Part 205: Interlude: The Dragonz Lair Radio Hour on BBC Radio Wales.

Interlude: The Dragonz Lair Radio Hour on BBC Radio Wales
January 1, 2027

(A professionally done sound effect of a dragon's roar opens the show)

: Coming to you from the bowels of the dragon's den in the world capital of football on BBC Radio Wales, it's the Dragonz Lair with your hosts Grwn and the Dragontamer!

: That's right Grwn, and our topic this week is nothing less than determining who deserves a spot on the greatest Wrexham team of all time!

: As you may remember from the end of the last season the supporters released their picks for the God-King's Starting XI, which only included players from the past dozen years.



: But we're a club entering our 164th year of existence!

: Indeed! Now, a note before we get started. Because of our beloved Dragon's long history the club has used many, many different formations.

: From the invention of the pyramid that the Coach revived in Europe this fall to the modern day 4-2-3-1, it's hard to fit players from different eras into the same formation.

: That's why we're wimping out and using a 4-4-2. It's not ideal, but it's what we've got to do when comparing an 1890's Full Back to a 1930's Half-Back to a 2020's Centerback.

: So deal with it.

: First up, Goalkeeper!

: Well, this seems like it should be pretty easy, shouldn't it?

: Yes, there's only a few names I can think of who deserve consideration. You've got Dai Davies, of course.

: Certified Wrexham Hall of Fame member who allowed just 1.06 goals per game over his five years with us in the 1970s and 1980s.


Davies

: And Brian Lloyd who-

: Who ditched us for Chester!

: But not before setting a consecutive matches played record of over 240 games, or winning the supporters Player of the Year award in 1976.


Lloyd

: And of course current Manchester United keeper Vid Kovacevic.



: Right. I think we're in agreement on this one. Vid played in almost as many games as Lloyd, and he was better.

: Too bad the rest of these won't be so easy.



: On to right back, where we have a couple of recent vintage players.

: How can we not consider Stevie Reed, who's already made 117 league appearances-



: Or Toon-chi Cheeryuk, who's been with the club for 8 years now.

: And whose name you still can't pronounce.



: You can't, either... But here we start to see how deep Wrexham's bench goes.

: Poor Ally McGowan, nearly 500 appearances for the club and we won't even be considering him.


McGowan

: Not with the likes of Alf “The Pride of Wrexham” Jones around.

: Jones is a Chester boy! Turns out they're not all awful.

: He could run for days during his 12 year career in the 1920s and 1930s.

: 503 league appearances! Two consecutive appearance streaks of 159 and 236!


Jones

: I'm sure if he hadn't died in 1959 he'd be outraged at the laziness of today's players and the constant squad rotation.

: And he's not even the oldest name in consideration.

: That'd be Horace Blew, who started his career in the 1890s at fullback, played 14 years for the Dragons, was Director of the club for another 18... and then topped it off by becoming Mayor of our fine town in 1923.

: He was even given “Freedom of the Borough” in the late 1940s for his service.


Blew

: Which makes this a hard choice... Blew or Jones?

: I don't know, Grwn. I do know that Blew only played one league match for Wrexham... because Wrexham wasn't even in the Football League at the time.

: Alright, executive decision then. Alf Jones, come on down!



: How about Centerbacks?

: We sure have a lot of contenders.

: From the modern day likes of Chris Todd.



: Mattias Laux...



: Even recently returned Stewart Lewis!



: To grand old lads like Gareth Davies, whose sixteen year tenure was marked by an “elegant consistency [that] was almost taken for granted at the back.”


Davies

: And Eddie May, our captain for eight years who scored 35 goals in his 334 league matches, every single one of them using his head.


May

: Don't forget Alan Fox, who turned down Arsenal to stay with Wrexham.


Fox

: And last but not least another man born two centuries ago, Ted Robinson.

: Robinson was with Wrexham for 13 years around the turn of the 20th century, and then went on to manage the club for another dozen years.

