Birmingham City owner Tom Wagner was in the stands for his side’s Championship match against Wrexham on Friday night.
Birmingham City made the journey to North Wales on Friday night for a game against newfound rivals Wrexham at the Racecourse.
Last season, the two teams drew in Wales, whilst Birmingham City won the reverse fixture at St Andrew’s. And Friday’s game was another stalemate.
George Dobson gave Wrexham the lead at half-time but right after the restart, Blues equalised through Patrick Roberts as Wrexham and Birmingham City eventually drew 1-1.
Among the sold out Racecourse crowd was Birmingham City owner Tom Wagner.
Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty ImagesTom Wagner’s message to Birmingham City fans at half-time of Wrexham game
Wrexham owners Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds are often attending games and Mac even sat with the Wrexham fans for their game against Blackpool in League One last season. But it was Wagner who made the journey to North Wales on Friday night, and he too sat in the stands with the fans.
At half-time, the American businessman gave a rallying cry to supporters, insisting that they hadn’t been good enough in the first half with Wrexham by far the better team. It appeared to work with Birmingham City the better side in the second half.
Wagner was filmed saying: “The energy on the pitch isn’t great. But they’re going to feed off of us, and we haven’t been great either.”
Tom Wagner’s harsh words on Wrexham, Birmingham City a ‘much bigger club’
Speaking earlier in the summer, Wagner was critical of the Wrexham fans, who he thinks ‘scoff’ at how much Birmingham City have spent: this summer, Wrexham outspent Birmingham City by more than £20million, last season however it was Birmingham City who were the big spenders.
Wagner said: “It makes me chuckle when Wrexham fans scoff at what we’ve spent and how we’ve gone about it, let’s be clear, Wrexham have achieved their success because they’ve driven commercial revenue. Birmingham have always been a much bigger club.”
There’s clearly now some kind of rivalry between the two, albeit more of a fabricated one given their US ownership and their celebrity ownership, with Tom Brady involved at Birmingham City. But Wagner clearly isn’t a huge fan of Wrexham.
Nonetheless, it adds another exciting game to the calendar with Wrexham playing away at Birmingham City in April next year.