Wrexham’s Sam Smith revealed that it was a “special occasion” after his strike gave his side a 1-0 win against his former club Manchester United in the pre-season game at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland on Saturday.
The striker helped Wrexham record the only goal of the game against United in the 39th minute. The 27-year-old later shared his thoughts about playing against the team from which his career in professional football kicked off as Wrexham continued to gear up for the coming Championship season.
He started out from Manchester United’s academy before switching allegiances to Reading in the summer of 2016. Smith played for Reading, Cambridge United, before signing for Wrexham in the winter of 2025.
Sam Smith explains why Manchester United goal meant so much
Speaking after the match, Smith admitted scoring against his boyhood club carried extra significance.
“It was a special moment.
“I know all my family will be at home watching so I enjoyed it.”
This was the moment that capped off a superb first-half performance by Wrexham, who dominated big chunks of the game in the first half before manager Parkinson decided to make 10 changes after the break.
Parky was just as happy with the overall team performance and feels that it displayed the improvements being made in pre-season.
“Another 45 minutes for everyone, I think we played really well. We stuck to the game-plan.
“We worked on things we’ve been focussing on for the start of the season so a good performance.
“That’s all we could do, my team try and win the first half and get the minutes in the legs, and we did that.
“I think it was a really good performance.”
This comes on the back of Wrexham’s goalless draw in Poland against Wisła Kraków and represents yet another positive step in the ongoing preparations for the Championship season.
Now, focus shifts to the United States where Wrexham will make their third visit since being bought by their current owners. The Red Dragons will be facing Leeds United on Saturday in Tampa before taking on Liverpool and Sunderland.
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