer’s missiles and sent it to substitute James Jones, who spun to send the ball in from close range. Young’s corner created chaos in the United defense and the ball fell for O’Connor to finish off.

But Wrexham midfielder James Jones (right) equalized in the second half after a long drive.

Before Tom O’Connor whipped the loose ball from a fine corner to put the hosts 2-1 ahead

Blades midfielder Oliver Norwood leveled the Championship side with a clever low shot.

Young striker Daniel Jebbison was sent off for an off-the-ball incident, colliding with Ben Tozer

The most astonishing part of that extraordinary period was the noise that a fraction of less than 10,000 people, minus the Yorkshire contingent, were making on ground open to the elements at one end.

They sang the nationalist Dafydd Iwan’s hymn ‘Yma o Hyd’ (‘Still Here’), which seems so fitting. They sang about Wales, about the soldiers of Harlech and (ironically) about their appreciation of sheep. New territory for a Hollywood movie star, who knows more about what a little care and attention can do to bring the club back.

After the visitors lost a man – Jebbison was sent off for an off-the-ball incident with Tozer, who hinted the striker had stepped on him – Mullin appeared to have sealed it. Him pressing the ball forward to substitute for Sam Dalby, running into the penalty area undetected to retrieve it and finish the ball off.

The English star put it between the legs of the defender and the goalkeeper to make it 3-2 on Sunday

Standout striker Paul Mullin thought he had won it with a stinging shot in the 86th minute.

The co-owner of the Welsh team, American actor Reynolds, celebrated each of Wrexham’s goals in style

But central defender John Egan stole at the back post to volley a corner kick to stun Wrexham.

Palmer had hit the bar and Wrexham launched massive handball calls after Dalby’s cross to Palmer went wide. However, just when the credits were supposed to roll, another twist. A corner was passed to John Egan, who scored another equalizing goal.

Reynolds stated that this is “one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen in my life.” Mullin, who sank to the ground with his head in his hands at the end, did not immediately share the sentiment.

It was the Hollywood drama, even if it lacked the ending. A screenwriter and a movie star couldn’t have invented it.