Birmingham City beat Wrexham with Brady, Beckham in crowd

BIRMINGHAM, England — Tom Brady took the bragging rights over Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds in the game dubbed the “Hollywood derby” as Birmingham City ended Wrexham’s unbeaten start to life in League One with a commanding 3-1 victory at St Andrew’s on Monday evening.

The match played out in front of a crowd including NFL legend Brady, Hollywood star McElhenney and ex-England football captain David Beckham, but it was Birmingham’s club-record signee Jay Stansfield who was the star act. He scored twice to help validate the £15 million the club spent on him on deadline day — the largest signing in League One history and a statement of intent from the ambitious Blues.

Stansfield knows this club well, having spent last season there on loan, and his two goals, alongside a brilliant strike from Tomoki Iwata, gave Birmingham the win against Wrexham, whose sole goal came from Jack Marriott after just two minutes.

“Birmingham have had an extraordinary opportunity this summer and every player we were going for, they were outbidding us and offering more in wages,” said Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson after the game. “It was like, let Birmingham buy who they want and everyone else goes for the other players out there.

“We’re on a journey as a club trying to build a sustainable football club. It’d be absolute madness to say we could compete with them, it’s just impossible. They spend more than any other club outside the Premier League. But in their position, with those resources available, you get the best possible players you can and that’s what they’ve done.”

The only sore point for the hosts was a late red card for skipper Krystian Bielik, who got his first yellow in the 81st minute for his role in a mass brawl from both sides, and then picked up a second yellow five minutes later for a rough tackle on Andy Cannon.

The buildup to this eagerly anticipated match was dominated by two separate narratives: the battle of two promotion hopefuls, both previously undefeated in League One, and the noise around the showdown generated by famous investors on both sides.

There was interest from the hosts to try to take this match to the United States, but instead the third-tier English football game played out in front of a jampacked St Andrew’s crowd of 27,980 which included the various A-listers.

For the visitors, Wrexham co-owner and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” creator McElhenney jetted in straight from the Emmy Awards and FaceTimed in fellow investor Reynolds before kickoff. For the hosts, all the attention was on Brady, who holds a 3.3% stake in Birmingham and flew in for the match. Beckham was also in attendance, sitting next to Brady in the stands.

There was no Eli Manning, who was brought in by Wrexham as a supporter in the buildup to Monday’s match, reminding Brady of how the former New York Giant steered his team to Super Bowl triumphs over Brady’s New England Patriots in 2008 and 2012.

Wrexham came into the match top of League One with 13 points — thanks to four wins and a draw this season — with Birmingham sixth, having played a game fewer but with three wins and a draw. Birmingham made six changes, including starting Stansfield upfront.

The visitors were unchanged from their last run-out in the league, when they defeated Shrewsbury 3-0 on Sept. 7. And it was the visitors who looked far more measured in the opening exchanges, as they grabbed the lead after just two minutes through Marriott, who finished from close range after Blues goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell failed to claim a corner.

The hosts had a great chance 10 minutes later to equalise through Seung-Ho Paik, but he shot wide from 10 yards out after a neat Birmingham set piece routine opened Wrexham’s defence.

From there, it was Birmingham who took charge of the match and grabbed their equaliser in the 22nd minute as Wrexham keeper Arthur Okonkwo could only parry Alfie May’s long-range effort into Stansfield’s path as he tapped home to tap home on his homecoming after a successful loan spell at the Blues last term.

It was attritional for the rest of the half, Birmingham enjoying the bulk of attacking possession with May and Stansfield linking up well as Wrexham’s defence was steadfast and Eoghan O’Connell a rock in the middle.

The hosts kept their foot on the throttle in the second half, taking a 2-1 lead in the 51st minute as Stansfield headed home brilliantly off a pinpoint Alex Cochrane cross. That gave Birmingham just the encouragement they needed and they added a third in the 59th minute thanks to Iwata’s beautifully judged long-range effort.

Wrexham emptied the bench and brought on the likes of Paul Mullin and Steven Fletcher, but they couldn’t get a foothold and frustrations boiled over in the 81st minute as Mullin’s disagreement with Keshi Anderson triggered an all-in brawl from both sides, resulting in James McLean, Anderson, Mullin, Cannon and Bielik all getting booked.

Birmingham skipper Bielik would last just five minutes more, as he received a second yellow card for a rash challenge on Cannon. Wrexham piled on the pressure in the final moments, but Birmingham and their 10 men saw the match out to put down a marker to the rest of the league.

“It’s a good learning curve – we’ve been behind in pivotal games in the past but responded better than we did tonight,” Parkinson added. “There are areas to improve and periods of the game tonight we could’ve done better. You’re going to lose games of football in the season, it’s about responding, learning. We’ll take the lessons into the next games.”