Welcome to Wrexham 3×01, “Welcome to the EFL,” brings Wrexham A.F.C. to League Two football for the first time in 15 years, where they are met with more than a few hurdles.
The first of the third season’s two-part premiere works as a prologue to the club’s reintroduction to the EFL. Most of the episode focuses on the circumstances that surround Wrexham’s first game of the season against MK Dons, which they lost 3-5. Notably, “Welcome to the EFL” hinges on the injury of star player Paul Mullin during Wrexham’s friendlies in the United States in the summer of 2023.
Mullin picked up the injury after a brutal challenge during Wrexham’s game against Manchester United in July 2023. The forward player wound up with a punctured lung and four fractured ribs that kept him grounded in California for two weeks. Any airplane travel could result in more drastic and deadly damage to his injured lung. Those medical facts alone are staggering, but Welcome to Wrexham truly captures the severity of the situation. For the fans who passionately follow the club or casually keep up through this docuseries, the footage of Mullin’s injury is intense to watch either way.
It’s never good to see a player go down on the field – even when you know that player has fully recovered and helped his team get promoted to League One last month. The docu-series camera catches the frantic and emotional energy as Paul processes what’s happened to him and his teammates realize the magnitude of his injury. It’s pretty harrowing to hear midfielders Elliot Lee and Anthony Forde discuss when they noticed that Mullin’s lips were blue. It’s tough to watch Mullin demand that he’s going to walk off the pitch (He later admits he shouldn’t have done that.) to try to ease his family’s worries a bit. “Welcome to the EFL” captures that very human aspect of the sport.
It’s always a conversation in sports and sports entertainment spaces to remember that athletes are human beings. Unfortunately, people often forget that fact in the haze of missed goals, wins, or losses. Part of the multi-layered appeal of Welcome to Wrexham is its profoundly personal access to the club’s staff, the community, and the players.
“Welcome to the EFL” most effectively shows that through Paul Mullin learning the extent of his injuries and how long they will keep him out of the game and away from his family. Those implications hold weight, so seeing Mullin’s friends from Liverpool by his side during his recovery is particularly effective. Welcome to Wrexham has consistently highlighted support systems through friends and family on the team and in the town.
Of course, Welcome to Wrexham’s co-owners provide a bit of a silly silver lining in Ryan Reynolds offering Paul his ribs to counter Rob McElhenney’s gesture for Paul to stay with him. That duo is as heartfelt and hilarious as ever in “Welcome to the EFL.”
One of the best bits in the episode is when McElhenny and his son go watch the first half of Wrexham’s match against MK Dons in the Quiet Zone. Like the infamous black kits the team can wear now, that portion of the STōk Cae Ras at the opposite end of the Macron Stand was introduced in Welcome to Wrexham’s second season alongside superfan Millie Tipping. McElhenney reunites with Tipping in the Quiet Zone, reintroducing familiar faces to the docuseries and the principles, like accessibility, that matter most to the club.
McElhenney says in a voiceover, “There are so many people who want to be a part of the experience, but for sensory issues – for a host of different reasons – feel more comfortable in environments where it’s not as chaotic, it’s not as loud.”
McElhenney’s support of the Quiet Zone never comes across as performative but entirely genuine. Welcome to Wrexham’s other two seasons reinforce that McElhenney and Reynolds have the best intentions in helping the club create a ripple effect of positive change. Part of that change is making the stadium — and the sport — widely accessible.
Another part is expanding the club’s reach. Wrexham A.F.C.’s Executive Director Humphrey Ker reflects a similar sentiment when discussing the club’s reach in the United States, saying, “To inspire that much excitement and interest is everything we might have dreamt of at the start of this process.” That varied interest is evident in the number of fans and podcasts — Fearless in Devotion, Men in Blazers, Rob. Ryan. Red. — featured in “Welcome to the EFL.” Wrexham have people talking — for better and worse.
“Welcome to the EFL” finds that perfect and bittersweet bookend in the goalkeeper Ben Foster, who came out of retirement to return to the club and help them get promoted.
Anyone following the club outside the docuseries will know what’s coming for Foster and Wrexham. However, Welcome to Wrexham does a great job as sports entertainment to foreshadow what’s next without ever spoiling it. Instead, “Welcome to the EFL” starts with Reynolds and McElhenney’s efforts to get Foster to stay at the club for another year. The co-owners and chairmen know that Foster was instrumental in Wrexham’s promotion and want to keep that good time (That storied trip to Las Vegas!) going.
Reynolds even says, “When you find something that works that well, you really want to make sure as much of that chemistry remains in place as humanly possible,” about Foster’s role in the squad. Unfortunately, this episode doesn’t spend much one-on-one time with the players to see that organic chemistry. The closest it gets is the conversation between Lee and Forde about Mullin’s injury. Still, the footage from the promotion celebrations showcases how well this team gets on – on and off the pitch.
So, it’s excellent to set their promotion against a frustrating loss by the end of “Welcome to the EFL.” A football game can change in a matter of seconds, and in over 90 minutes, Wrexham loses 3-5 to MK Dons. Of course, part of that has to be because they’re playing in an even more challenging league for the first time in over a decade. They’re also missing a star player who watches from the couch enthusiastically in California. Still, they begin this new season in 21st place and lose at home for the first time in two seasons.
Nevertheless, hope isn’t lost. It may falter as Reynolds dons his lucky sweater and jokes with McElhenney about returning to the National League. That uncertainty shows in the Wrexham fans’ faces leaving the stadium after that loss. Even Hugh Jackman – yes, Hugh Jackman is in this episode – can see how devastating this blow is to the fans and the team.
But it’s only the beginning. It’s only the beginning of the football season and the Welcome to Wrexham season. This show has always been about documenting the underdog story of a football club with a rich history and an immense impact on its community. Starting that season with a loss doesn’t diminish that goal. It only gives the team and the show somewhere to build up from, which is more than worth watching.
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What did you think of Welcome to Wrexham 3×01, “Welcome to the EFL?” Let us know in the comments below!
Welcome to Wrexham airs on Thursdays at 10/9c on FX and streams the next day on Hulu.