Wrexham’s first league victory over Norwich City being broadcast live on TV in the United States should have surprised no one.

Last season, the club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were the only one of the 72 EFL members to have every league fixture shown in the U.S., underlining their big appeal on the other side of the Atlantic.

Throw in the extra intrigue of USMNT striker Josh Sargent leading the Norwich attack and it really was a no-brainer for Paramount+ to make the game one of their three 3pm kick-offs shown live on Saturday.

The presence of the Missouri-born 25-year-old — rated by Phil Parkinson as “the best striker in the league” — meant this was always going to be a stiff test for a Wrexham back line who have been coughing up far too many chances since winning promotion.

It was one they passed as a tweak of formation, with two debutants in Issa Kabore and Dominic Hyam starting in a re-jigged back five, led to Wrexham deservedly prevailing 3-2.

“It’s about striking a balance,” said Parkinson when asked about fielding two holding midfielders in a 3-4-2-1 setup. “Football is about trying to be secure at one end and keep the attacking threat that we’d shown so far this season.

Back of the net in Norfolk 👏

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— Wrexham AFC (@Wrexham_AFC) September 20, 2025

“We set out in pre-season with the two systems but the injuries we’ve had meant we were unable to implement it with the personnel we wanted. This was the first chance.”

The ploy worked well.

It not only afforded Wrexham the freedom to get at their hosts, as two-goal Josh Windass and Lewis O’Brien provided excellent support for lone striker Kieffer Moore. But the defence also looked much more secure than it has all season, even allowing for the two lapses in concentration that were punished ruthlessly by Jack Stacey and Jovon Makama.

It was certainly a big improvement on the mess from the previous week, when QPR were effectively granted the freedom of north Wales in a resounding 3-1 victory that could have been even more emphatic.

Josh Sargent has been ruthlessly efficient this season (David Watts/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Parkinson’s response was to bring Manchester City loanee Kabore in for his debut at right wing-back, as Ryan Longman switched to the opposite flank. Hyam also got the nod ahead of Conor Coady at the heart of the defence, as Callum Doyle and Max Cleworth slotted in either side of the former Blackburn Rovers man.

The changes worked brilliantly. Not only did Kabore provide two stunning assists from the right flank — Windass and Longman the beneficiaries — but there was a cohesion to Wrexham’s defensive efforts that had been totally lacking against QPR a week earlier.

Along with the pace and power provided by Kabore, perhaps the most eye-catching aspect of the afternoon was how seamlessly Hyam slotted into the back three. He read the play well, never shirked a challenge and was a tower of strength in the air.

Considering Hyam was up against Sargent, that was no mean feat. Having been recalled to Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT squad earlier this month for the friendly double-header against South Korea and Japan, the Norwich captain is eyeing a place at next year’s World Cup.

A glance at Sargent’s metrics for Norwich points towards someone who makes the most of any service that comes his way. Prior to Wrexham’s visit, his five goals had come from 121 touches of the ball spread across five games, according to Opta.

That was a goal 😆

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Just 21 of those had come in the opposition penalty area, suggesting a ruthless efficiency when the ball did find the striker. Those five goals had come from a mere 16 shots this season.

Moore, by way of contrast, had four goals from the same number of shots but he’d been much more involved, chalking up 195 touches including 11 headed clearances.

Against Wrexham, Sargent saw slightly more of the ball. He had a season’s high 35 touches in total, including six in the opposition penalty area. And yet his three attempts came with a combined expected goals (xG) of just 0.09, underling what a good job Hyam and his team-mates did on the U.S. striker.

The one time Sargent did briefly find space from a first-half corner, a combination of Hyam and Doyle ensured he was quickly forced wide before hitting a shot that was blocked.

Otherwise, it was an afternoon to forget for Norwich’s talisman, who turned down a big-money move to Bundesliga side Wolfsburg during the summer.

“We were up against probably the best striker in the league today in Josh Sargent,” says Parkinson. “We did a lot of work on him, how we felt we had to deal with him. He’s a dangerous player but our concentration levels were good.

“There was a lot of fatigue out there eventually, as they tracked his runs, they got tight to him and limited a really good player to very little.”

Parkinson was also full of praise for Kabore, who had an exemplary afternoon down the right. He had 48 touches (only Cleworth with 66 and Ben Sheaf with 61 managed more for the visitors), sent over nine crosses (six more than anyone else in red) and managed two headed clearances to go with his assists for Windass and Longman.

Phil Parkinson congratulates Issa Kabore (David Watts/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“What can I say about Issy?” adds Parkinson. “The medical team were behind me and saying, ‘His sprint distances are completely off the scale, can we get him off?’ But he was doing such a good job defensively.

“For us, we have had very attack-minded wing-backs in recent years. He is that. But we also needed someone with a defensive mindset as well. In one-v-one situations against a really good player in (Papa) Diallo, he had to stick to his task.

“I just hope Pep (Guardiola) doesn’t get a video of the game as he might want him back!”

Wrexham are far from the finished article defensively. How can they be when their expected goals against (xGA) stands at 14.5, at least two goals more than any of their peers. They’ve also faced 115 shots, 14 more than anyone else.

But, there was enough in the Norwich victory to suggest a corner has been turned and that things should continue to improve in the coming weeks as, effectively, a new squad gets to grips with the Championship.

“I wanted the lads to enjoy this game,” adds Parkinson. “Four years ago we were down this way and playing King’s Lynn away in front of 800 people. I want people to understand how far we have come.”

(Top photo: Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)