Ex-Wrexham star Sean Newton claims he was accosted by a knife-carrying fan when playing in one of the club's biggest fixtures.
Newton played for the Welsh outfit in 2015 and spent two seasons at the Racecourse long before the club's fortunes were altered by their famous takeover. Wrexham have become one of the country's most unexpected glamour teams in recent times thanks to the Hollywood-backed acquisition by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and the subsequent Disney+ documentary, Welcome to Wrexham.
The club have sealed back-to-back promotions and are aiming to go even further with ambitions of being in the Premier League one day. However, former player Newton has now opened up about an incident that's a far cry from the family-friendly space that Wrexham finds itself in today.
Speaking on the I Had Trials Once podcast, Newton disclosed that, as a former player for Wexham's biggest rivals Chester, he made the cardinal sin of slamming his former club in his first interview with the Red Dragons.
"When I signed for Wrexham, I was at Chester as a kid. In my [first] interview, you know what it's like in an interview, you get the fans on your side," Newton said. "In the interview, I said that while I was at Chester and I used to come to Wrexham, I used to think 'I wish I played for Wrexham!' and then we played Chester."
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Newton goes on to say how his remarks not only went down badly with an alleged member of the Chester faithful but also nearly took a sinister, and possibly life-threatening, turn when the two clubs met each other.
He added: "Mate, I got death threats. A fella, I don't know who it was but he had sunglasses on, balaclava round his mouth and he had a knife. He said, 'If I see you outside the stadium, this is going in you' and that is the gospel truth." The intense rivalry between the two is known as the cross-border derby with the English and Welsh divide playing a major part in making it one of the fiercest rivalries in the lower leagues.
Newton also divulged how security was upped when the two clubs met each other but also an extravagant flip side that used to come when Wrexham got the upper hand over their rivals. He added: "We used to get police escorts from the ground. On the other hand, when we beat them 3-0 at home, I never bought a drink all night, I was out for about ten hours.
Sean Newton battles for the ball in his Wrexham days (Jan Kruger)"All the fans got wind of where we were and this bar has probably never seen as many people in it, there must have been a thousand people and there was just Coronas coming and any drink you wanted. The fact that we beat Chester, they were just buzzing. It's an incredible club."
The Liverpool-born left-back made 61 appearances in his time at Red Dragons and netted eight times during his stint in Wrexham. He went on to play for York City and Buxton but is now a player and assistant manager at Ashton United.
Chester Football Club have been contacted for comment.
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