Big Wrexham AFC transfer decision can secure Championship football | OneFootball

The signing of striker Sam Smith from Reading could make the difference for Wrexham in the League One automatic promotion race.

Wrexham picked up a crucial victory in their quest to achieve a third consecutive promotion as they beat Wycombe Wanderers 1-0 at Adams Park on Saturday.

Shortly after play resumed in the second half following a lengthy stoppage due to a medical emergency in the crowd, Wycombe almost took the lead when Caleb Taylor's effort was cleared off the line by George Dobson.

Just over a minute later, it was Wrexham who went ahead when Steven Fletcher's header fell into the path of Sam Smith, and his deflected strike sealed all three points for Phil Parkinson's side, although they did need Arthur Okonkwo to produce a vital save to deny James Berry late on as the Chairboys pushed for an equaliser.

The Red Dragons briefly moved into the automatic promotion places after the victory, but they dropped back down to third after Wycombe won 3-2 at Rotherham United in their game in hand on Tuesday night.

With the Chairboys not in action this weekend, Wrexham will regain their spot in the top two if they avoid defeat against Stockport County at the SToK Cae Ras on Saturday, but it will not be an easy game against Dave Challinor's fifth-placed side, who have promotion ambitions of their own.

Sam Smith signing could make the difference for Wrexham

Four teams still realistically have a chance of achieving automatic promotion alongside runaway leaders Birmingham City in League One this season, so Wrexham will face a fierce battle for second place over the coming months, but in striker Smith, they may have a crucial weapon.

At the start of the season, it looked as though the Red Dragons had plenty of firepower in their squad, with Ollie Palmer, Paul Mullin, Jack Marriott and Steven Fletcher on their books, and they brought in even more attacking quality when they signed Mo Faal from West Bromwich Albion on deadline day for a fee of £500,000.

However, it is fair to say that Wrexham's strikers did not fare quite as well in the third tier as many had expected, and despite struggling for goals in League Two the previous season, Marriott was their main threat at the start of the campaign, scoring five goals in his first 10 league appearances.

Unfortunately for Marriott, he suffered a broken leg in October that ruled him out for over three months, and Parkinson turned to the free agent market during his absence, bringing in former Bolton Wanderers striker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson.

Bodvarsson was released in January after failing to score in seven appearances for the club, and with Palmer, Mullin and Fletcher still struggling to deliver consistently, the Red Dragons decided to splash the cash on Burnley's Jay Rodriguez and Reading's Sam Smith.

Given that he had spent much of his career in the top two divisions of English football, Rodriguez was perhaps the more eye-catching addition of the two, but Wrexham smashed their transfer record to sign Smith for a reported fee of £2 million, beating a host of Championship and European clubs to his signature, and based on the early evidence, he could be worth every penny.

Already he is repaying that fee, with his goal against Wycombe a priceless one.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney deserve credit for Sam Smith deal

Up to this point in their journey, Wrexham had not spent too much on transfer fees, instead offering lucrative wages, but with the prize of Championship football on offer, owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney decided to spend big on Smith.

Smith scored 35 goals in 109 games during a two-year spell at Cambridge United between 2021 and 2023, which were impressive numbers considering the U's spent much of that time in the bottom half of the League One table, and that earned him a move back to former side Reading.

The 27-year-old netted 16 goals in 37 games for the Royals last term to help them avoid relegation, and his fine form continued in the first half of this season as he scored 11 goals in 26 appearances.

Given Reading's ongoing ownership issues, it would surely have been tempting for Wrexham to attempt to sign Smith for a cut-price fee, but recognising that there are few better strikers than him at third tier level, the Welsh outfit made an offer reflective of his true worth, and Reynolds and McElhenney should be commended for that.

Smith has not quite managed to reproduce the form he showed at the Select Car Leasing Stadium for his new club just yet, scoring just three goals in his first 10 appearances, but two of those have come in his last three games, suggesting that he is starting to find his feet with the Red Dragons.

Parkinson may have been keen to play down the significance of the game, but dropping points against Wycombe would have been incredibly costly for Wrexham in the automatic promotion race, so Smith's winner at Adams Park could be the most important goal of the club's season so far.

The Red Dragons have the second-best defence in the division behind Birmingham, but goals have been in short supply at times, so Smith could be the missing piece of the puzzle that Parkinson's men needed to secure a remarkable third straight promotion.