March 15 will always be a significant day for Wrexham AFC - here’s why | OneFootball

The day Wrexham signed its first club legend, Tommy Bamford.

Long before the days of “Super” Paul Mullin, Andy Morrell, and Karl Connolly in the 2000s, AFC Wrexham had a true legend from South Wales who had a knack for scoring goals like nothing the club had ever seen before.

For those who began following the Red Dragons following the takeover of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the name Tommy Bamford may not ring a bell, but for those who grew up in Wrexham in the late 1920s to mid 1930s, his name will be remembered as arguably the greatest striker in club history even today.

No relation to current Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford, who was linked to a move to Wrexham in the 2024-25 campaign, the late Red Dragons’ marksman will forever go down as one of this club’s greatest ever signings.

The early days of Tommy Bamford

Born in the community of Port Talbot, Wales on November 2, 1905, Bamford, like many youngsters, dreamed of playing professional football. His career began as an amateur in Wales for Cardiff Docks and Bridgend Town in the 1920s. According to the Wrexham AFC Archives, he signed a professional contract with Wrexham on March 15, 1929.

At the time, the Red Dragons were in the third division North, finishing the 1927-28 campaign in 11th place, according to Wrexham Archive. Coming from such humble beginnings, few could have expected the kind of impact Bamford would have on this club, which was traditionally a mid-to-lower-table team through the early to mid-1920s.

Bamford’s immediate impact at Wrexham

In his first season at Wrexham in 1928-29, Bamford featured seven times in the League, but already one could tell he was a natural goalscorer. He found the back of the net in six of those seven appearances, helping the team finish third in the table with 52 points, a 10-point improvement from the previous campaign.

Meanwhile, the team scored 91 times domestically in 1928-29, 27 more than they had the previous season. At the time, it was their highest-ever tally over a 42-match league campaign.

During that campaign, Bamford had plenty of support in the attack, with Albert Mays netting 33 times across all competitions, while Gordon Gunson scored 19, and Archie Longmuir had 12.

While only Mays of those three would remain at Wrexham the following season, Bamford’s legend at Red Dragon would grow to legendary status in the years to come.

A star is born

Those first seven games were just a sample size of what the Welsh centre-forward was capable of doing, with Bamford becoming the Red Dragons’ primary and, at times, sole goalscoring option in the following campaigns.

For five straight seasons, beginning in 1929-30, Bamford led Wrexham in goals, including an incredible 44 in the 1933-34 Division 3 North campaign, nearly half of his team’s goals that season (102). That season, he netted 51 times across all competitions.

Bamford scored 45 goals in a Wrexham shirt in the 1930-31 season across all competitions, then 34 and 40 over the next two campaigns before surpassing the half-century mark in 1933-34.

In February 1932, he’d already reached the century mark for career goals with this team, becoming the second person to achieve that feat after Berte Goode.

Only eight players have reached that mark since then: Arfon Griffiths, Karl Connolly, Graham Whittle, Gary Bennett, Paul Mullin, Ron Hewitt, Tommy Bannan and Albert Kinsey.

With 218 goals scored across all competitions per the Wrexham Archive, Bamford is still Wrexham’s record goalscorer and the only player in club history to net over 200 times. That’s a record you’d imagine may never be beaten, with the second-highest goalscorer in club history being Bert Goode at 148.

Bamford’s achievements at Wrexham

During his time in North Wales, Bamford helped Wrexham lift the Welsh Cup for the 15th time in the 1930-31 season. The club did not win its next one until 1956-57. In September 1931, he became the first Wrexham player to net 3+ goals in a cross-border Derby, scoring four times to help the Red Dragons defeat Chester 5-2.

In his playing days for the club, he helped them achieve their highest-ever interwar position, ending the 1932-33 season as the runners-up in the Third Division North. During his time with the Red Dragons, he earned five calls to the Welsh national team, scoring once in a 1-1 draw versus Scotland in the 1930-31 British Home Championship.

Bamford’s move to Man United

Bamford’s 1933-34 season caught the attention of clubs in higher divisions, particularly Manchester United. At the time, the Red Devils were not the powerhouse club we would see decades later under iconic figures like Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson.

Having just avoided relegation in 1933-34, the club, managed by Scott Duncan, wanted to get some proven quality in the attacking third, signing Bamford and his Wrexham teammate Billy Bryant.

The pair helped Man United win the second division crown in 1935-36. While he was playing at a higher level than he was used to, Bamford showed he could handle the competition, scoring 57 times across all competitions, including 14 goals in 23 league fixtures during the 1937-38 season.

A career cut short

While Bamford achieved plenty of great success in his footballing career, his impressive numbers could have been even better. In 1938, he left Old Trafford to return to Wales and feature from Swansea Town. He was nearing his mid-30s when he signed but still seemingly had more to give.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to do much at Swansea, with World War II commencing in 1939. By the time the war ended six years later, Bamford was in his 40s and had retired from football.

Bamford’s return to Wrexham

After hanging up his boots, Bamford returned to Wrexham and worked as a local steelworker.

He passed away in December 1967 in the city where he became a household name. Reports indicate that his ashes were spread at the Racecourse Ground.

Little is known about Bamford’s personal life, but we know that he had a daughter, Margaret Evans, better known as Peggy, who died of COVID in 2021 at the age of 94 and her ashes were spread on Wrexham’s home field just like her dad. Peggy had two sisters, Francis and Lorna, and a brother, Thomas, and her mother was Jane Bamford.

Mr. Dependable

When you look at Bamford’s figures at Wrexham, the word dependable immediately comes to mind. One could say he was this club’s first pure goalscorer, netting 30 goals or more four times with the Red Dragons. When you lead a team in goals, there’s an expectation that you must be just as good, if not better, the following season and all subsequent ones.

Bamford was exactly that for this club, leading them in goals across all competitions on five successive occasions, the longest run of any Wrexham player, past or present.

He helped pave the way for other great Wrexham goalscorers, such as Tommy Bannan, Ron Hewitt, Albert Kinsey, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Paul Mullin, to name a few.

Bamford’s legacy

To this day, no Wrexham player has been able to beat Bamford’s single-season record of 51 goals across all competitions in 1933-34. The closest Wrexham players to that feat were Gary Bennett, who had 47 competitive goals in 1994-95, while Mullin matched that total in the 2022-23 campaign, with 35 of his goals coming in the National League that season.

Without footage of his matches, it’s difficult to judge Bamford’s overall skillset or know what kind of goals he may have traditionally scored.

Regardless, fewer games were played then than we have today, and he was on his game almost all the time, as his numbers at Wrexham would indicate. He had to be on at all times and more often than not he was.

No matter the level you play professionally or the teams you play against, finding the back of the net at a rate of 0.855 per game (218 goals in 255 matches), as Bamford did at Wrexham, is a remarkable achievement.

The club haven’t forgotten his legendary status at Wrexham, naming “the Bamford Suite” after the iconic Welshman.

Wrexham’s owners have made some savvy investments into big players to move this team up the EFL pyramid, but Bamford may be the best signing the club have ever made.