Harrogate being one of the more genteel towns to boast an EFL club, Wrexham’s James McClean had a rare quiet night.
Not on the pitch, you understand, where the 34-year-old former Republic of Ireland international, again sporting the captain’s armband, was his industrious self as Phil Parkinson’s side came up against a wall of blue as Harrogate Town ground out a hard-fought goalless draw.
Off it, however, was a different story with the small band of 260 followers who made the trip from the Yorkshire spa town seemingly devoid of the type who tend to believe the price of a ticket equates to an entitlement to shout all manner of abuse at a footballer.
McClean has come up against plenty of these in Wrexham colours already this season, his every touch jeered at some away grounds to underline why, in the past, he has claimed to be the subject of “more abuse than any other player in England”.
A refusal to wear a poppy during matches near Remembrance Sunday — a day in November to commemorate British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts — explains the terrace vitriol.
He’s explained himself numerous times, reasoning that to do so would offend people from his community in home city Derry, the scene of the Bloody…
