Wrexham may have spent Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning partying after securing promotion back to the Football League, but the celebrations have only just begun.
Phil Parkinson 's side were crowned National League champions after beating Boreham Wood 3-1 at a rocking Racecourse Ground, with more than 10,000 packed inside to see the Red Dragons end their 15-year absence from English football's fourth tier. Among those were co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who've invested around £10million to put the Welsh club on the world stage.
A pre-season tour of the United States this summer is already in the diary, with friendly matches against Manchester United and Chelsea confirmed. But first it's time to celebrate - after Saturday's final-day trip to Torquay, of course.
Wrexham are finalising their party plans after most of the town got started last weekend. Guzzling champagne and beer long into the night, the squad ended up in a local McDonald's at 2am alongside jubilant fans, with a chant of "F*** the Tories " going off, as star striker Paul Mullin - a known critic of the government - joined in while he waited for his order.
Wrexham executive director Humphrey Ker, who's also an actor like Reynolds and McElhenney, lifted the lid on a night to remember during an interview with TalkSPORT . " I was a bit of a lightweight and a bit overwhelmed, so I snuck off quite early," Londoner Ker admitted.
"But the footage of our players in the McDonald's on the high street at 2am is starting to trickle in. We're starting to build a picture like detectives of what they got up to on the night in question, and it looks like they and the town made the most of it!"
Hollywood star Reynolds put £40,000 worth of vintage whisky behind the bar of The Turf pub next to the Racecourse Ground, while pal McElhenney did a shift pulling pints to give staff a well-earned break. A bleary-eyed Reynolds, 46, tweeted at 6:38 on Sunday morning: "Everything I own smells like champagne, beer and grass. I'm still somewhere between giggling and sobbing. This town and this sport is one of the most romantic things on earth. Thank you, Wrexham AFC."
As Parkinson and co prepare to head down to Torquay, aiming to finish the campaign on a record-breaking 113 points from 46 games, club chiefs are busy drawing up a schedule for what's set to be a carnival in the Welsh town. There will of course be the traditional open-top bus parade, but Wrexham's players will need an aeroplane for their proposed next jaunt.
"There is a trip to Las Vegas being mooted," Shaun Harvey, an advisor to Wrexham's board, told The Athletic. Before the Red Dragons' promotion was sealed, goalkeeper Ben Foster hinted at how Reynolds and McElhenney would be treating the squad.
"They've promised us a monster one at the end of the season," Foster, who came out of retirement shortly before his 40th birthday to help Wrexham over the line, told CBS Sports. "If we get promoted, they're gonna take us away somewhere with a lot of flashing lights."
Wherever they end up, Foster and his team-mates will have plenty of cash to splash. They're sharing a £200,000 promotion bonus which will be paid on a pro-rata basis, a way of sharing the side's success which has seen Wrexham return to League Two for the first time since being relegated in 2008.
Parkinson's men are being tipped for another promotion out of the fourth division next term, with Ker believing that "the sky's the limit" for what the club can achieve. "You look at the crowds we had in the stadium all season, the crowds that were outside the stadium (on Saturday), people couldn't get a ticket," he added.
Have your say! Will Wrexham win promotion again next season? Give us your prediction in the comments section.
"They just wanted to be in town, close to the stadium, close to the action. The last time I checked our full-time announcement (video) had 15 million views on Twitter. The interest in this club is astronomical and we believe with the squad we have right now we have a very strong chance of going up again next year."
Reynolds best prepare for more nights soaked in booze.
