As far as club legends go at Wrexham, few can really match the level of adoration as Joey Jones.
Wrexham fans will all have favourites, whether it’s Andy Morrell, Carlos Edwards, Karl Connolly, Brian Carey or maybe even Mickey Thomas if we’re going further back.
There would be so many names in the mix if we were talking about Wrexham heroes but Joey Jones is right up there.
Jones hails from Llandudno and emerged in the Wrexham first team as a younger, doing enough to earn himself a 1975 move to Liverpool.
Jones won his fair share of trophies at Anfield but was back at Wrexham after just three years away, racking up more than 100 appearances in his second spell.
The full back headed to Chelsea in 1982 but by 1987, he was back again to finish his career at Wrexham, adding another century of appearances to his tally.
Jones will always be viewed as a real legend having played for Wrexham as man and boy before retiring with the club at the age of 37.
Wrexham supporters will forever have all the time in the world for Jones, and it turns out that he had a big impact on Lee Trundle…
Lee Trundle on Joey Jones
Trundle joined Wrexham from Rhyl back in 2001 and showed signs of the talent which would see him become a sensation at Swansea City.
30 goals in 102 games for Wrexham wasn’t a bad record and Trundle’s exit to Swansea in 2003 still looks like a huge error.
Trundle went on to be come a star but it could have all been so different if not for a stern telling-off from Joey Jones.
Trundle has told the Under the Cosh podcast that he was still turning out for his Sunday league team even after signing for Wrexham.
The striker simply used a different name – Lee Preston – throughout his non-league career and tried to get away with it even after his Wrexham debut too.
However, Jones caught wind of the situation and told Trundle not to play again as he was risking his career – and Trundle decided to pack it in right there and then.
“I was never at a club when I was a younger, I was never a YTS anywhere, so I went into men’s football at 15 and played non-league,” said Trundle. “I was still playing on a Sunday under a different name right the way through, even when I signed for Wrexham.”
“I remember going in, signed for Wrexham, made my debut on the Saturday and then played for the lads on the Sunday morning with my local team. In the league that we were playing in, you can imagine in Sunday league, I was scoring 10’s and 12’s each game, so people are then talking about ‘who is it?’, and I remember I went into training on the Monday morning and Joey Jones – Wrexham legend, Liverpool legend – said to me ‘you played yesterday’, I said ‘I never played’.
“He said ‘yeah, you did.’ He said ‘listen, I won’t say it again – don’t play. This is your career now, if something happens to you on a Sunday, that’s your career gone, so stop playing.’ That was my last game on a Sunday, I didn’t play after that again,” he added.
That Jones was able to get through to Trundle when others couldn’t just speaks to his influence and legendary status.
Trundle went onto have a fine career and he may have risked losing it all had Jones not warned him during his Wrexham days.
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