Middlesbrough have knocked Wrexham out of the Carabao Cup in the first round despite being forced to play a man down late in the game thanks to a newly introduced rule.
Marquee signing Will Lankshear’s thunderous volley on club debut midway through the second half was enough for a 1-0 Boro win over their EFL rivals, consigning one of world football’s biggest modern Cinderella stories to an inglorious exit.
However, the Boro first needed to hang on after Lankshear fell foul of a new anti-time wasting rule recently introduced to world football.
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The law, which was in force at the 2026 FIFA World Cup and will be implemented at all levels of English football for the 2026/27 season, means players now have a time limit for how long they can linger on the pitch after being substituted out of a game.
Lankshear, who crossed from Tottenham on a £10 million (AUD$19 million) transfer, was busy thanking fans for a round of applause as he jogged off in the 81st minute.
He missed manager Kim Hellberg’s calls for him to quickly leave the pitch for sub Fin Cartwright, forcing the Boro to play the next minute with only 10 men.
They escaped the period without damage, while Sky Sports captured a laughing Lankeshear admitting “I didn’t know!” after the match.
“I haven’t been in the referee meetings at the start of the year because I came from Tottenham,” he said after the match.
“I now know to get off the pitch a lot quicker!”
Wrexham’s one chance at levelling the scores came and went shortly after, with midfielder Morgan Whittaker hitting the near post.
It’s a disappointing exit for the worldwide phenomenon, whose rise to the second tier of English football after its 2020 takeover by actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, plus the global smash hit Welcome to Wrexham documentary, took the football world by storm in the early 2020s.
Coming just four days after the team returned from a pre-season US tour, manager Phil Parkinson admitted his team wasn’t at their best.
“I thought we had enough half-chances, particularly in the first half, to have progressed in the competition,” he said.
“The game really separated from one quality finish from their lad.
“It was a big ask in terms of coming back from America on Monday and you’ve got to give the lads credit for going close.”
Wrexham’s EFL campaign begins against fellow Welsh club Cardiff City next Monday.