Rob McElhenney takes his duty of care as Wrexham co-owner seriously.
When Phil Parkinson was still coming to terms with what remained the nadir of the club’s return to the EFL after a 15-year exile out of the League, the co-owner approached his manager moments after the 5-0 rout in September in Stockport County. via text.
Hollywood actor and writer McElhenney did something similar with Paul Mullin during the latter’s recent eight-game goalless streak, comfortably the striker’s most barren period in almost five years.
Liverpool’s sensible response was no surprise. “I feel pretty good,” he told McElhenney, “it’s just a matter of time.”
The internal belief within Mullin that reassured his American boss is not an act. Talk to anyone close to the player and they will wax lyrical about how adamant he was that the tide of goals would soon turn for him, even as Wrexham lost ground in the race for promotion to League Two.
Old videos in which he scored for fun, as many footballers do during those goalless streaks, were not re-watched. Mullin also wasn’t angry about the opportunities that had slipped away. He simply told anyone who asked, including McElhenney, that he was going to the net next.
This firm belief explains why, having ended his 649-minute wait for a goal with an injury-time equalizer from the penalty spot to secure a point against Forest Green Rovers last Tuesday, Mullin celebrated his sixth hat-trick in less than three seasons. with the North Wales club just four days later.
Ending that unwanted streak was not only a lesson in maintaining self-confidence, but also the need for timely reminders about what a player does best. Mullin spent the day before that 1-1 draw with Forest Green participating in a one-man shooting drill that, to onlookers, seemed no more scientific than simply being urged to hit the ball as hard as possible.
Undergoing this extra effort while still hampered by a back injury that required a painkiller injection earlier this week underlined his determination to end what had become an unprecedented (at least in recent memory) drought. .
Mullin scores from the penalty spot against Forest Green Rovers (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Last season, for example, the longest Mullin went without finding the net was two games (which happened three times). The previous year, the first with Wrexham, there was a five-game gap between goals around Christmas, but the team still won on three of those five occasions, so the focus was largely elsewhere.
This time, the 29-year-old’s goals temporarily running out coincided with a poor run of results: five of those eight matches were lost, with just two wins, and without his spectacular 93rd-minute equaliser, Forest Green would have also defeated to Wrexham. .
It’s no surprise that a priority for the coaching staff during February was getting their talisman back to his instinctive best. Not just in terms of scoring goals, but also running in behind defenses that are so fundamental to the way Wrexham play.
These had become less and less frequent, which meant that the chances of the ball staying in front to allow midfielders and full-backs to advance en masse were also affected. The result was a team that looked as disjointed as its results suggested, especially away from home.
Cue that individual shooting drill after training.
It lasted just 10 minutes, with assistant coach Steve Parkin present throughout the game, urging the striker to kick the ball through. Some shots flew past the goalkeeper and into the top corner. Others strayed harmlessly from the target. But it didn’t matter. Instead, to those watching from the sidelines, the intention seemed to simply remind Mullin how much power he has in his boots.
Whether that played a part in the return to scoring trend the following night will never be known, but there was a brutal savagery to his penalty (and an earlier shot that went over the bar) that had been missing when facing MK Dons and Gillingham during the eight previous days.
The second goal of Saturday’s hat-trick in the 4-0 home win against Accrington was similar. Mullin fired from 25 yards with such conviction that goalkeeper Radek Vitek had no chance.
All the added extras that make Mullin a key cog in Wrexham’s attacking machine were also on display, including a darting run behind the opposition defense that led to the striker setting up Elliot Lee’s goal, which completed the scoring just before of rest.
Their main man was back.
This weekend’s visit to Morecambe will see Mullin on familiar ground.
He spent three years there as a youth, after being released by Huddersfield Town in 2014 aged 19 without making a senior appearance.
Mullin was never going to get rich in Morecambe. His first contract was worth just £200 a week. But those three seasons provided a valuable foundation. He also scored 25 goals in 122 league games, more than half of them from the bench. Mullin felt he was worthy of a starting role.
