'I still think of him' - the Wrexham friendship FA Cup hero will never forget

One of the FA Cup's most iconic goals in one of its greatest shocks.

And Wrexham's "magic little man" knew exactly who he wanted to celebrate it with.

After all, Mickey Thomas and Joey Jones had been brotherly close long before the third-round humbling of Arsenal.

As Tony Gubba on commentary questioned whether you could imagine a free-kick struck sweeter than the one that had sped past David Seaman on that January 1992 night, Thomas was sprinting down the touchline to leap into the arms the person he still calls Sir Joey.

He just wishes he could still call him now.

"I still go through my phone to ring him," Thomas says. "57 years is a long time to know someone. I think about him all the time. It's hard."

It is 34 years since Wrexham's 2-1 win over Arsenal, but less than six months since the death of legendary Wales, Wrexham and Liverpool defender Jones, Thomas' best friend and – as he put it back in July – "my soulmate".

The memories of that Arsenal game are being evoked with Friday's tie with Premier League Nottingham Forest marking the visit of top-flight opposition to north Wales for the first time since everything changed for the north Wales club.

Fans making their way to the televised game may well pass the mural of Jones – signature clenched fist and all – on the side of The Turf pub that adjoins the ground.

But Thomas doesn't need a reason to remember the times he shared with Jones since they first bumped into each other while hopeful north Wales schoolboys.

"We both started on £7 a week, one shirt to last us the season, played for Wrexham together, played for Wales together, shared lifts driving down every day to Chelsea," Thomas says of the pair that would also share the physio or referee's room at Stamford Bridge the night before the game to avoid the commute.

They were together the night before that Arsenal game, a few sneaked pints in a local hotel as Thomas – then at the age of 37 – prepared for a final hurrah against the league champions, while player-coach Jones covered injuries by stepping up to the bench in his third spell at the club.

"We would just have a joke together, like we always did," says Thomas. "He loved to laugh."

Including in some difficult times.

Thomas would be visited regularly by Jones as he struggled through cancer treatment in 2019. Likewise, it was Thomas who would be a regular at Jones' bedside as dementia began to take hold.

"We could give each other stick even when things were tough, like good friends can," Thomas says, now at the venerable age of 71. "We were always there for each other. He would come in when I had cancer and say 'It's not looking good for you Mickey'. So when he was saying he felt ill, I'd say 'never mind that, you're looking worse!' and I'd be able to get him to laugh, which was what felt normal."

Normal became increasingly difficult as Jones deteriorated.

"I took him to as many games as I could but very often he'd want to go as soon as we got there," says Thomas, adding the former European Cup winner would then tease him about having to go home and polish his medals.

"The mural is perfect – especially with the fist – but I just wish he was able to have seen it when he was still here because he deserved that.

"Playing for Liverpool was his dream but the contribution he made to this club was unbelievable.

"I was chatting to (former Wrexham youth coach) Steve Cooper and he was telling me that people don't appreciate what a good coach he was. The way he handled people, the way he looked after youngsters. He had a special talent. He was a one-off and I still think of him every day."

Something not lost on the club, including its Hollywood owners, with plans to commission a statue of Jones to sit outside the new Kop development.

The rebuilding of the iconic stand – that spilled delirious supporters when Thomas' free-kick flew past Seaman and again when Steve Watkins won it in 1992 – is a mark of how things are changing at Wrexham.

"They are genuinely nice guys," Thomas says of the club's co-chairmen, Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac. "It's quite funny, although Ryan has the bigger profile, it's when they're together that they really bounce off each other - a bit like me and Joey!"

"The way they've lifted the place and the confidence they've given the town is incredible, especially when you think we were in non-league for 15 years and gone even further.

"They've put the money into the right things: off the pitch, the youth team, the women's team, the right people – and I include the manager in that because Phil Parkinson has been amazing."

All of which is why Thomas – half-jokingly – suggests it's not Wrexham who are the underdogs these days.

Quite whether there is an FA Cup moment to match the magic of 1992 is another thing.

If there is, you can be sure of who Thomas will be thinking of.