Football League World
·11 October 2024
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·11 October 2024
The Red Dragons' star player has struggled in front of goal so far this season after recovering from back surgery in the summer.
This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...
Wrexham AFC have been an excellent addition to League One so far this season, and are currently second in the table, just a point behind leaders Birmingham City.
While it has been a successful start to the new campaign, there would have been fears in pre-season over where goals were going to come from with Paul Mullin sidelined following back surgery in the summer.
The 29-year-old has scored over 100 goals for the Red Dragons since joining the club from Cambridge United in 2021, when the Welsh club were in the National League.
He has scored over 20 goals in every league season he has played for Wrexham, but has failed to find the back of the net in League One in 2024/25 from eight appearances.
It was expected that Mullin was not going to feature too heavily in the opening weeks of the season, and his minutes on the pitch have been managed extremely carefully. He has started just once in the league so far, and is yet to play more than half an hour after coming off the bench.
His 70-minute spell against Crawley Town is the longest he has played in the third tier in 2024/25, but as his fitness begins to increase, it seems likely that he will be given more time on the pitch.
But in the meantime, it may be expected that he must up his goal tally. However, when asked by Football League World if this was a worry currently, Wrexham's Fan Pundit, Liam Grice, said:
"It's not too much of a worry because there's a lot less pressure on him, I think, this year to deliver the goals.
"We've got Ollie Palmer playing well, obviously Marriott is our top scorer, and he's started the season on fire. Elliott Lee's also chipping in with the goals again."
He continued: "So obviously there could be a worry that arguably your best player’s not performing to the levels that he's shown in recent years, but I have no doubt he'll get back to that level. It's not easy to come back from back surgery straight away and perform to the levels that he's been showing over the last two years.
"So yeah, I'm not too worried, he scored in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy in midweek, and he scored the other week in the same competition against Salford, so he can still score goals. I'm not overly worried."
While there are always going to be a few questions surrounding a striker if they are failing to score, it should be noted that it seems unlikely that this current dry patch will last long for Mullin.
He has always scored goals for Wrexham, and although it is taking longer than he probably hoped for this season, once he gets his first, the chances are that he will start to fire in regularly once again.
If his struggles do continue, however, Jack Marriott is providing goals from the front, and has found form that he previously has not been able to get into at the STōK Cae Ras.
Nevertheless, Mullin is not a striker that will continue to pass up opportunities, and with his exploits in the EFL Trophy already, it is only a matter of time until the goals start raining in League One for the 29-year-old.