Back then, as one of several members of the Morecambe team, managed by Jim Bentley, who lived on the Lancashire coast in Liverpool, Mullin regularly took part in training. Groups of four took turns driving.
For those who were part of those 150-mile round trips, an indelible memory is how the young forward tried to channel that disappointment at not being selected in a positive way. While some might have blamed the coach (to this day, Mullin credits Bentley with being a good influence on his career), he did everything he could to try to make his way onto the team.
Mullin’s recent goal drought was his longest with Wrexham (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
He did self-paced running sessions on the city beach, plus grueling weight work to bulk up. He wanted to be more attuned to the physically imposing role of lone figurehead that Bentley’s system demanded.
Over time, Mullin realized his mistake. His game had always been about using skill and speed, but now, with the extra muscle he had accumulated, he felt heavy. He learned a lesson about the need to stick to one’s beliefs.
This will no doubt have helped him overcome not only his recent barren run in front of goal, but also Wrexham’s deadline day signing of fellow striker Jack Marriott early last month.
The arrival of Marriott, who was playing in the second division championship just two years ago and has more than 100 appearances in that division, was heralded as a way to liven up an attack that, even taking into account Mullin, reached double figures. for the season in mid-January, he has largely struggled for goals since the club’s return to the EFL. But, as has since become clear when one replaced the other off the bench in six of Marriott’s eight appearances, the newcomer is effectively direct competition for Mullin.
Mullin had recently taken the lead. He started on the bench only once in more than 100 league appearances for Wrexham, and even then this occurred as he was returning from the collapsed lung and four broken ribs he suffered on last summer’s US tour. Naturally, this was going to shake.
But it also triggered the well-honed trait of wanting to prove people wrong. This has burned within him since he was released by his beloved Liverpool at 16. This desire perhaps explains why Mullin was always present in training despite the discomfort of that back problem. This problem led the medical team to take advantage of a rare blank Tuesday this week to administer that painkilling injection.
Those who know Mullin well will say the same: what you see is what you get from someone who still lives around the corner from his childhood home in Litherland, a district north of Liverpool. Life with her partner Mollie and her son Albi is so settled that not even serious interest from Saudi Arabia’s second division last summer could tempt him. Family and friends have long realized the futility of trying to contact Mullin after 9 pm, knowing full well that at that time he will be asleep, resting for the next day’s training or match, or not far away.
Even McElhenney, who once claimed that only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were more famous as footballers in the United States than his number 10 thanks to the Emmy Award-winning documentary series Welcome To Wrexham, admits: “Every once in a while, I want to get Tell me how great it is. But it’s always the same thing (from Mullin): ‘I just take a shift, do my job and go back to my family.’ Weekly!”
Mullin has been a key star for Wrexham owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (Oli Scarf/AFP via Getty Images)
This no-nonsense attitude, however, again helps explain how Mullin overcame that recent dry spell in front of goal.
It was the longest time since he played 16 league and cup games without scoring for Tranmere Rovers (either during three months as an unused substitute or out of the matchday squad) during the end of the 2018–19 League Two season. and the beginning of the next. campaign in League One.
He also has the sense of perspective that four-year-old Albi’s autism diagnosis has brought him. That said, there are those in and around the dressing room who insisted that the striker “looked six inches taller” after that point-saving penalty against Forest Green, suggesting there was a great sense of relief when the ball found the net.
And now that? Firstly, he will be eager to continue a remarkable goalscoring record against Morecambe, having scored eight times against them in the last three meetings with Cambridge United and now Wrexham.
Then, provided all goes well after this week’s blow to the back, there are the twin goals of a second successive promotion and joining an exclusive club of Wrexham forwards to reach 100 goals. Mullin ranks eighth on their all-time scoring list, five shy of three figures in 129 appearances.
If they continue and reach that milestone this season, Wrexham are likely to celebrate those first consecutive promotions and a return to the third tier for the first time since 2004-05.
It would be a fitting end to an eventful year for their on-field talisman.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
