Wrexham 'buzzing' as owners Reynolds and McElhenney watch game

Wrexham AFC's Hollywood owners' first appearance at a game has left the town "absolutely buzzing", a pub landlord has said.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were at Maidenhead United's York Road on Tuesday to see them beat Wrexham 3-2.

They then turned up at the Racecourse Ground on Wednesday and posed for pictures with fans.

Pub landlord Wayne Jones said it was impressive to see them watching in Maidenhead on a cold wet Tuesday night.

After Tuesday night's match, Reynolds shared pictures from the National League game on his Instagram account, writing: "Football is a staggering, heart-breaking, gorgeous, tommy-gun of soul-deadening, evil and beauty and I'm never sleeping again ever, ever."

Wrexham brought plenty of drama, fighting back to 2-2 after having a player sent off, but a final Maidenhead goal deprived them of a fairy tale ending.

The actors completed their takeover of the club in February.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales with Claire Summers, Mr Jones, who runs the Turf Hotel in Wrexham, next to the football club's Racecourse ground, said it was "surreal" to see pictures of the actors at the game.

"It's brilliant, the whole town is absolutely buzzing, if I'm honest. People keep phoning and asking if I've seen them," he said.

"I'd love them to call in for a beer. My wife will probably faint, I would imagine, if Ryan Reynolds walks through the door."

Mr Jones said the actors would be coming to his pub to film the promotion for their access-all-areas documentary, Welcome to Wrexham, on Thursday.

The Turf Hotel was where Wrexham AFC was first formed in 1864, he said.

The Roberts family, who are Wrexham fans, said the club owners' visit had "really brought the town to life".

"Everyone seems to know about it," said Shaun Roberts.

He said he was stopped in Torquay a few months ago and asked about the football club owners because he was wearing a Wrexham shirt.

"It's really given a bit of oomph to Wrexham," his wife Rachel added. "It's something to perk us up a bit."

Wrexham fan Daniel Sides was on his way to buy an away kit from the club store on Wednesday morning.

"I think it's still a bit of a dream where I'm waiting to be woken up, to be honest," he said.

"It's going to generate a lot of buzz with a lot of the people around the town centre as well because obviously they're megastars."

Landlord Mr Jones said the game against Maidenhead had given the stars "a crash course in what supporting Wrexham is all about".

"It wouldn't have been the Wrexham way if we had turned up and walloped them 7-0 last night," he said.

"If they didn't know what to expect, they certainly do now."

But he added "a lot of fans are a little bit disgruntled" about the club's performance.

The actors were accompanied to the match by a crew filming their documentary.

"As nice as it is to have them, we need to remember that we're a football team and we need to focus on the points," Jones said.

"We need to get the football right first."

Rob McElhenney joked in a tweet afterwards that they "didn't want our first win to be away anyway" and that they would see the club play their next game at home on Saturday.

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson had been told beforehand that Reynolds and McElhenney would be at the game, but neither he nor the players met with the pair ahead of the game.

He said: "They flew in and they were trying to keep a low profile but I imagine it's fairly difficult to be low profile, and they let us get on with it.

"We look forward to meeting them later in the week."