Wrexham gears up for Hollywood-style promotion party

WREXHAM, Wales : Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney may have brought Hollywood star power to long-struggling Welsh soccer club Wrexham AFC, but the players are writing their own script worthy of a blockbuster movie.

Wrexham are on the verge of winning promotion to the English Football League having amassed a record 107 points to sit top of the National League table with two games to go.

Victory over Boreham Wood on Saturday would guarantee promotion to Football League Two, the fourth tier of English soccer, and people in the northern Welsh city are gearing up for a memorable evening.

"You won't be able to get in here tomorrow . . . no chance," Mark Jones said from the Turf Hotel, the pub on the corner of the team's Racecourse Ground. "Every pub in town will be the same. It'll be emotional, very emotional."

Jones plays guitar for the Declan Swans, a band of middle-agers who have achieved rock-star status through the FX documentary "Welcome to Wrexham" that chronicles the team's progress under Reynolds and McElhenney, and their song "Always Sunny in Wrexham". The title is a play on McElhenney's show "Always Sunny in Philadelphia".

"Ryan actually knows us by our names now," Jones, who delivers the post by day, said with a laugh. "How does Ryan Reynolds know my name? It's quite bizarre."

The documentary has propelled a little-known club into the global spotlight. Games draw huge viewing audiences, even in North America and the success story has left virtually no-one in Wrexham untouched.

Wayne Jones, who has owned The Turf for 15 years, said his life had become a lot busier. FX spent five hours in his pub on Friday morning shooting the trailer for Season Two. Jones was bidding farewell to the couple of dozen crew members when