Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence admits even his kids are excited about going to Wrexham this weekend.
The Welsh side’s celebrity owners have attracted a global audience into watching life in the lower leagues with their popular streaming series Welcome to Wrexham.
Clemence won’t be getting sidetracked on the day, and doesn’t expect his player too either, but feels having the spotlight on the battle for League 2 supremacy is no bad thing.
He said: “You should want to win every game, that should be the attitude, that’s the attitude I want the players to have, whoever we come up against.
“I know there is a huge spotlight on Wrexham because of who owns the football club, and what good players they have as well.
“They have a very good squad and they have spent quite a bit of money on it, but as a player they should be relishing this opportunity and I know they will be.”
Wrexham’s progress into the Football League was documented in their popular fly-on-the-wall series, winning the National League title last season, and the Welsh side are now hoping for success in League 2 under the ownership of Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Clemence said: “It is not something I would normally watch but I had been at home for a little while [inbetween jobs] and it was my daughter who told me about it. I have seen six or seven episodes. I found it quite entertaining.
“It gave a good insight as to what was going on at the club…it’s good for football. I know having spoken to Brad (Galinson, the Gills’ US owner) it has really elevated football in America because of it.
“It is an exciting game. I know my kids are excited by it and they are hoping to bump into one or two people there, but I will be concentrating on the game itself.
“I am sure Wrexham will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season but these are the games you should want to be involved in, as a coach or a player.
“We will go there and try and take them on. We know it is a difficult game, they are unbeaten in 10, they have a top class manager who I think has had three promotions to his name and I am looking to see if I can get one over him.
“I know it will be a stern test. We will have to be bang up for it to get a result.”
Wrexham are missing a couple of key players with striker Paul Mullin and midfielder James McClean both suspended.
The Gills, ninth in League 2, are currently in transition under Clemence as he tries to get his players to adapt to a new style. With only a week in the job, there’s not been a lot of time.
He said: “We want to try and play more, we want to try and play a more progressive style and we have worked on that this week.
“We have to still make sure we keep our defensive record the way it it, it’s not too bad and we don’t want to come away from that with what we’re trying to implement going forwards.
“We have been here a week, you can’t change everything in a week, we can take small steps every week to try and improve the players and get to where we want to get to one day. The players have been receptive to it so far, definitely at Hereford I saw glimpses of what we are working on, I am hoping to see some more of that at the weekend.
“The players have been fantastic, they have been trying to take on our ideas, you can see when you are talking to them their eyes are wide open and they are listening.
“We have done quite a few presentations in the video room as well because we haven’t been able to get on the training ground much, they are trying to take in on board, hopefully we will start taking strides forward soon.”
