Sports
How Paul Mullin – via a text from Rob McElhenney – ended his Wrexham goal drought
Rob McElhenney takes the duty of care he has as Wrexham’s co-owner seriously.
When Phil Parkinson was still coming to terms with what remains the nadir of the club’s return to the EFL after a 15-year non-League exile, the co-owner reached out to his manager just moments after September’s 5-0 thrashing at Stockport County via text.
Hollywood actor and writer McElhenney did something similar with Paul Mullin during the latter’s recent run of eight games without a goal — comfortably the striker’s most barren period in almost five years.
The level-headed Liverpudlian’s response was no surprise. “I feel pretty good,” he told McElhenney, “it’s just a matter of time.”
The inner belief within Mullin that reassured his American boss is no act. Speak to anyone close to the player and they’ll wax lyrical about how adamant he was that the scoring tide would soon turn for him, even as Wrexham lost ground in the League Two promotion race.
There was no re-watching of old clips where he scored for fun, as many footballers do during such goalless runs. Nor did Mullin stew over the chances that had got away. He simply told anyone who asked, including McElhenney, that the next one was going in the net.
Such steadfast belief explains why, having ended his 649-minute wait for a goal with a stoppage-time equaliser from the penalty spot to secure a point away against Forest Green Rovers last Tuesday, Mullin celebrated his sixth hat-trick in less than three seasons with the north Wales club just four days later.
Ending that unwanted run was not only a lesson in retaining self-belief but also the need for timely reminders as to what a player does best. Mullin spent the day before that 1-1 draw with Forest Green taking part in a one-man shooting exercise that seemed, to onlookers, no more scientific than simply being urged to whack the ball as hard as possible.
To put himself through this additional exertion when he was still troubled by a back injury that required a pain-killing injection early this week underlined his determination to end what had become an unprecedented — in recent memory, anyway — drought.
Mullin scores from the spot against Forest Green Rovers (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Last season, for instance, the longest Mullin went without finding the net was two games (which happened three times). The year before that — his first with Wrexham — there had been a five-match gap between goals around Christmas, but the team won anyway on three of those five occasions so the focus was largely elsewhere.
This time, the 29-year-old’s goals temporarily drying up coincided with a poor run of results — five of those eight fixtures were lost, with only two wins, and without his dramatic 93rd-minute equaliser, Forest Green would have beaten Wrexham too.
No wonder a priority for the coaching staff during February was getting their talisman back to his instinctive best. Not just in terms of scoring goals but also making the runs in behind defences that are so pivotal to how Wrexham play.
These had become less and less frequent, meaning the chances of the ball sticking up front to allow the midfielders and wing-backs to move forward en masse also took a hit. The upshot was a team who looked as disjointed as their results suggested, especially away from home.
Cue that individual shooting drill after training.
It lasted barely 10 minutes, with assistant manager Steve Parkin on hand throughout, urging the striker to put his foot through the ball. Some shots flew past the goalkeeper into the top corner. Others went harmlessly wide of the target. But it didn’t matter. Instead, to those watching from the sidelines, the intention seemed simply to be reminding Mullin just how much power he packs in his boots.
Whether that played a part in the return to scoring ways the following evening we’ll never know, but there was a brutal savagery to his penalty — and an earlier shot that fizzed just over the crossbar — that had been lacking when facing MK Dons and Gillingham during the previous eight days.
The second goal of Saturday’s hat-trick in the 4-0 home win against Accrington was similar. Mullin hit his 25-yard shot with such conviction that goalkeeper Radek Vitek had no chance.
All the added extras that make Mullin such a key cog in the Wrexham attacking machine were in evidence too, including a darting run behind the opposition defence that led to the striker setting up Elliot Lee’s goal which completed the scoring just before half-time.
Their main man was back.
This weekend’s visit to Morecambe will see Mullin on familiar ground.
He spent three years there as a youngster, following his release by Huddersfield Town in 2014 at age 19 without making a senior appearance.
Mullin was never going to get rich at Morecambe. His first contract was worth just £200 per week. But those three seasons brought a valuable grounding. He also scored 25 goals in 122 league appearances — with more than half of those coming from the bench. Mullin felt he was worthy of a starting role.
Back then, as one of several members of the Morecambe squad — managed by Jim Bentley — who lived down the Lancashire coast in Liverpool, Mullin would regularly car share into training. Groups of four would take turns to drive.
