Ben Foster Wrexham heroics feel like a Hollywood script

WREXHAM, Wales — Ben Foster has a confession to make. His preparation for Wrexham’s biggest game of the season — and one that would end with the best moment of a career in which he has played for Manchester United and England — was perhaps not what manager Phil Parkinson would have wanted.

Rather than getting his head down for an early night, Foster was busy watching Jon Rahm win the Masters.

“I played so much golf after retiring last season,” Foster told ESPN. “My golf has taken over, you know what I mean? So I was up until half-past eleven on Sunday night, watching the Masters. I was so tired: I was trying keep my eyes open and I couldn’t manage it.

“What will the manager think? Oh, it’s fine. Let’s just say I’m the goalie and all you do is just stand there and shout to everybody. I ain’t got to run around all the time!”

Foster, 40, is being self-deprecating, playing down his reputation as one of the fittest and most dedicated goalkeepers of his generation, but he can afford to be. He is speaking to ESPN on the pitch at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground, just half an hour after saving a penalty from Notts County’s Cedwyn Scott in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

By diving to his right to push Scott’s spot-kick away for a corner, which isn’t even taken due to the referee calling time after the save, Foster sealed a 3-2 win for Wrexham, which moved them three points clear of County at the top of the National League and that bit closer to automatic promotion to the Football League.

“That is just as good as it will get,” Foster, who was a shoot-out hero for Manchester United in the 2009 EFL Cup Final, said. “As a goalkeeper, to make a save in the last seconds, the last minutes like that, from a penalty to preserve the lead and to now be three points ahead with game in hand. … it’s a massive thing for Wrexham and for me too.

“That was phenomenal. What a game of football.”

It meant everything to Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds, too. The Hollywood star, who bought the club with fellow actor Rob McElhenney two years ago, was at the game with McElhenney and both shared the agony and ecstasy of a pulsating game that culminated with Foster’s save. “When I get my hands on Ben Foster, he’s going to be on the injured list because I’m going to break ribs, I’m going to hug him so hard,” Reynolds said after the game.

Why is Reynolds so happy? Simply put, finishing top in the National League — English football’s fifth tier — guarantees promotion to the English Football League (EFL). Wrexham haven’t been in the EFL system since dropping out in 2008, but taking…