There is a new name on the Genero Adran Premier trophy. Wrexham is the Name.
The Racecourse, the world’s oldest international football stadium, has a hefty back catalogue of historic occasions. On Sunday, it gained another as a first ever top-flight title was secured by the women’s team.
“This club does special moments”, manager Jenny Sugarman said afterwards. That is certainly what the 2,918 fans inside the Racecourse – the highest Genero Adran Leagues crowd of the season – had just witnessed.
Knowing that victory over reigning champions Cardiff City would secure the title, Wrexham trailed against the Bluebirds early on but battled back to win 4-1 thanks to Katie Barker’s hat-trick and a stunning Faye Knox strike. In truth, the Red Dragons could have scored more. In the final 10 minutes, there was wave after wave of Wrexham attack as Cardiff surrendered the title they had won for the three previous years in a row.
If ever there was a visual representation of a changing of the guard, this was it. Cardiff City themselves had forged a new era in recent years, following the historic dominance of Cardiff Met and Swansea City, claiming seven of the nine domestic trophies available between 2022-23 and 2024-25. The Bluebirds have at times been an unstoppable force, winning each of their three titles by margins of 13, 9 and 10 points respectively. Only two years ago, they defeated Wrexham by an aggregate score of 11-2 across their two Phase Two meetings.
This season, Wrexham have shattered that monopoly. Naysayers will point to the Rob & Ryan factor, the ‘Hollywood money’ pumped in, and call this title win inevitable. But in an era where, still, even at the very top of the game, owners of the biggest clubs do not give fair weighting to their women’s team, Reynolds and McElhenney have ensured that they are just as much as part of the story as Phil Parkinson and co.
From the second season of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary onwards, stories from the women’s team have been highlighted – giving the side a profile that has rapidly grown their fanbase. When Wrexham won promotion from the Genero Adran North in 2023, they were part of the same open-top bus parade through the city as the men’s team who had won promotion from the English National League. They handed out their first set of semi-professional contracts that summer and the following year there was a pre-season tour to the USA in front of record-breaking crowds. Ahead of the current campaign, the club completed the purchase of The Rock, securing a long-term permanent hope and a place to transform into their own training facility.
Rob & Ryan regular express their pride and admiration for the women’s team, something which, again, many other owners could take note from. Whether that is the pair’s emotional interview alongside Rosie Hughes on the Racecourse pitch in 2023, or McElhenney’s reaction to the tense penalty shootout win over Cardiff City that claimed the Genero Adran Trophy this season – posted on his Instagram story.
In some respects, the journey of the women’s team is even more impressive than that of the men. It is only eight years since Wrexham AFC Women reformed following the demise of previous iterations. It is only three years since they won promotion to the Genero Adran Premier by triumphing 1-0 over Briton Ferry Llansawel in the play-off – a game in which they were arguably not the better side and perhaps slightly fortunate to win.
A third-place finish in their debut Genero Adran Premier campaign showed that the Red Dragons were at home in the top-flight, but they still finished 17 points behind champions Cardiff City and eight behind second-place Swansea City, failing to beat either those traditional heavyweights throughout the campaign.
Last season started poorly, but Wrexham turned their form around and secured their place in the top half in the final game before the split – Keren Allen scoring a dramatic 90th-minute winner to defeat Swansea, who dropped into the bottom half as a consequence. Wrexham would ultimately finish fourth in the table, 14 points behind champions Cardiff, but did beat the Bluebirds home and away in Phase Two. That felt like a significant psychological barrier had been overcome, but plenty of work remained to topple the back-to-back-to-back champions.
The first significant change last summer was the departure of manager Steve Dale after three and a half years in charge. It took the club two months to confirm his replacement, eventually announcing Jenny Sugarman in late July. The 43-year-old arrived with plenty of pedigree in the English system, with her previous roles including Head Coach at West Brom and Head of Academy at WSL side Leicester City. How she has transformed Wrexham in the last eight months has been a remarkable feat.
Sugarman initiated a number of other full-time appointments to her backroom staff. Former Burnley boss Bex Sawiuk joined as assistant manager, Bradley Perrett as lead performance analyst, Danny Burrus as full-time strength and conditioning coach and Owen Rees as the lead sport rehabilitator. Goalkeeper coach Dave Williams remains a constant, having been involved with the club since its reformation eight years ago.
Away from the technical staff, the appointment of Mark Swales – formerly of Chelsea and the English FA – as Head of Women’s Football in October was a significant one and he complements the knowledge and passion of Gemma Owen who has been on this inspiring journey right from the very start.
When Sugarman was appointed, Wrexham only had one player contracted for the new season – Lili Jones. While one of the manager’s first tasks was to assess the squad and decide who should be offered a new deal, she also set about bringing in new names to north Wales. Many of those have been gamechangers.
Katie Barker arrived as Newcastle United’s record goalscorer and could well be on her way to achieving the same status at Wrexham. The 25-year-old has set the Genero Adran Premier alight, finding the net against all of the other seven clubs and becoming the first player since the league restructure to bag 20 goals in a single campaign. Her title-clinching hat-trick against Cardiff City on Sunday took her tally to 24 in 19 games.
Defender Jodie Bartle also arrived from Newcastle – she and Barker are the league’s first full-time professionals – and was instantly named captain. It has been easy to see why, given her clear leadership attributes, while she has impressed with a number of composed and solid performances in the backline. Since being substituted in the 70th minute on the opening day of the season against Briton Ferry, Bartle has not missed a single minute of action in the league.