To those who were part of those 150-mile round trips, an abiding memory is how the young striker attempted to channel that disappointment at not being selected positively. Where some might have blamed the manager — to this day, Mullin credits Bentley with being a good influence on his career — he instead did everything to try to force his way into the team.
Mullin’s recent goal drought was his longest with Wrexham (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
He did running sessions on the town’s beach in his own time, as well as gruelling work on the weights to bulk up. He wanted to be more in tune with the physically imposing lone-front man role demanded by Bentley’s system.
In time, Mullin realised his error. His game had always been about using skill and speed — but now, with the extra muscle he’d packed on, he felt heavy. He learned a lesson about the need to stick to your own beliefs.
This will no doubt have helped him navigate not just the recent barren run in front of goal but also Wrexham’s signing of fellow forward Jack Marriott on deadline day at the start of last month.
The arrival of Marriott, who was playing in the second-tier Championship as recently as two years ago and has over 100 career appearances in that division, was billed as a means of pepping up an attack that, even accounting for Mullin to reach double figures for the season by mid-January, has largely struggled for goals since the club’s return to the EFL. But, as has since been made clear via one replacing the other from the bench in six of Marriott’s eight appearances, the newcomer is effectively direct competition for Mullin.
Mullin had recently ruled the roost. He started on the bench just once in more than 100 league appearances for Wrexham — and even then this came when returning from the collapsed lung and four broken ribs he sustained on last summer’s U.S. tour. This was naturally going to jar.
But it also triggered the well-honed trait of wanting to prove people wrong. This has burned inside him since being released by his beloved Liverpool at 16. This desire perhaps explains why Mullin was ever-present at training despite the discomfort of that back issue. This problem led to the medical team taking advantage of a rare blank Tuesday this week to administer that pain-killing injection.
Those who know Mullin well will all say the same thing: what you see is what you get from someone who still lives just around the corner from his childhood home in Litherland, a northern district of Liverpool. So settled is life with partner Mollie and son Albi that even serious interest from Saudi Arabia’s second division last summer couldn’t tempt him. Family and friends long ago realised the futility of trying to contact Mullin after 9pm, knowing full well he’ll either be asleep by that time, resting up for the next day’s training or match, or not far off.
Even McElhenney, who once claimed only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were more famous as footballers in the U.S. than his No 10 thanks to the Emmy Award-winning documentary series Welcome To Wrexham, concedes: “Every once in a while, I want to get him to tell me how great he is. But it’s always the same (from Mullin): ‘I just put in a shift, I do my work and I go back to my family’. Every week!”
Mullin has been a key star for Wrexham owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
This level-headed attitude, however, again helps explain how Mullin came through that recent dry spell in front of goal.
It was his longest since going 16 league and cup appearances without scoring for Tranmere Rovers — either side of three months as an unused substitute or out of the matchday squad — across the end of the 2018-19 League Two season and the start of the following campaign in League One.
He also has the sense of perspective that four-year-old Albi’s autism diagnosis has brought. That said, there are those in and around the dressing room who insist the striker “looked six inches taller” after that point-rescuing penalty against Forest Green, suggesting there was a big sense of relief when the ball found the net.
So, what now? First, he’ll be itching to continue a remarkable scoring record against Morecambe, having scored eight times against them in the past three meetings with Cambridge United and now Wrexham.
Then, providing all is good following this week’s jab in his back, there are the twin targets of a second straight promotion and joining an exclusive club of Wrexham strikers to reach 100 goals. Mullin is joint-eighth on their list of all-time scorers, five short of three figures from 129 appearances.
Should he go on and reach that landmark this season, chances are Wrexham will be celebrating those first-ever back-to-back promotions and a return to the third tier for the first time since 2004-05.
It would be a fitting end to an eventful year for their on-pitch talisman.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
Sports
US Olympic hockey hero Jack Hughes opens up about support for women’s team amid backlash over Trump’s joke
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Team USA Olympic hockey hero Jack Hughes spoke about his support for his country’s women’s hockey team after his team was the subject of backlash for laughing at a joke by President Donald Trump about the women’s team.
During an interview on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday, Hughes opened up about his respect for the women’s team after McAfee appeared to reference the controversy by joking that Hughes and his teammates “hate” the women players.
