Footage of what Birmingham City owner Tom Wagner did at HT v Wrexham sparks debate | OneFootball

The Birmingham City owner decided to rally his troops at half--time during his team's match against Wrexham, and it received a mixed response online.

The Birmingham City owner Tom Wagner decided to rally his troops at half-time during their match at Wrexham, but footage of it has been met with a mixed reaction.

Birmingham City and Wrexham cancelled each other out with a 1-1 draw in the Friday night Championship match at the Stok Cae Ras. The two newly-promoted clubs have acquired something of a 'rivalry' after going toe-to-toe for the League One title last season, but this was a result that didn't especially do either club much good in their respective chases for a second successive promotion.

But footage has now emerged of the Birmingham owner Tom Wagner on the away terrace during half-time giving something of a rallying speech to the Blues' travelling supporters, and this has prompted something of a mixed reaction online.

Tom Wagner urges Birmingham fans to be "louder in the second half" at Wrexham

Footage posted to Instagram by theawayfans and then reposted to the social media platform X showed Wagner on the away terrace at the Stok Cae Ras urging Birmingham supporters to get behind their team during the half-time break. At the time, the Blues were trailing 1-0 thanks to a 13th-minute goal scored by George Dobson.

In the footage, Wagner, wearing a striking blue bobble hat and with a half-empty pint glass in his hand, says that, "on the pitch, the energy isn't great" but that the players are going to "feed off of us", before going on to add that, "we haven't been great either" and that "we need to be louder in the second half", reminding the travelling supporters to, "text your mates and let them know that we're with them."

The reaction of the Blues fans to all this in the clip is reasonably positive, but the replies to the Instagram post were somewhat more mixed.

One respondent described it as "The Americanisation of English football", while another commented that, "British football is going to be like the NFL in the next 10 years" and a further comment added, "So typically American! Absolute cringe!" It should be pointed out, of course, that those replying on social media were probably not Birmingham City supporters.

It's not known whether Wagner's rousing half-time speech was audible from the away dressing room, but if it was, he could argue that it had some effect. It only took thirty seconds at the start of the second half for Patrick Roberts to equalise for Birmingham, with the match ending with the points shared between the two teams.

Whether there is a genuine 'rivalry' between Birmingham and Wrexham is open to conjecture. Certainly, both clubs' traditional rivals aren't teams that they play in league fixtures very often. Wrexham's traditional local rivals Chester FC currently reside four divisions below them in the National League North, while Birmingham's traditional rivals Aston Villa are a Premier League club. The match had been dubbed "the Hollywood derby" in its build-up, though this doesn't sound like the sort of moniker that fans themselves would warm to.

But whether Wagner's half-time exhortations made any material difference might not be the real point of all this. Birmingham fans may still be pinching themselves at the sudden reversal in their fortunes following the Knighthead buyout of their club, and if nothing else, this footage at least demonstrates that the guy who's running the show remains enthusiastic for his team to progress, even if the way in which he did so on this occasion might be considered a little bit "cringe."