After a faltering first half of the season Wrexham have now established themselves in the top six and are fancying their chances of yet another promotion.
Given the amount of money they spent in the summer window it was surprising that it took them so long to get going. When we went up there in early November we faced a team including Nathan Broadhead (£10m), Ben Sheaf (£6.5m) and Kiefer Moore (£2.5m). Lewis O'Brien (£5m) and Callum Doyle (£7.5m) were on the bench. Nevertheless, it was us who were sitting in sixth position while they were down in 15th. It was a particularly galling defeat because there was nothing between the sides until a needless handball by Onel Hernández (now of Port Vale) gifted the home side a penalty which Josh Windass (free transfer) duly despatched. To add to our misery there was the pain of having to watch "our" George Dobson doing what he does so well in another team's colours.
When Wrexham kicked off six weeks later on Boxing Day they were still in 15th place but they beat Sheffield United 5-3 and, since then, have won seven and drawn two to force their way into the play-off spots. Their away form has been particularly impressive with four wins on the spin at Blackburn, Derby, QPR and Sheffield Wednesday, followed by a draw at Bristol City. In the twelve games since Christmas they have scored 28 goals - three more than in their previous twenty outings - and despite not being brilliant defensively (they have conceded two more goals than we have) they will arrive at The Valley full of confidence. The riches at Phil Parkinson's disposal are demonstrated by the fact that against Portsmouth on Tuesday he was able to bring on Moore and Rathbone to replace Windass and Smith after 67 minutes and to leave his deadline signings Keillor-Dunn and Cadamarteri unused on the bench.
Nathan Jones has come under criticism from some for his defensive tactics but the plan is unlikely to change on Saturday. Wrexham have scored at an average of 2.3 goals per game since Christmas and we will be trying to keep that number down. Parkinson's team are the division leaders for accurate long balls per match and with Lloyd Jones likely to either miss the match or be playing through injury, Kieffer Moore will be expecting to dominate in the air.
Matches with Wrexham don't come around very often. We have only ever played them eighteen times (including cups) and they have the whip hand with nine wins to our three. The last time we beat them was 44 years ago at The Valley when Steve Gritt scored the only goal of the game in front of a crowd 0f 4,561. Our club has come a long way since then and one thing we can be sure of is that there will be a considerably better attendance on Saturday. Early arrival is advised.
The two points our team has gained on the road this week at Southampton and West Bromwich have been won through graft and organisation with glimpses of quality somewhat rare. Nevertheless, those points have helped maintain a seven point gap between us and 22nd place and that is really all that matters as we face the run-in. A repeat of 1982 on Saturday would be fantastic (with Sonny Carey as the latter day Steve Gritt?) but even the grim accumulation of another single point should be cause for celebration as we inch towards fifty.
Keep the faith. We have never lost with Collins Sichenje on the pitch.
Photo by Rhea Spencer-Newell