Ryan Longman believes Wrexham can handle Championship

Leader Live

16-05-2025

The 24-year-old arrived at The Racecourse from Hull City in January for an undisclosed fee and he helped Phil Parkinson's men finish second in League One to secure an historic third successive promotion.
The Reds will ply their trade next season in the Championship for the first time in 43 years while Longman is back in the same division where he turned out for the Tigers and during a loan spell with Millwall in 2023-24.
"It's literally job done," he said. "That was the plan, to come here and get promotion to get Wrexham back in the Championship.
DID YOU MISS OUR 48-PAGE PROMOTION SPECIAL? ORDER YOUR COPY HERE - https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=L3HFGHSPWBBBG
"Hopefully I've been a big part of that.
"It will be great for me to be back playing in the Championship.
"I know how tough it is but it's going to be exciting again to play in those big stadiums and the next level, which is brilliant."
Some people have already written off Wrexham - backed by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney - next season and are tipping the Reds to struggle when they come up against the likes of Southampton and Leicester City, but not Longman.
When asked whether the Reds can handle the step up, he said: "100 per cent.
"I think we've got the quality and if you keep in games, anyone can go and win it one-nil or two-nil, you never know.
"We've got to embrace that challenge, just go with it and enjoy it.
"We've just got to prepare ourselves in the off-season, obviously recover now, spend time with the family and enjoy ourselves, and then have a really good pre-season and get back to it."
The competition for the second automatic promotion spot behind champions Birmingham City was fierce but Wrexham enjoyed a strong run-in and sealed a top-two finish with a 3-0 home victory over Charlton Athletic.
There was still one game remaining and a 2-0 win at Lincoln City on the final day not only extended the unbeaten run to 10 matches but meant the Reds ended the season with 92 points from 46 league fixtures.
"It was key to get past that 90 points barrier," said Longman.
"All the lads wanted it and it's a nice little achievement.
"Our away form has helped with that. We have been class away and picked up some really good results.
"We have proved that we can go away to teams and win games."
Longman made 19 appearances after completing the move to north Wales, including 14 starts as he finished the campaign in the right wing-back berth in place of Ryan Barnett.
Incredibly, Wrexham never lost a league game when Longman was named in the starting XI as he came on as a substitute in the three defeats the Reds suffered following his arrival.
"I'm pretty sure that every game I've started, I haven't lost which is unbelievable. It's incredible," he added.