Boxing Day’s Man of the Match George Thomason tells Wrexham fans about when they can seriously start dreaming of a Premier League promotion.
Realise before the kickoff hits, it’s another matchday for Wrexham. Agreed, the fixture alarm rang a bit early this time, but you’d need to cope with it while supporting a Championship side.
Well, if the last game came as a belated Christmas gift, the Dragons would want a win over Preston to be their advance New Year’s present. Definitely, a draw against a top-6 side ain’t bad, but surely undesirable.
Why the desperation for a win? The sporting reason is more than obvious, but for the Knock-on-Wood Enthusiasts, there’s an extensive pattern.
Many didn’t notice, but Wrexham’s 9-game unbeaten run from late-October was broken following the Preston draw. While the Lilywhites did let them leave with a point, they made Wrexham enter the dreaded run where they’d lose 2 games within the next 4 matchdays.
This time, the rematch presents the Dragons with a full-circle opportunity to improve their luck with a win. Should it happen, great, and if you think it’s difficult, I’d recommend you put on the headphones for George Thomason’s latest interview.
Having delivered the match-winning performance against the Blades last weekend, the lad’s flying high on confidence. And inputting compliments like Windass’ Ballon d’Or claim, Thomason is now focused on reverting it all back in promise to the fans.
Recently, ahead of the Preston clash, the 24-year-old expressed how it’s more than possible for Wrexham to win promotion, still. Additionally, he hinted at a specific timeline no Dragons fan would want to miss.
As quoted by the BBC, Thomason injected optimism, saying: “Things can start to look differently and suddenly at the back end of January you’re looking towards the end of the season and where can we finish?”
What’s connecting January end & Wrexham’s promotion?
A fair guess would be the busy transfer work, with the impending 3rd February deadline humming in every club’s camp. Another reasonable guess could be that the last January matchday brings up the 2/3rd completion of the season.
Appreciate all such guessworks & estimates, but the deep-lying reason extends a step beyond.
Starting with the theoretical response, January is that notorious phase that’s bound to involve all Championship sides in the Cup competition. While that’s another aspect on which Wrexham should focus, Parky needs to play it shrewdly unfair here.
No, unfair doesn’t mean bending the rules, but prioritising between a promotion & the FA Cup.
That’s because having just jumped to the 2nd division, Wrexham still stands a Lillyput against the Goliath-like PL teams. Again, I’m not against giving their best effort, but taking any result with a pinch of optimism and even welcoming an early elimination to focus extensively on the Championship.
Both Wrexham and Dragon fans ought to take it seriously, but truth told, the real magic lies in the deeper analytical reason. Why? Because the end of January almost precisely spells out the promotion trio every time.
Take a closer look at Transfermarkt’s form table for the 2024/25 season once. Interestingly, the 30th matchday(coinciding with January’s end) had the tally prepared very closely to how the season eventually ended.
With all Leeds, Burnley & Sunderland in the top 4, fans & analysts knew already who to vouch for promotion.
What’s surprising is that this trend maps even more perfectly in previous years. Be it the 23/24 season or the 22/23 promotion race, all the promoted sides were already filling out PL forms by being in the top-3 spots by January’s end.
Noting such coincidences, Thomason’s January timeline makes more sense than ever. Wrexham have an extended 7-game schedule until next month. Let’s hope they end up nearing that glamorous top-3 spot till then.
