Easter celebrations unlikely as promotion race heads down to wire
- Published
It looks like Wrexham fans will be biting their nails right through until the end of the season with the League One promotion race heading down to the wire.
Wycombe Wanderers' 1-0 win at Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night, their game in hand, keeps them on Wrexham's tail in the battle to finish second - and the dream of a third successive promotion at the Stok Racecourse on hold for a little longer.
Crucially, automatic promotion to the Championship remains firmly in Wrexham's hands - they are three points ahead of Wycombe with each having five games left.
But Wanderers' win over Huddersfield means Easter Monday is the earliest the Red Dragons could go up.
Even then, that supposes Wrexham can claim at least seven points from their next three games - Wigan Athletic away on 12 April followed by Bristol Rovers on Good Friday and Blackpool on Easter Monday - while Wycombe lose two of their next three.
It is therefore likely to come down to either the penultimate weekend of the season, when Wrexham host play-off chasing Charlton Athletic, or the final day, when Phil Parkinson's side travel to Lincoln City.
Clearly, Wrexham fans would love to celebrate elevation to the second tier of English football for the first time in 43 years on their own turf.
But if the promotion party is delayed by seven days, another bumper travelling crowd will be at Lincoln's Sincil Bank on 3 May to kick-start the celebrations, with Wrexham's allocation of 1,800 tickets going on sale on Thursday.
Of course, it is possible there could be no celebrations until much later in May if Wycombe capitalise on any Wrexham slips and beat them to second place.
In which case, Wrexham would have to do it the hard way - needing just one more point from their remaining five games to guarantee a place in the play-offs - and hope champagne corks are popping at Wembley instead at the end of the League One play-off final on 25 May.