Ben Foster heaps pressure on Wrexham ahead of League Two return

Ben Foster is backing Wrexham to follow up on their National League triumph by challenging for the League Two title next season. The Red Dragons ended a 15-year spell in the wilderness of non-league football by racking up a record-breaking 111 points to earn automatic promotion to the EFL.

Foster signed a short-term deal with the North Wales outfit towards the end of the campaign but played a pivotal role in ensuring that the National League title came to the Racecourse Stadium.

He has since been convinced by club owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney to sign a new one-year deal and although the club has only just returned to the cut and thrust of the Football League, the ex-England international is convinced that his team can be up there once more challenging for promotion in the new season.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Foster said: “You can say that we want to finish in the top half, top six or top two but I don’t think we’re going to look at it like that.

“We want to go and win every single game and I feel we’ve got a good enough team to go and win this league, genuinely. There’s no divine right to win or to be in the top six, it doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t matter what your name is, you’ve got to put the work in and put the graft in and all the bits and bobs behind the scene.”

Wrexham will travel to the US this month to play a number of high-profile preseason friendlies, including matches against Manchester United and Chelsea.

The club was able to convince a number of Football League-level players to join their promotion quest, such as captain Ben Tozer, top-scorer Paul Mullin and fellow forward Ollie Palmer.

Mullin has already committed his future to the club by signing a new three-year contract, but manager Phil Parkinson, who has publicly stated that he is happy with his existing squad, will be keen to identify areas that may need strengthening before the new season gets underway.

Wrexham’s outlook and ambitions have been completely reborn since Hollywood actors Reynolds and McElhenney bought the club for £2m in November 2021.

The pair have since invested over £10m into the Red Dragons and following the success of the Disney Plus series ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ the pair are continuing to strike new sponsorship and endorsement deals, bringing further revenue to aid the hunt for another promotion.