Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds took non-league football into the mainstream with ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ but they were not the first celebrities to look at the earthy surroundings of the amateur game and think it would make for great television.
It has been over a decade since a group of Manchester United legends took over Salford City with the grand ambition of taking them all the way through the English football pyramid to the Premier League. That motivation also attracted McElhenney – who was fascinated with the concept of promotion and relegation as it does not exist in major US sports – to Wrexham and he and Reynolds are well on their way to achieving that objective as they chase a third successive promotion this season.
But Salford blazed an even longer trail before them and were ruthlessly effective in their goal. With backing from the ‘Class of 92’ consortium of Gary and Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes plus billionaire Peter Lim, the Ammies (so-called as the club used to be known as Salford Amateurs) won four promotions in five seasons, reaching the English Football League in 2019 with promotion to League Two. They documented their travails in the BBC series ‘Class of 92 – Out of Their League’ and later ‘Class of ’92 – Full Time’ on Sky Sports.
The EFL was not quite the paradise they had dreamed of, though, and while Wrexham have gone from strength to strength since their 2020 takeover, Salford have stayed still, remaining in League Two and coming dangerously close to relegation last year. More crucially, they slipped out of the wider conversation, losing relevance as they were leapfrogged in the divisions by Wrexham as well as neighbours Stockport County.
But Salford are on the rise again, winning six games in a row to move into contention for promotion to League One to potentially join Wrexham and Stockport. And they are about to get the nation’s attention once more as they prepare for the biggest game of their history, Saturday’s FA Cup tie against Manchester City, the scourge of their United-supporting owners.