: Not only that, he was so associated with the club that they called Wrexham “The Robins.”


Robinson

: If that name had stuck would this be the Robin's Nest show?

: I doubt I'd be the Robintamer.

: So that gives us some tough choices for our two spots in the back center.

: Not that it should count for more, but Davies has long history after his playing days with the club.

: He's literally written the book on the club's history!

: I think I'd have to go with Davies and Laux.

: Laux, already? This is only his sixth year with the club.

: I know, but he's already done so much in those six years that I think he just pips May.

: I can see that, and I can see him passing Robinson, who's bigger claim to fame is his managerial career.

: So let's put them on the board. Next up is left fullback.



: Here we've only got one modern contender for the job, the explosive Frenchman...

: James Loseille!



: We've also got a name from the relatively recent past in Phil Hardy, who made 349 league appearances from 1990 through 2001-


Hardy

: And the boy from Llandudno, Joey Jones, who was the biggest transfer ever at £212,000 when he came back from Liverpool after the 1978 season and who's


Jones

: This is a question of what's more important. Tenure or quality? I think we can count Hardy out-

: I don't think you can.

: What?

: Jones didn't play in that many more league matches for the club, and Loseille hasn't even been around 5 years yet.

: So you'd take Hardy over either of them.

: I didn't say that, I just said you couldn't count him out.

: Well, are you saying he should be there?

: You know what, yes. Sure Wrexham only had one great moment during his time at the club, the magical run to the FA Cup quarterfinal, but tenure counts! Come back to me with your Loseille when he's played more than 115 league matches for the club.

: I wasn't going to pick Loseille, you idiot.

: You're calling me an idiot, you prick?!

: Shut your hole, you motherfu-

(An obvious edit later)

: Ok, right. So after a sidebar with my partner here-

: We've both agreed that Joey Jones is Wrexham's all time greatest left back.

: Giving us the fullback pairing of Jones and Jones.



: It's time to move on to the club's weakest position, our right midfielder.

: We've had some good play throughout recent years on the right wing...

: But no one has put in much time there.

: Right. Dimitri Nieddu was great.



: But only in Wrexham for two years.

: Michael Coulson is a fan favorite...



: But barely reached 100 league matches played.

: And Shahed Parr is marvelous...



: When he's not hurt, having only been fit for 75 league matches across five years with the club.

: But it's not like there's many players who could step in from the past.

: Ron Hewitt is pretty much the only choice out there who has much longevity and the stats to back it up.


Hewitt

: 94 goals in 231 matches isn't shabby, it's the fourth highest total in club history.

: Even if he forced a transfer to damned Swansea.

: So by default, Ron Hewitt is out wide right for us.



: Let's hope when we do this again a decade from now we can easily pick Rodrigo Moctezuma or Kristian Bale for that spot.

: We go from a position of weakness to one where we're going to have to leave an all time great Wrexham player out in the cold.

: I'm not looking forward to this.

: Central midfield has nearly a dozen contenders, but recent Dragons like Stuart Mair-



: Stuart Simpson-



: and Richard Petts-



: Along with Wrexham Hall of Famers Barry Horne-


Horne

: Bryan Hughes-


Hughes

: And the great Mel Sutton just don't have a chance.


Sutton

: None can compare to the three players who are fighting for two spaces.

: How am I supposed to choose?!

: We've got a man they called the Prince of Wales going up against the engine of back to back promotions going up against the Golden Boy!

: Justin Bailey has climbed to 14th all time in league appearances for the club. He's easily the longest tenured player with us right now, and joined us when we were still all the way down and out of the Football League.



: But his 290 appearances still leaves him a whopping 302 behind Arfon "The Prince of Wales" Griffiths! And Griffiths is still second all time in goals, with a mighty 120 despite being a midfielder.


Griffiths

: And we haven't even mentioned The Golden Boy!

