Rob McElhenney has put his support behind head coach Phil Parkinson after Wrexham fell to a humiliating 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Stockport County.
The Red Dragons co-owner is famously hands-on in the role he shares with Ryan Reynolds and it is clear that he was willing his team on during their latest League Two outing. However, that support could only do so much, with the Welsh outfit having been left licking their wounds after a thrashing.
At the halfway mark, the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor had backed manager Parkinson inspire a reaction from his team after going in at 3-0 at the break. Putting his faith in the man who guided Wrexham back to the EFL, he took to Twitter/X to post offer up his thoughts at half-time.
Predicting a potential turnaround in the second half, McElhenney reminded fans to keep the faith, saying: "Phil’s enthusiasm in the locker room will be off the charts. But never, ever leave a Wrexham game. Come on you reds!".
Unfortunately for the Hollywood star, his encouraging words would not turn out to be prophetic, however. In the end, goals from Louie Barry, Paddy Madden and hat-trick hero Isaac Olafoe sealed an emphatic win for their old rivals from Greater Manchester.
Ryan Reynolds mispronounces name of new Wrexham signing in hilarious videoThe comedy writer's belief could not be dampened following the pasting, though, and he then turned to Wrexham's supporters to deliver some words of wisdom. McElhenney was left in complete agreement with star of Welcome to Wrexham, Millie Tipping after her words of encouragement on Instagram.
She posted: "You know what, we might of [sic] lost but we win together, we lose together, we draw together. Lads, we go again against Crewe". Posing a screenshot of this message from one of his two million followers on Instagram, the world-famous star gave the rally cry his own seal of approval, adding: "Well said."
It was clear that manager Parkinson was less than impressed with what he saw from his team in the drubbing, however. Speaking following the loss, the head coach said: "It's as bad of a first-half that I can remember us playing in terms of all the fundamentals in football.
"So many times we gave the ball away in the back third and middle third and put ourselves under pressure, our selection of pass and weight of the pass, we put ourselves under so much pressure today.
"Coming away to Stockport, it's about getting a platform in a game, start properly, do the right things in the right areas of the pitch and build a performance. Today we were sloppy in everything we did and we've got to take our medicine.
He added: "We've done okay on the road so far this season but they were just a yard quicker, a yard sharper all over the pitch. We had so many performances today which were so far below par and it's kind of difficult to explain that. I need to look at that, the reasons for that."