Wrexham 3-2 Notts County: Ben Foster penalty save delights owner Ryan Reynolds

At the end of it all, a 40-year-old goalkeeper who has just come out of retirement was rolling around on the pitch in brilliant sunshine with the man he’s displaced and the substitutes were sprinting full-pelt to join them.

A Hollywood ending, some might say, though those who have watched the team these past seven months would say it was simply a Wrexham ending. 

The finale was not hugely different to the breath-taking FA Cup 4th round tie against Sheffield United here three months ago, with the added dimension of Ben Foster, launching himself into a huge penalty save in the game’s 95th minute.

Foster, whose ‘goal-cam’ vlogs are the latest layer of documentary to have arrived at Wrexham, invited Ryan Reynolds to announce the competition prize at the end of the first of his films from his new club. 

But it was old-fashioned football he delivered yesterday: two top class saves to defy County as they drove forward at 3-2 – the first of which left him cramping up. And then the moment on which the fight between the two sides which have registered 100 points in the National League may hinge.

Ben Foster’s magnificent penalty save helped Wrexham secure a 3-2 win against Notts County

The former England goalkeeper kept out Cedwyn Scott’s stoppage time effort from the spot

Hollywood owner Ryan Reynolds was pictured celebrating wildly in the stands after the save

Foster plunged to his right to make a brilliant one-handed save to deny County forward Scott

Foster loomed large before taker Cedwyn Scott, after Eoghan O’Connell’s handball had handed County their desperately late reprieve, diving low to his right to save with a strong hand. 

‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man,’ Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said of Foster last night. ‘You wouldn’t want many other keepers in goal than him in a position like that. As top class penalty saves go, it was right up there.’ The goalkeeper revealed that Scott’s ball placement and run-up had told him where he was going to place the ball. That’s what elite experience brings.

Foster also provided a memorably detailed description of his encounter with Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds in the dressing room at the end. ‘Rob kissed me fully on the lips and Ryan called me a double handsome bastard,’ he said. ‘I’ll take that

But for once, the Hollywood stars seemed a subsidiary part of a breath-taking plot as one of the most anticipated games the fifth tier has known played out. Wrexham, stung by a 3-1 defeat at Halifax on Good Friday which had put County back top of the division, struggled to beat their rivals’ high defensive line.

The line official, Parkinson reflected at the end, had been ‘enthusiastic’ with his flag, though County initially played the most constructive football and Ruben Rodrigues, in their midfield, demonstrated why for many he is the best player in this division. 

The free kick Rodrigues won, converted by one-time Crystal Palace prodigy John Bostock to send County in ahead at the break, was a fair return for their work by then. Not a bad time for Bostock to register his first goal since September 2016.

Foster’s voice was one of the loudest in the dressing room at half time but it was Paul Mullin, the pivotal figure in the extraordinary past two years here, who drove the recovery. 

Mullin left the field with a goal, two assists and – after the keeper had climbed up from the turf – Foster’s arm wrapped around him. ‘He’s the non-league Jamie Vardy,’ the goalkeeper said of his teammate last night. ‘With some strikers there is ego but not him.’ Fair assessment.

Wrexham players mobbed their delighted goalkeeper for his late heroics after clearing it away

Paul Mullin celebrates netting his 35th league goal of the season as he grabs the equaliser 

Mullin chatted to Reynolds’ fellow owner Rob McElhenney (right) after the massive victory

Mullin had Wrexham level within three minutes of the restart – accelerating towards a low cross from James Jones to drive home a sweetly-struck first-time right foot shot which sent electricity through this place.

The County line couldn’t contend with Wrexham, then. A cross from the impressive right wing back Ryan Barnett had been volleyed against the underside of the bar by O’Connell before Mullin supplied a cross that Jacob Mendy drove in to put his team ahead.

It is the occasional defensive vulnerability in Wrexham which creates the breath-taking finishes. Kyle Cameron was allowed to head in a corner unchallenged at the back post to take the game to 2-2. But Mullin wasn’t done, sprinting after a ball launched forward by O’Connell, reaching it to cross for Elliot Lee, who scored.

County manager Luke Williams, who was gracious in defeat, may end up surpassing the 106-point record total in British professional football and yet still lead County into a third successive National League play-offs.

Three points clear of County with a game in hand and four to play, Wrexham are firmly in the National League box seat but they have a habit of making this challenging, as McElhenney and Reynolds now know all too well. ‘I said to them, “You may as well just end the documentary now because you’ll never get a better moment than that,”’ Foster said of the owners last night. ‘This is as good a feeling as you’ll get in football.