The Hollywood meets “Tinseltoon” headlines will have to wait. For half an hour, Wrexham and their showbiz owners were daring to dream of a glamour fifth round meeting with Newcastle United at the Racecourse Ground.
It would have been only the second time in 43 years that Wrexham had reached that stage of the FA Cup but Blackburn Rovers and their in-demand forwards had other ideas.
Two goals from Sammie Szmodics and one for Sam Gallagher saw the Championship club come from behind to lead 3-1 before midfielder Sondre Tronstad completed the romp in the second half.
Szmodics, who now has 21 goals for the campaign, is interesting Crystal Palace while Gallagher has already been the subject of two failed bids from Premier League promotion chasers Ipswich Town this month and it is easy to see why.
For Blackburn’s manager, Jon Dahl Tomasson, victory also sets up a reunion with his former club Newcastle, where he spent the 1997/98 season as a player. “When we saw the draw I was thinking about the Champions League [tie] with Barcelona, which we won 3-2, so I thought it would be nice to see my former club here,” Tomasson said.
After Szmodics had missed a golden chance to put Blackburn in front after just three minutes, Wrexham took the lead when Andrew Cannon slammed home a fine finish from just inside the penalty area.
The 7,328 travelling Wrexham fans revelled in the moment and if Aynsley Pears had not pulled off a fine double save to deny Cannon and then James McClean on the rebound four minutes later this could have turned into a memorable Cup upset. Instead, their jubilation would prove relatively short-lived.
After Szmodics levelled for Blackburn, Gallagher put the hosts ahead two minutes later and by the time Szmodics claimed his second in first half stoppage time there was suddenly a long way back for Phil Parkinson’s side.
