‘Ballers’ introduces us to Rosie Hughes. She is a prison officer at HMP Berwyn in Wrexham, the largest prison in the UK. Her connection to Wrexham football isn’t initially clear, and it’s shocking when it is revealed she is actually Wrexham’s leading scorer. In the women’s team, she has scored more goals than Paul Mullin, Ollie Palmer, or Jacob Mendy have in the men’s team up to this point in the season. She is a menace on the pitch and Welcome to Wrexham wastes no time in showing her play and making her competitors look like children. Balancing her job and passion as a player for Wrexham, she truly embodies what it means to be a Wrexham footballer. Children sing Paul Mullin’s song and replace the lyrics with her name and she regards herself as the female Paul Mullin while regarding Paul Mullin as the male Rosie Hughes.

This episode of Welcome to Wrexham shows us the women’s team and a number of the players and individuals supporting the team. Like the men’s team, the women live and breathe Wrexham football and are having a bit of a moment. They are undefeated in their league, Adran North, and are up for promotion to Adran Premier should they win against the champion of Adran South. It’s an exciting time for Rosie and her team and with a statement win 11 – 1 to clinch Adran North, these women demonstrate the winning culture that Wrexham is trying to build.

Despite their on-the-field success, women who play in the Adran North league are unpaid. Additionally, the Wrexham womens’ team does not play at The Racecourse. They play with maybe a couple dozen watching. If you thought the pitch of The Racecourse was rough for the men to play in before its replacement, it is nowhere near as muddy, uneven, and battered as the pitch the women play on. Work with the women’s team represents a unique set of challenges for Wrexham leadership and Gemma Owen, Head of Women’s Football Operations, is shown to be more than up to the task (she certainly gives Shaun a run for his money).

With episodes such as ‘The Quiet Zone’, ‘Shaun’s Vacation’, and ‘Ballers’, this second season of Welcome to Wrexham has emphasized different parts of the football team and its community. We are closer to the individuals behind the scenes who are just as responsible for Wrexham teams’ success as the players, and for those who enjoyed seeing the women’s team in this episode, we are all but promised to see their return later this season.