Former Cymru youth international Josie Smith has been an unsung hero in midfield, starting every league game and keeping Sugarman’s side ticking over. Hannah Snape and Pakistan international Mariam Mahmood both hit the ground running, the latter scoring four goals in her first four appearances in a Wrexham shirt. Deadline day arrival Faye Knox has come to the fore in stunning style since the turn of the year, scoring seven goals in eight league games in 2026. That includes four in the space of a week to help clinch the title – a mesmerising solo effort to defeat The New Saints and ferocious strikes from distance against Swansea City and Cardiff City.
There have also been the winter additions that have helped Wrexham get over the line. Maria Francis-Jones became the first player in Genero Adran Leagues history to command a transfer fee when she completed a switch from The New Saints, and the one-cap Cymru international scored a crucial, and stunning, equalising goal on her debut in February’s Genero Adran Trophy Final. Canadian Sarah Harvey has started every game since also making her debut in that match, while Mikayla Wildgoose also slotted in seamlessly until an unfortunate injury against TNS earlier this month.
There is no getting away from the fact that this significant investment into the squad has taken Wrexham to the next level and ultimately proved decisive in their title win. But do not ignore the key contributions of players who have been on the journey since the club’s days at Ponciau Park.
Erin Lovett, Lili Jones and Ava Suckley are all lifelong Wrexham supporters who played for the club’s youth sides and broke into the senior team while they were still in the Genero Adran North. All three have continued to feature regularly in the top-flight and produce standout performances. Suckley scored in the Genero Adran Trophy Final and netted twice in the 7-1 win over Swansea City last week. Jones, who grew up a stone’s throw from the Racecourse, impresses as one of the best midfielders in the league and is still only 20 years old.
Rosie Hughes set the Genero Adran North alight with 24 goals in nine games during Wrexham’s promotion-winning campaign three years ago and has not stopped finding the net in the Genero Adran Premier. This season she has proved effective both starting alongside Barker and also replacing her off the bench to kill games off. Hughes has nine league goals this term, only bettered in the squad by Barker, despite only starting six games.
Then of course there is Phoebe Davies, an inspiration to any woman in the game after she returned to playing football following the birth of her daughter Nansi in 2020. Davies, who started the 2023 promotion play-off alongside Lovett, Jones and Hughes, played for the now defunct Wrexham Ladies over a decade ago so really has seen it all. The 31-year-old has started the last six league games that have clinched the title.
Other faces have joined along the way to create this title-winning squad. Goalkeeper Liz Craven quickly became a reliable presence in between the sticks following her arrival last season. The experience of Keren Allen and Nat Clark has been invaluable. While they have played smaller roles this term, Carra Jones and Abbie Iddenden noticeably increased attacking standards in their debut campaigns. It is impossible not to mention Liv Fuller, who agonisingly suffered the second ACL injury of her career last season but has returned to feature in the four league matches leading up to the title win. That resilience and determination is likely to have rubbed off on the entire squad.
It seems a long time ago that this Wrexham team found themselves 2-0 down after 32 minutes away at Briton Ferry on the opening day of the season. While that shaky start in the pouring rain may have caused brief worry, in reality that was as bad as the campaign has ever got. Mariam Mahmood scored in first half stoppage time at Old Road and Wrexham roared back in the second half to win 5-2.
They have rarely looked back. Wrexham won nine of their 11 league games before Christmas, only dropping points in a 4-2 away defeat against The New Saints and a 1-1 draw with Cardiff City at home.
The first game of the new year saw Sugarman’s side travel to the capital to face the champions again and they conceded deep into stoppage time to lose 2-1. It could have been a moment that broke Wrexham but instead it proved to only drive them on – they have won every league game since.
Sandwiched in amongst their title-winning run was perhaps the biggest milestone of the lot. A first ever piece of major silverware was secured in February as Wrexham defeated Cardiff City via a tense penalty shootout to win the Genero Adran Trophy in Bangor. A week later, the Red Dragons went to the Cardiff City Stadium in the league and triumphed 3-1 – ultimately the moment that the title race swung in their favour.
However, after their visit to Swansea City in mid-February was postponed, Wrexham continued to trail Cardiff in the table but held a game in hand. When the fixture was eventually played last Wednesday, the north Walians ran riot. They triumphed 7-1, handing six-time champions Swansea their biggest ever defeat in the top-flight. It provided the perfect platform to complete the job at the Racecourse on Sunday. A day that no one inside the historic stadium will ever forget.
The next frontier is a big one. As title winners, Wrexham will be the Genero Adran Premier’s representative in the UEFA Women’s Champions League in 2026/27 – competing in the First Qualifying Round at the end of July.
‘Wrexham in Europe’ may stir memories of the men’s team’s ventures in the Cup Winners’ Cup in the late 20th century, but the women’s side will aim to create their own history on the continent over 30 years on. No team from the Welsh top-flight has ever progressed past the First Qualifying Round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League and no side has even scored a goal in Europe since Swansea City did so in a 4-1 extra-time defeat to CSKA Moscow in 2021.
But this is Wrexham. A club who are no strangers to doing things differently, breaking barriers and enjoying what is turning out to be a mesmerising ride.
