Andy Morrell’s valued opinion will be missing from Wrexham’s Match Day Live commentary this weekend.
Instead of describing his former club’s derby clash with Shrewsbury Town as Wrexham push for the top of League One, the 49-year-old will be conquering peaks of his own as he embarks on a 980-mile (1,500km) charity bike ride the length of the British mainland, from Land’s End in western Cornwall to John o’ Groats on the north-east tip of Scotland.
“This seemed a good idea when I signed up six months ago,” says Morrell, who had two spells as a player at Wrexham, as well as two and a half years as their manager. “But now I’m not too sure.
“I keep asking myself the same question: ‘Have you trained enough?’ And I keep coming back with the same answer: ‘Probably not’.”
Morrell’s trek starts on Saturday, and he is doing it to raise funds for a charity that provides support for those living with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare and complex genetic disorder.
His 17-year-old godson Jack (pictured above with Wrexham director Humphrey Ker, left, the club mascot, and with Morrell on the right) has the condition, hence Morrell’s willingness to embark on a nine-day challenge that is likely to push him through the pain barrier.
“Jack is an amazing lad who absolutely loves (club mascot) Wrex the Dragon,” he says. “It all dates back from when I was still manager and took him to Wrexham. He met Wrex and just fell in love.
“I’d always wanted to do something for Jack. The bike ride came up as a challenge and the time felt right. I’m 50 later this month and I’ve been ticking over since finishing playing but nothing special. So, this is a big thing.
“There’s a few big climbs, especially in Scotland. I’ve read every messageboard around and, by all accounts, the first day is the big one. Coming out of Cornwall, you’re very rarely on the flat. You’re either going up or down, climbing something like 9,000ft (2,700m) in one day — the profile picture looks a bit like a saw.
“Basically, it seems if you can get through day one, then you’ve enough in the tank to get yourself up to John o’ Groats.”
Morrell on his bike at Wrexham’s ground – SToK Cae Ras (Andy Morrell)
Knowing he will miss the Shrewsbury game, he has set himself the goal of being at Birmingham City for Wrexham’s visit on Monday September 16, just a day after the Ride Across Britain is due to conclude up in Scotland.
“I’m really enjoying Match Day Live,” says the 49-year-old of the club’s revamped broadcasts via YouTube and iFollow TV. “I did Wrexham a couple of times a month for BBC Radio Wales last season, which I really enjoyed. But then the club came and asked if I’d be interested in doing every game for iFollow.
“I love watching football, love talking about it. So if that’s the closest I can get at the moment, so be it. What’s great is how the team has started the season. I was looking in pre-season and thinking, ‘Top 10 will be a decent season’.
“But I look now and think they are far and away ahead of where they were this time last season. Fitness, strength in depth, you name it. They’ve got a real chance.”
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Morrell’s playing career, which yielded well over 100 goals and a hat-trick of Wembley appearances, very nearly didn’t happen.
Into his early twenties, working as an assistant manager of a gym in Leeds, Morrell’s chance seemed to have gone. Then came a conversation with Rob McCaffrey, a TV presenter working for Sky Sports.
“I’d been at uni (Northumbria, studying sports science) and my football career was semi-pro, at best,” he says. “Playing parks football, really. People talk about Sliding Doors moments in life and mine came when I got to know Rob.
“One day, he asked me whether I still wanted to turn pro. Of course I did, but I was also a realist. My chance seemed to have gone. But Rob was writing Joey Jones’ autobiography and he got my foot in the door.”
Jones, a two-time European Cup winner with Liverpool in the 1970s whose playing career had begun at Wrexham, was back with them as first-team coach under Brian Flynn. He arranged a trial for Morrell, though there was a hiccup.
“It took the best part of eight months to get a contract,” he recalls. “So many people helped — Rob and Joey, obviously, but also quite a few others. That includes my bosses in Leeds. They gave me a month off, unpaid, to join pre-season properly. Then, on my second day, I smash my cheekbone against Connah’s Quay.
“So, back home for eight weeks to recover and then, once fit, another month off work to train. Carnage, when you look back.”
All that effort proved worth it.
Alongside Lee Trundle in the 2002-03 season, Morrell played as a striker and hit 34 goals as Wrexham clinched promotion, earning him the Golden Boot as the leading scorer across the top four divisions of the English league system.
Morrell playing for Wrexham against Everton in 2002 (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
“We had a bloody good team,” he says. “Me and Trunds were just the icing on the cake up front. We couldn’t have been more different. He was full of confidence, always believing he was the best player on the pitch. Whereas I’d be thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’
“Trunds, a great lad who went on to have a brilliant career, wanted the ball to feet, while I wanted to just run and run. But that’s probably why we complemented each other so well.”
Alerted by Morrell’s goalscoring exploits for Denis Smith’s promotion-winning side, Coventry City came calling that summer. Three years in the Championship were followed by a move to Blackpool, who he helped to promotion from League One by netting 16 times in his first season.
Morrell returned to the Racecourse in 2010, with the club having slipped into non-League. A move into management followed a little over a year later, combining the Wrexham job with playing duties following Dean Saunders’ departure for Doncaster Rovers.
His first season in charge brought heartache via the unwanted record of the highest points total (98) to not win promotion, as Fleetwood Town and a certain striker called Jamie Vardy pipped them to the title. Defeat in the play-offs semi-finals against Luton Town only added to the pain.
“Coops (Leicester manager Steve Cooper, a former player and later youth coach at Wrexham) is a good friend, so I texted when he got the job in the summer to say, ‘You’ve taken over my team,’ as I’m a Leicester fan,” says Morrell. “He replied to say I was always welcome there, which was really kind.
“I did then say I wasn’t sure if I could face being in the same room as Vardy after his goals all those years ago for Fleetwood.”
Two trips to Wembley followed in 2012-13. Victory against Grimsby Town in the FA Trophy final, however, was followed by a 2-0 loss in the play-off final to fellow Welsh side Newport County. Wrexham wouldn’t go as close again until finally escaping the National League under the ownership of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2023.
Andy Morrell with the FA Trophy in 2013 (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
“I look at what the two boys have done and it’s incredible,” he says about the club’s Hollywood-star owners. “I had the high of promotion as a player in 2003 and we went to Wembley twice when I was manager. But there’s no way I could have imagined anything happening like the last few years.
“I had a little taste last year when playing for Wrexham in TST (The Soccer Tournament in the U.S. state of North Carolina). The documentary (Welcome To Wrexham) had only really just got started so no one knew what to expect.
“We went out a couple of months before the first team’s tour and it was incredible. The Americans were so into Wrexham and had such in-depth knowledge. (Director) Shaun Harvey was with us and I remember him saying, after things had gone a bit crazy with the fans following the Como game, ‘We’re going to need security here, aren’t we?’
“It was hard to believe this was the same club that, not so long before, might have disappeared completely. There were some very difficult times in my second spell. I remember people walking in with bags of cash for the lads who couldn’t pay their mortgages.
“But those players stuck with it and kept challenging throughout. It’s just a shame we couldn’t get over the line that year. I do believe, though, that those downs have made what’s happening now — the promotions, the A-list celebrities at games, the excitement — so much the sweeter.
“All that went before is why I honestly don’t think there is a better football club to be supporting at the moment than Wrexham.
“There’s the Premier League, of course, and all the top European teams. But, as a dream and a story and a journey, this one seems to be growing and growing.”
Anyone wanting to sponsor Andy on his Ride Across Britain can click here.
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(Top photo: Humphrey Ker, Wrex, Jack and Morrell; courtesy of Andy Morrell)