Coventry 3-4 Wrexham: National League side cause HUGE upset to dump Sky Blues out of FA Cup

Long before football began and Wrexham acquired a touch for killing giants who had lost at some point since Mickey Thomas did the job against Arsenal 31 years ago, one tweet featured a story about changing fortunes in football.

Wrexham’s Hollywood owners, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, were alerting the large number of people who follow them to the ESPN broadcast of this match, available to viewers from Sydney to Los Angeles and all points in between. Needless to say, A Bitter Night in the East Midlands wouldn’t have gone global before McElhenney and Reynolds arrived with their documentary crews and imaginations.

For their part, Coventry started this day with guesswork as to who will want to own them and where they might after the eviction at the end of the season of this stadium, which is now owned by Mike Ashley.

It was a night of FA Cup and documentary gold, with defensive weakness, occasional attacking inspiration and a breathless finish making this stadium rebound and serving as yet another reminder of the precious quality of the Third Round weekend.

The driver of one of the nine coaches arriving from North Wales told passengers they would be leaving ’15 minutes after we’ve won’. The contingent of 4,000 visitors, whose ticket allotment had sold out in minutes, outnumbered and sang those whose home is this for now.

The revival of their city by McElhenney and Reynolds, thus portrayed in their vivid first series of ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary, made this a Championship vs League One showdown in many ways, not a tie between two clubs 60 places and three divisions apart. One of their signings from the third division, Ollie Palmer, started the match on the bench. Another, Paul Mullin, switched places with him 20 minutes from time, and yet Wrexham tore the Coventry defense to shreds.

His two goals in the first six minutes set the tone. The first was forged by one who has been a part of the entire journey, captain Luke Young, whose characteristically accurate free kick allowed striker Sam Dalby to get between the central defenders and head on goal.

Elliott Lee doubled the lead with a hopeful cross from the left past goalkeeper Simon Moore, one of eight second players Robins had fielded, which should have fixed the problem. Coventry’s vulnerability and fragility, as they aimlessly sacrificed possession, cast doubt on manager Mark Robins’ decision to field a weakened team. It’s been 33 years since he scored Manchester United’s legendary goal in the third round away win at Nottingham Forest. He knows the value of progression.

His team returned to the game with a counter-attacking pace that worried Wrexham and their defense, who tend to look vulnerable when central prop Aaron Hayden is missing. Kasey Palmer, the former Chelsea man, was excellent: he hammered in a free kick against the base of the post before sending a cross that Martyn Waghorn’s touch set up for Ben Sheaf to crash and reverse the goal.

But Wrexham extended their lead just before the interval when Ben Tozer’s long ball, which Ryan Tunicliffe headed back across the box, caught O’Connor, who jumped to head in.

Tozer’s long drives, an important part of his arsenal under Phil Parkinson, caused panic and heralded a penalty that seemed to have put an equalizer in sight at 4-1, when Max Cleworth hit a loose ball that Jonathan Panzon touched. deliberately and was so expelled. Mullin converted from the spot.

But then Wrexham’s own defensive lapses allowed Coventry to come back in to create a thrilling finish. Palmer was an integral part of two goals in seven minutes. He delivered a cross from which substitute Viktor Gyokeres, who was a real handful, scored without anyone in the Wrexham box picking it up. Palmer then won a free kick which he finished off, with goaltender Mark Howard nailing on point.

Coventry pushed hard for the equalizer, with Howard going over Todd Kane in the kill, but Wrexham came through on the night. From Los Angeles to Sydney and every point in between, it was worth watching.