Wrexham Women are the "next big thing" after Reynolds and McElhenney investment
Technically, it’s a trick question. But Wrexham midfielder Lili Jones, in typical fashion, is a good sport about it all.
The 18-year-old’s first-ever Wrexham match would have been sometime between her being swaddled in hospital nappies and those first months breathing oxygen. Her memory is, then, untrustworthy at best.
2013, though. She remembers 2013. She recalls the snow. The igloo she and her Wrexham-loyal dad built in the backyard. The bus the pair took from north Wales down to Wembley Stadium to watch the FA Cup trophy later that day.
She recalls the seats, “crap seats”, up so high in the rafters where birds suffer vertigo. Not that Jones cared too much about having to squint.
Because down below captain Dean Keates was lifting a trophy high above his head, Grimsby Town players were wading through the wreckage of a dismal penalty shootout and Jones was busy reconciling this moment of elation with her then-working definition of being a Wrexham fan.
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“I remember thinking, woah, Wrexham are actually winning,” Jones says of the 2013 FA Trophy, the club’s last official honour before the Hollywood ride began.
“That wasn’t really a thing that we did, it wasn’t a thing for us. Not at the time.”
Oh how things change and, stubbornly, remain the same.
A decade later Jones, now a pivotal figure in the club’s women’s senior team, is still reconfiguring her working definition of dedicating one’s life to Wrexham.
But where non-league purgatory – sporadically interrupted by intermittent moments of joy – seemed to be the modus operandi for, erm...forever, the last two years have felt like one long drawn-out lucky lottery ticket, with incremental pitfalls added only for dramatic effect.
For those rolling their eyes and heaving a beleaguered sigh at this @*£& again , the answer is no. Those within the (soon to be!) four terraces of the Racecourse Ground have not gotten used to this whole Rob-and-Ryan thing yet.
Wrexham's Lili Jones speaks to Rob McElhenney after Wrexham's 2-1 victory over Connah's Quay at the Racecourse (Pic by Sam Eaden/FAW)“Nah, it’s still mad,” Jones laughs when asked if any of the early buzz has abated. “I’ve grown up with the club. From what happened to what’s happened now, for it to still be a thing is crazy to us. It’s just waiting for the next big thing to come. All the time.”
Such is the existence in the working-class town: a life of tenterhooks, peeled eyes and bottomless expectations. As for the Next Big Thing? Enter Wrexham Women.
A long-awaited episode featuring last season’s promotion-winning Invincibles has finally aired this week on the second season of the club’s docuseries. Another is on the way.
At the time of writing, Wrexham Women, in their first season of Welsh top-flight football since the team’s forced fold in 2016, sit top of the table on goal difference, thanks in large part to the team’s resident goal-glutton Rosie Hughes.
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Wrexham face the reigning league champions Cardiff City on Sunday. Many have tipped the Red Dragons to more than hold their own. Jones is careful not to get swept up in the gurgling potential. “It’s still early,” she reliably croons. “We’re three games in. There’s a lot of work to do.
“But there’s no reason why we can’t be up there. We gave [Swansea] a great game. We weren’t expecting to perform as we did. But now the pressure is on for us to keep that up.”
Pressure has manifested in local recognition. On Thursday afternoon before our interview, Jones’ errand of getting a new number plate was momentarily halted as the man in the car next to her declared he saw her on the telly the night before.
Thrilling, but no longer extraordinary. Supermarket aisles and gas station queues have become matters of stardom as the women’s team are noticed by passersby.
Wrexham Women's Rosie Hughes and Wrexham Women's Lili Jones during the 2022/23 Genero Adran North & South play-off fixture between Wrexham AFC Women & Briton Ferry Llansawel Ladies FC (Pic by John Smith/FAW)“It goes without saying, we’re grateful for [the ownership],” says Jones, who was flown out to Los Angeles last season to meet with co-owner Rob McElhenney about his ambitions for the women’s program.
“He was full of praise for us. He and Ryan didn’t have to back the women’s side at all. But with them doing it, look where we are now - we’ve gone from paying to play to being paid to play.”
A theme throughout our conversation is Jones’ unwavering gratitude at her, and the club’s, current circumstances, a reminder that entitlement is a faraway threat for anyone at the club.
Jones' gratitude is rivalled only by a persistent and mature humility. Asked if she has watched back the recent Welcome to Wrexham episode, Jones doesn’t fool around with pretences.
“I was crawling over my skin!” she laughs. “It’s cringey watching yourself on camera and telling your own story because you don’t really think people want to listen.
“But it’s been brilliant for us to have this exposure. And hopefully we’ll see that with the number of people who come to watch us on Sunday.”
Wrexham's Hollywood owners have continually shone a light on the women's teamThe teenager vacillates between spates of incredulous laughter and thorough introspection. It’s mad that she’s being recognised at car dealerships! But it’s testament to the platform provided to the team by the new ownership. Yes, winning the league should be the aim! But success is not linear.
A return to the Welsh national team set-up would be a dream, and Paul Mullin’s recent stand-by status is testament to possibility. But the Welsh domestic game must be pushed to a new profile, a mission that Wrexham have seemingly taken upon themselves to ignite beginning with their semi-professional status.
A semi-pro contract means Jones spends her weekdays at university, balancing work as a dishwasher at a local pub on Monday nights. “I hate it some days, love it others. I like the banter in the kitchen.”
Lili Jones is interviewed for the Welcome to Wrexham documentary (Pic by Nik Mesney/FAW)Spend a few moments with Jones and it becomes clear that she is more than capable of holding her own in a heated kitchen.
Jones owes this aspect of her character to the formative years she spent playing for her local boys’ side, Borras Park Albion. As the squad’s only girl, Jones proved her worth quickly, honing a physical and dauntless edge to her game and mentality that gave her a major advantage as she transitioned into women’s football at the age of 12.
The early foundations eventually earned her a spot in Everton ’s academy, where she operated mostly at centre-back. Jones has since returned to her hometown, where she’s been pushed further forward and moulded into a ball-playing creative midfielder, more in the ilk of her icons Andres Iniesta and Keira Walsh.
Before the question can be asked whether Jones ever thinks about where her career might be if she opted to remain within the WSL system, Jones draws a firm line: “I’m back here where I belong. It’s always been Wrexham.”
Wrexham are better off for it. Jones was last season’s under-19s Adran North top goalscorer. She’s already grabbed a goal this season and supplied her fair share for Hughes, a role she prefers.
At 18, Jones' importance to the senior squad is only growing and a sign of the standard the women's team are bidding to raise across the league and the nation.
“I guess maybe we are the next big thing,” Jones concedes towards the end of our chat. “Hopefully we’ll take that in our stride and make the people of Wrexham proud, as we have so far.”
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