: The Golden Boy! What a marvel! Did you know that in 229 matches he's already tied for eighth in goals?



: Whoever we leave out we're going to feel guilty about.

: There's no good choice here, they're all great. They're all brilliant. They're all legends.

(There's dead air punctuated by agonized sighing for the next minute and a half)

: I think we have to go with Bailey and Griffiths though, don't you?

: I hate to say it, but yes. Shirra's young yet, he'll continue to make his case for inclusion in the years to come.

: It hurts to leave him off the squad. I hope the next position is easier.



: Don't worry, it is. Wrexham has had some great players out left over the last 160 years, but there's no one who can match the Meteor.



: True, true. But let's not forget those who he's surpassed.

: I recall the old footage of Billy Tunnicliffe, who scored once every three games despite playing out on the wing.


Tunnicliffe

: And there's Karl Connolly, who still has more goals than all but five other players.


Connolly

: And last but surely not least, the counterfeiter-in-chief.

: Old Mickey Thomas!


Thomas

: I can't believe he used the Wrexham youth squad to launder his counterfeit money!

: I can't believe they still put him in the Wrexham Hall of Fame!

: He did have a great joke about it, though.

: "Roy Keane's on 50 grand a week. So was I till the police found my printing machine."

(The two crack up laughing)



: Whew... Ok, that leaves just one position left.

: Up top, the glory boys!

: The strikers!

: Before we get to our final selections, we should note the great goal-scorers of Wrexham's past and present who didn't quite make the cut.

: William “Billy the Kid” Harrison, who retired after a bad injury a few years ago.



: Albert Kinsey, the seventh highest goal scorer in club history with a whopping 84 in just 253 matches.


Kinsey

: Isaac Stringel, who could end up a club legend at the rate he's improving.



: Billy Ashcroft, the forward for those great teams of the 1970s.


Ashcroft

: And Graham Whittle, who still sits fifth all time in goals scored behind two of the next names coming up.


Whittle

: I don't think it will surprise anyone that Tommy Bamford is making our all time Best XI.


Bamford

: He's one of the greatest players in Welsh history, and even with Thiago's remarkable season last year he still didn't come close to matching Bamford's amazing 44 goals in the 1933-1934 league.

: He racked up an amazing 175 league goals in just six years from 1928 through 1934, and added another 26 in other competitions to give him a stratospheric 201 for his Wrexham career.

: Not bad for a short guy from Port Talbot.

: When we were coming up with this list I think we were wondering if anyone would top Tommy.

: They sure didn't, and that leaves us just one spot left on the team.

: We've got three candidates for that spot, all of whom might have challenged Bamford had they spent longer here.

: Right, it's hard to say no to a player like Gary “Psycho” Bennett, who played just four years with the club in the 1990s but scored 82 league goals and 114 total goals in that time.


Bennett

: But it's hard to say no to The Bastard, too.



: He scored only one fewer league goal than Bennett in eleven fewer matches, and we still miss him to this very day.

: But if it weren't for Real Madrid coming along to steal Rocky away from us, we might never have gotten to know Thiago.

: And thank the God-King that we did.



: Bastable and Bennett are both club legends, but what Thiago has done over the last three and a half years is unheard of.

: He's already third in all of Wrexham's history for league goals scored, with an unbelievable 102 in 113 league matches.

: Thiago has a chance of catching Bamford if he stays healthy and maintains anything like the type of form he's been in over the last three season.

: He's already scored 162 goals in a Wrexham kit! That's unbelievable.

: And that's why he's the final member of our Wrexham Best XI.



: And that wraps up our show for this week. Thanks for listening to me, Grwn-

: And me, the Dragontamer-

: Here on BBC Radio Wales.

: As always, leave your comments and complaints on the forums!

: Where we will ignore them.

: See you next week!

(A high quality soundclip of a dragon roaring and wings flapping plays over the final seconds of the broadcast)