“We are hanging out with them so much, the women’s team. We were supporting them. Like, we were at their games, they were at our games,” Hughes said.
Jack Hughes of the United States celebrates after a gold medal win during against Canadaat Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games Feb. 22, 2026, in Milan, Italy. (Elsa/Getty Images)
Hughes then appeared to address the recent criticism of his team for its response to Trump’s joke.
“Like all these people talking, how many of them watched their gold medal game? Me and Quinn Hughes were at the game. We were at the game until like overtime ended on the glass, and we were jumping up and down so excited for these girls, so excited they won,” Hughes said.
“And how many of these people watched the gold medal game, watched their semifinals game? Like 10 of the 10 of our players went to their game in the round-robin. Like, we supported them so much, and we’re so proud of them. We’re so happy that they won, and they brought a gold medal back and that, you know, I said it, the men’s and women’s team both brought gold medals back. So, just unbelievable for USA hockey.”
Hughes, who scored the game-winning overtime goal against Canada to win gold, reflected on his interaction with the player on the U.S. women’s team who did the same, Megan Keller.
“Me and her had a great moment in the cafeteria after her gold medal game. We played Slovakia the next night, and it was like a late game. And we were in the pasta line — me and Megan. They were just getting ready to go out again, and I just gave her a massive hug, and I said, ‘I’m so happy for you. I’m so proud of you,’” Hughes said.
“A couple nights later, saw her again in the [cafeteria], and we took a great picture and, uh, she just gave me a big hug and was so pumped for me as well.”
Hughes told reporters after the game the first thing he thought about when the puck went in was Keller, who scored the golden goal for the United States women’s team against Canada three days earlier.
US WOMEN’S HOCKEY GOLD MEDALIST SAYS IT’S ‘SAD’ MEN’S TEAM HAD TO APOLOGIZE FOR OLYMPICS CONTROVERSY
The controversy surrounding the men’s team stemmed from a locker room phone call between the players and Trump right after their gold medal win over Canada.
Trump told the men’s team after inviting them to Tuesday’s State of the Union address that he’d “have” to invite the women’s team, otherwise “I probably would be impeached.” The team laughed in response, prompting immense backlash.
Several mainstream media outlets penned op-eds condemning the men’s team for laughing at the joke and then visiting the White House to celebrate and Trump’s State of the Union address.
The United States’ Jack Hughes (86), who scored the winning overtime goal, celebrates after defeating Canada in the men’s ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight said on Wednesday’s edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” that Trump’s “distasteful joke” has “overshadow[ed]” the women’s success.
“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and, unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” Knight said.
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“We’re just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke.”
Hughes’ mother, Ellen, a former Team USA player and current player development staff member, said the players only cared about “bring[ing] so much unity to a group and to a country.”
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Another winnable game was slipping away, another frustrating performance by USC unraveling in painfully familiar fashion, when Jaden Brownell lifted up from the corner for a wide-open three-pointer, offering a split-second of hope in an otherwise hopeless second half.
But the shot clanked away. A collective sigh from the cardinal-and-gold faithful rippled through Galen Center, only to be swallowed up seconds later when Nebraska’s Pryce Sandfort, who finished with 32 points, knocked down a three-pointer of his own. That’s when USC’s own arena exploded with a deafening Big Red roar, loud enough to make you forget you were in Los Angeles — or that these lifeless Trojans had once looked like a real NCAA tournament team.
There were still more than nine minutes remaining after that in Saturday’s brutal 82-67 loss, though that roar from the Nebraska faithful might as well have been the exclamation point. Whether it becomes the punctuation mark on a frustrating second season for USC under coach Eric Musselman was still to be determined.
The Trojans have lost five consecutive games as of Saturday and sit in a tie for 11th in the Big Ten. They still have two regular-season games remaining to bolster their middling tournament resume, both of which they can ill afford to lose.
A midweek matchup at Washington looms especially large. A loss to the Huskies, who are 14-15, would make climbing back from the bubble brink especially harrowing. A rivalry rematch awaits after that against UCLA.
Nebraska forward Pryce Sandfort (21) drives past USC forward Terrance Williams II (5) during the first half Saturday.
(William Liang / Associated Press)
“I still think we could have a successful season,” forward Terrance Williams II said Saturday . “I had that positive mindset coming into the season. I still have that positive mindset. The season’s not over. … We can change the trajectory of the season very quickly.”
