The non-league club that gets confused with Wrexham AFC

A non-league football club has taken a leaf out of its near-namesake’s book by creating its own documentary series.

while’Welcome to Wrexham‘ is a hugely successful Disney+ series featuring Wrexham AFC and its Hollywood star owners, ‘Welcome to Wroxham’ will spotlight Norfolk club Wroxham FC.

Wroxham FC chairman James Blower said that while the two clubs sounded similar, he was missing out on Hollywood investment “with only one vowel”.

He hopes the fly-on-the-wall four-part documentary series will help “improve the club’s fortunes”.

The Welsh club have soared since Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney completed a £2m takeover. in 2021.

They have gone from the National League – football’s fifth tier – back into the Football League after a 15-year absence.

After winning promotion from League Two at the first attempt, they are now third in League One.

Wroxham, meanwhile, are five levels below them, sitting second from bottom in the Isthmian League North Division.

“We want to get more fans through the gate; we want to get a higher profile and ultimately more commercial partners and investment,” Blower said.

“We missed out on Hollywood investment with a vocal and this is a chance to showcase all the good things about our club.”

He said the Norfolk club, nicknamed the Yachtsmen, was regularly confused with its Welsh near-namesake.

“People call the club by accident or go to the website and they get the wrong club,” he laughed.

“We also had an incident with a commercial partner who got incredibly excited when we did business with us.

“But then I realized that the girls in the marketing team thought they were going to work with Ryan Reynolds and not James Blower, and of course they were very disappointed when they saw the reality.”

Wroxham midfielder Jordan King said despite the clubs’ similar names, the football conditions were very different.

“They (Wrexham players) probably get their meals cooked for them. But we’re non-league, we’re part-time and we train twice a week,” he said.

“We’ve also got families and jobs, so we have to balance work.”

King said Wroxham “hinted” at playing a friendly against Wrexham.

“In a one-off game, we would always want to be against someone else,” he added.

Barry Letten, 78, a volunteer groundsman at Wroxham, said a confused fan once arrived at the club’s Trafford Park ground.

“They came through the gate and asked ‘Are we in Wrexham?’

“I said ‘No, you’re in Wroxham in Norfolk’,” he said.

“He decided he wasn’t going to get to Wrexham in time for kick-off so he stayed here and watched the game.”