BIRMINGHAM, England — Tom Brady took bragging rights from Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds in the “Hollywood derby” as Birmingham City ended Wrexham’s unbeaten start in League One with a 3-1 victory at St Andrew’s on Monday evening.
The match was played in front of a crowd including NFL legend Brady, Hollywood star McElhenney and former England football captain David Beckham, but it was Birmingham club record player Jay Stansfield who was the star. He scored twice to help confirm the club’s £15million splash on deadline day – the biggest signing in League One history and a statement of intent from the ambitious Blues.
Stansfield knows the club well, having spent last season on loan, and two goals, along with a brilliant strike from Tomoki Iwata, gave Birmingham the win against Wrexham, which was only a goal from Jack Marriott after just two minutes.
“Birmingham have had an incredible opportunity this summer and every player they’ve brought in they’ve surpassed us and given us more wages,” Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said after the game. “It’s like, let Birmingham buy who they want and other people find other players there.
“We are on a journey as a club trying to build a sustainable football club. It would be absolute madness to say we can compete with them, it is simply impossible. They spend more than any other club outside the Premier League. But in their position, with the available resources, you will get the best players and what they have done.
The only sore spot for the hosts was a late red card for captain Krystian Bielik, who received his first yellow in the 81st minute for his part in a mass brawl from both sides, and then picked up a second yellow five minutes later for roughing. tackle on Andy Cannon.
The build-up to this highly anticipated match was dominated by two separate narratives: the battle of two promotion candidates, who were previously unbeaten in League One, and the buzz around the show generated by famous investors on both sides.
There is interest from the hosts to try to take this match to the United States, but the third-tier English football game played out in front of a jampacked St. Andrew’s crowd of 27,980 which included various A-listers.
For the visitors, Wrexham co-owner and creator of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” McElhenney jetted straight from the Emmy Awards and FaceTimed on fellow investor Reynolds before kickoff. For the hosts, all attention is on Brady, who has a 3.3% stake in Birmingham and is flying in for the match. Beckham was also in attendance, sitting next to Brady in the stands.
The absence of Eli Manning, who was brought by Wrexham as a supporter to the game on Monday, reminded Brady of how the former New York Giant led his team to the Super Bowl against Brady’s New England Patriots in 2008 and 2012.
Wrexham head into the League One clash on 13 points – thanks to four wins and a draw this season – with Birmingham in sixth, having played fewer games but with three wins and a draw. Birmingham made six changes, including starting Stansfield up front.
The visitors were unchanged from their league last time out, when they beat Shrewsbury 3-0 on September 7. And the visitors looked more measured in the opening exchanges, as they grabbed the lead after just two minutes. through Marriott, who finished from close range after Blues goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell failed to claim a corner.
The hosts had a great chance 10 minutes later to equalize through Seung-Ho Paik, but it was shot from a 10-yard corner after a neat Birmingham set piece routine opened up the Wrexham defence.
From there, Birmingham took charge of the game and scored an equalizer in the 22nd minute as Wrexham keeper Arthur Okonkwo could only beat Alfie May’s long-range effort into the path of Stansfield as he tapped home to head home after the breakthrough. loan spell at the Blues last season.
It was attritional for the rest of the half, Birmingham enjoying plenty of attacking possession with May and Stansfield linking up well as Wrexham’s defense held firm and Eoghan O’Connell rocked the middle.
The hosts stayed on the throttle in the second half, taking a 2-1 lead in the 51st minute as Stansfield headed home brilliantly from Alex Cochrane’s pinpoint cross. That gave Birmingham just the boost they needed and they added a third in the 59th minute thanks to Iwata’s superb long-range effort.
Wrexham emptied the bench and brought on the likes of Paul Mullin and Steven Fletcher, but they couldn’t stand up and were frustrated in the 81st minute as Mullin’s disagreement with Keshi Anderson led to an all-out brawl from both sides, resulting in James McLean, Anderson, Mullin, Cannon and Bielik are all booked.
Birmingham captain Bielik would only last another five minutes, as he picked up a second yellow card for a quick challenge on Cannon. Wrexham piled on the pressure in the final moments, but Birmingham and their 10 men saw out the game to put their mark on the rest of the league.
“It’s a good learning curve – we’ve been behind in pivotal games in the past but responded better than we did tonight,” added Parkinson. “There are areas to improve and the timing of tonight’s game could have been better. You will lose football games this season, in terms of responding, learning. We will take the lessons in the next game.”
