TWELVE years ago to this week, Wrexham's loyal fans rallied together to raise £100,000 in a day to save their beloved club.

In August 2011, the Reds were just hours away from expulsion from the Football Conference.

An ultimatum was issued to the club's then-owners to pay up £250,000.

But, an offer of £150,000 put forward was rejected, leaving fans with no choice but to do the impossible and the incredible in order to save their club.

And they did just that, raising £100,000 in a day to pay the remainder of the sum.

This week, as the 12th anniversary of that week comes around, Wrexham AFC has paid tribute to those who gave everything in order to keep the club alive.

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Taking to Twitter to reflect on the journey, the club wrote: "We’ve come a long way in twelve years… #OTD in 2011, we stood on the brink and up stepped the greatest fans in the world, raising more than £100k in 24 hours to keep our club alive.

"Diolch yn fawr iawn, to every single one of you."

One of those who was instrumental in saving the club was die-hard Reds fan Rob Clarke.

Rob, who runs Mad4Movies in town, was the one who sent out an appeal to other fans via the Red Passion website to help raise the money the club need to survive.

Re-calling those times, he said: "It was around two weeks after Rushden and Diamonds had been kicked out of the league, so we knew they were serious. They would have kicked us out had we not raised the money.

"I was asked to put the message out on Red Passion and it came alive from there really. So many other great lads like Rich Ulrich and Steve Mathias helped out.

"Our only option really was to either; rob a bank or do what we did in the hope it worked. Luckily, it did.

"I had been with my mrs, Carrie - who is now my wife - for about six months at the time. I offered to put up a grand and she thought I was mad.

"I told her 'I can live with losing a grand, but I can't live with losing Wrexham.

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PIC: Rob Clarke and wife Carrie with their children Charlie and Henry and Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

"Soon after, when we'd raised the money, we were sat down in a room and there were grown men crying everywhere. That's when my mrs turned to me and said 'I get it now'.

"We were just minutes away from going and it felt like a member of the family was dying."

These days, the world is a much shinier place for all things Wrexham.

The takeover of the club by actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds in 2021 has already taken the club back to the English Football League following a 15-year absence.

And the Welcome to Wrexham documentary - which Rob featured on last year - has sky-rocketed the club's reputation to parts of the world it had never reached before.

Commenting on the change over the last 12 years, Rob added: "It's unbelievable. For where we are now, it's like a different world. 

"I think the aspect of saving the club and that community spirit was a big reason as to why Rob and Ryan wanted to invest, to be honest.

"We've gone from being sad and very angry about being mislead to this whole other world we're in now."