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          Wrexham's Australia and NZ tour diary: Wrexham make a winning start vs. Melbourne Victory

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          • Joey Lynch, Australia Correspondent
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              Joey Lynch is a Melbourne-based sports journalist and AYA cancer advocate. Primarily working on football, he has covered the Socceroos, Matildas and A-Leagues for ESPN for over a decade.
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          Jul 12, 2025, 12:02 AM

          Wrexham are touring Australia and New Zealand for the very first time. While the Championship awaits the Welsh side in 2025-26, they will first have to play three A-League clubs across three cities on their preseason tour.

          ESPN will be with them every step of the way as Phil Parkinson, Ryan Reynolds, Rob Mac & Co. plot their path to the Premier League.

          Wrexham make a winning start to their tour

          MELBOURNE, Australia -- After long flights, cold early-morning training, visits to the MCG, and many promotional interviews, Wrexham actually got to play a match on Friday evening. They won, too: defeating A-League Men outfit Melbourne Victory 3-0 at Marvel Stadium in the first of their three games of their preseason tour Down Under.

          For about half an hour, Victory threatened to make things interesting, with Brazilian winger Santos, Greek striker Nikos Vergos, and French attacker Zinédine Machach all sending a scare through their opponents. It was the latter, who previously spent time on the books of Marseille and Napoli, who came closest for the locals in the 24th minute, advancing to the top of the box and hammering in an effort that Arthur Okonkwo could only palm wide for a corner.

          But Victory keeper Jack Duncan was also being forced into a series of fantastic saves during this stretch, and, eventually, the soon-to-be-Championship side found their footing and began an aerial bombardment of their foe's penalty area.

          The breakthrough came in the 43rd minute, when a cross was whipped in by Ollie Palmer and meekly punched by Duncan straight to Tom O'Connor, who placed a volleyed effort into the back of the net.

          From there, the result was never really in doubt. But really, results in these kinds of preseason games are largely subservient to other factors. Plentiful as the banter may have been had Wrexham fallen to an Australian outfit, coach Phil Parkinson would gladly wear it if it helped his side secure a point against Southampton in their opening game of the league campaign next month, or did its part to physically prepare them for the week-in-and-week-out grind of one of the toughest leagues on the planet.

          Fortunately for the coach, he didn't have to choose.

          "It's a long time since we've played," said Parkinson. "It was a long trip over. So I'm pleased with the workout. The idea of tonight was obviously to put in a good performance for the people who paid money to come and watch us, but equally come away from the game a step closer to where we need to be as the season approaches."

          Skipper James McClean started on the bench for the contest, Matty James wore the armband in his stead, but was part of a brand new XI thrown on at halftime by Parkinson, alongside newly signed attacker Ryan Hardie in his first appearance since signing from Plymouth Argyle and goalkeeper Danny Ward, who re-debuted with his junior side after signing from Leicester City.

          Hardie would go on to net a first goal for his new club when he slid in at the near post and fired home in the 67th minute, and George Evans made it three just over ten minutes later with a long-range effort.

          Sam Smith and Jay Rodriguez didn't feature as they work their way back from injury, while Hardie came off late with what the coach said was a slight knock that shouldn't have any lingering effects. This being preseason, of course, those coming off at half-time weren't spared a bit of extra running: performing sprints up and down the length of the pitch before they were allowed to take a load off.

          And this being a preseason tour of Australia organised by promoters seeking to make a profit, they did so by weaving in and out of the various sponsored-activations that had spilled onto the grass, as well as a performer dressed as Deadpool -- one assumed they'd have advertised if it was Ryan Reynolds under the mask to boost ticket sales -- chasing "Dogpool" across the pitch.

          Sights and sounds

          ESPN's Alex Hatzikostas was on hand at Marvel Stadium as Wrexham hit the pitch down under.

          Quote of the day

          "I've been on the previous two preseason trips to America, and the first one was when it dawned of how big the whole thing was. I have friends and family who are from [Australia], so they've filled me in and how [Welcome to Wrexham] is quite big here. So I knew what to expect. But I think if it's your first trip, for the younger lads, it takes you by surprise running out to that" -- Eoghan O'Connell on the reported 37,020 crowd for Tuesday's game.

          What's on tomorrow for Wrexham?

          It's a travel day for the Red Dragons, who will pack their bags and fly up to Sydney for the second leg of their tour Down Under. The famous Sydney Opera House awaits, as does a trip to Taronga Zoo so Sam Smith can get his visit with a kangaroo, before the main event of a meeting with Douglas Costa and Sydney FC arrives on Tuesday evening.