Nothing, though, about Saturday’s second half suggested USC was poised for positive change.
The Trojans positioned themselves in the first half to make a very different statement Saturday. They took advantage of foul trouble from Nebraska point guard Sam Hoiberg and led by five points at halftime. Chad Baker-Mazara had already poured in 14 points, and they barely needed freshman Alijah Arenas, who was left out of the starting lineup and played only nine minutes.
“They had belief,” Musselman said.
Yet after shooting 52% from the field in the first half, the Trojans were suddenly unable to find the target in the second. For the first five minutes of the half, a dunk from Jacob Cofie was USC’s only basket. During another five-minute stretch in the second half, USC couldn’t even manage a dunk.
Its issues only got worse when Baker-Mazara fell hard trying to block a lay-in. He didn’t play the rest of the game, as Musselman said Baker-Mazara told the staff he was unable to go.
“They played great in the second half,” Musselman said, “and we did not play very good.”
The Trojans didn’t fare much better on the glass, either, as Nebraska more than doubled USC’s total rebounds (22 to 10) after halftime.
The defense followed suit, with Nebraska piling up points in the paint at will. Sixteen of the Huskers’ first 20 points in the second half came on either dunks or lay-ins as USC’s defense lacked any semblance of urgency.
“I feel like they came out with more energy to be honest,” Williams said. “The first couple possessions, you could see it. They wanted it more than we did.”
How that’s still the case, after several similarly frustrating second halves this season, is still unclear.
“Second halves, they’re hard,” Brownell said. “We have to accept that and get ready quicker in the locker room, get our mental right and then come in and be ready.”
But with the Trojans on the very brink of the tournament bubble, time is quickly running out on that possibility.
Sports
MLB pitcher Merrill Kelly says California tax rate swayed decision to reject Padres’ free agency offer
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Merrill Kelly will once again be wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform when the 2026 regular season gets underway.
Kelly, who entered the free agent market after pitching in 10 games with the Texas Rangers in 2025, agreed to a deal to return to the Diamondbacks.
Kelly spent the first seven years of his professional career with the Diamondbacks but revealed that he received an offer from the San Diego Padres this offseason. Kelly said his decision to turn down the Padres during free agency centered on California’s higher income tax rate compared to Arizona’s.
Merrill Kelly (23) of the Texas Rangers pitches during a game against the Miami Marlins at Globe Life Field on Sept. 21, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Gunnar Word/Texas Rangers/Getty Images)
Kelly agreed to a two-year contract worth an estimated $40 million with the Diamondbacks, according to ESPN. Although the Padres offered a comparable deal at three years instead of two, California’s 13% tax rate on income above $1 million proved a key difference.
“I don’t think it’s any secret on how much money you get taken out of your pocket when you go to California,” the right-hander told “Foul Territory.”
Kelly also has deep ties to Arizona, where he attended high school and played college baseball at Arizona State. He said finding a way back to Arizona “was always the priority.”
Merrill Kelly (29) of the Arizona Diamondbacks looks on before Game Six of the Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Oct. 23, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
While Kelly said he is fond of San Diego, he was unwilling to sacrifice a significant portion of his salary to taxes. “I love San Diego,” Kelly said. “It’s just, like I said, they take too much money out of my pocket, man. The taxes over there are a different level.
“We had my numbers guy run the numbers, and it just made more sense to come home.”
Merrill Kelly (23) of the Texas Rangers looks on during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Globe Life Field on Aug. 8, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Bailey Orr/Texas Rangers/Getty Images)
Arizona’s state income tax rate is roughly 2.5%. Kelly also joked that he prefers the desert landscape to San Diego’s coastal setting.
“It worked out best for us because that was honestly our second choice,” Kelly said. “It was between here and San Diego going into the offseason. San Diego was really the only place that, if we did go somewhere, that was probably high on our list if we weren’t in Arizona. It’s like, ‘All right, let’s just hop over and take a short, six-hour drive to San Diego.’
“But, yeah, the desert is home. I guess we’re not ocean people.”
In a statement to The California Post, the Padres said the team does “not comment on contract negotiations.”
Acquired by the Rangers in July 2025, Kelly went 12-9 while splitting the season between Texas and Arizona.
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