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Goals are nice. I know that. Teams that score goals win games as well. I’m on top of that too.

However, call me biased because I am an ex-goalkeeper (well, to be more accurate, an ex- failed goalkeeper), but I really think that as we contemplate our goal-laden forward line propelling Wrexham to the Adran Premier title, we need to be acknowledging the contribution of Lizzie Craven between the posts for Jenny Sugarman’s team.

A number of attacking players have made spectacular contributions to a sparkling campaign. Katie Barker is an unbelievable talent. Rosie Hughes is scoring goals hand over fist, and there are plenty of others who cause constant headaches to opposing defences.

But Craven’s story is a fascinating one which contains everything you’d want if you were making a documentary about a football club. You know what? Someone should do that.

Craven has actually had a similar story arc both last season and this. She arrived at the club and took the gloves from club legend, Del Morgan, but had a tough start. Our first away match was a 3-0 capitulation to newly-promoted Briton Ferry: she wasn’t at fault but it was a depressing start to a stint at a club.

She was then perceived as being at fault in a loss to Swansea in our second home game of the season. I didn’t see it that way. A decisive goal was scored by Swansea when they stuck a set piece onto Craven, and Jess Williams jumped over her to head in from close range. It was a blatant foul which the referee missed: Williams clambered on Craven’s back to make the header.

It might have had an influence on the next goal Swansea scored, the third in a 3-2 loss as Craven didn’t attack another set piece into the danger area, probably fearing the referee would offer no protection to her again, and Katie Sharp, having to stretch towards her own goal, prodded it into her own net.

Craven would bounce back emphatically from those setbacks, displaying perhaps the most important attributes a goalkeeper can have. She is blessed with the ability to put mistakes and misfortune behind her and carry on as if they never happened. This is a level of mental fortitude which I certainly did not possess! If I conceded a goal which I knew I could have done better with, I would immediately retreat into a spiral of blame and recrimination, meaning that next time I had to do something, I’d still have my mistake on my mind. It usually meant that any error by me was a precursor to something much worse.

Craven, on the other hand, simply dusted herself down and carried on. A series of excellent saves at key junctures through the season were crucial as we embarked on a remarkable winning streak to earn ourselves a place in the Championship Phase, making the sort of last-ditch save which she has become associated with to ensure that we were able to finish in the top four.

The Miracle of Swansea, where we pulled off a crazy 3-2 win in the final match of the first phase to dump the Swans out of the top four and take their place, the only time we’ve been in the top four being at the final whistle of that last game, will rightly be remembered for Keryn Allen’s last gasp winner, but it was more of a penultimate gasp winner, because deep in injury time Craven pulled off a crazy save from close range to ensure that Swansea didn’t grab an equalizer and progress at our expense after all.

By the end of the season, I felt confident in stating that two goalkeepers of the Adran Premier were superior to the rest: Cardiff’s experienced former Welsh international, Ceryn Chamberlain and Craven.

This season started in suspiciously familiar fashion: a problematic defensive display at Briton Ferry and then an error in the first home game of the season.

Craven is exceptional with the ball at her feet; her passing is accurate and starts attacks, and forgive me for being a little simplistic here, but the actual distance she has got on her long kicks is a more valuable weapon in the Adran Premier than you might think. Some keepers in the Adran Premier aren’t able to kick with a good range – I saw that at first hand when I watched Cardiff thump TNS last Sunday, as the home keeper’s inability to get the ball clear meant every TNS goal kick was essentially a set piece opportunity for Cardiff.

In contrast, Craven can put the ball firmly in the opposing half. It’s a basic, but it does matter when you’re under pressure or want to break swiftly. As I said before, though, that’s just a small part of her distribution. It’s the accurate long passing which really makes her impressive. She’s composed with the ball at her feet and able to operate outside the penalty area without fear. She also tends to adopt a high starting position when we have the ball and is quick off her line to to sweep up, making constant interventions outside her area to ensure that strikers running in behind our defence never get onto the ball.

However, the start of the season was challenging. Like last season, the incidents she was involved in at Briton Ferry looked worse than they actually were from her perspective. She conceded a goal from a back pass in the opening minutes of the season at Briton Ferry. But although she was left stranded, it was, to be fair, a combination of an under-hit back pass and a notoriously soggy and uneven pitch, which led to the goal. Craven was an unfortunate victim.

Erin Lovett bounced back from the back pass error to put in a magnificently strong performance both in terms of her contribution and her character. Craven would be tested further when she actually did make an error in the next match.

She would hold her hands up over this one without a doubt. With the ball at her feet, she looked to shift it onto the other foot and was tackled, leading to a simple goal for Barry Town United.

Did that stop her from using her feet?  No. Not in the slightest. Clearly, it did not even cross her mind that she needed to adapt her style of play, and she was 100% right in making that decision. Craven’s quality with the ball at her feet is a crucial part of our strategy. We are able to build because we have her passing range to kick start moves and if she was to retreat into her shell for fear of making another mistake, we would lose something important.

She emphatically has not done that. Instead, she has doubled down and continues to play the role of sweeper-keeper exceptionally well. That takes guts, and there’s no doubt Craven has that in abundance. We saw that at Barry in our last game of phase one this season.

Once more, it was an incident which was missed by the referee although on this occasion I have to confess that I missed it too for the simple reason that I was concerned for Craven’s welfare.

Jodie Bartle was shielding an over-hit pass back to Craven when Jasmine Turner pushed her in the back. The skipper collided with her goalkeeper and Turner knocked it into an empty nest, her shove having been missed, while Craven was flat out on her back. It was a genuinely worrying moment, and she required lengthy treatment.

But as I said, Craven certainly does not lack guts. She recovered and played the rest of the game. Although we dominated and she didn’t have much to do, she still pulled off one fine save high to her right and took a well-judged catch from a cross in a crowd when it would have been easy for her to stay on her line and avoid the possibility of another collision. Like I said, she’s got the sort of attitude fans want to see in one of their players.

It’s not all grit and feet with Craven, mind. She’s a superb shot-stopper and strong in one-on-ones. Another pattern which carried over from last season is her capacity to make result-changing late stops.

In a season like this, where we are locked in a title battle against Cardiff, the games between us and the champions are massive. When we met earlier in the season at Buckley we put in an excellent performance which certainly earned the respect of The Bluebirds. We were leading late on when Cardiff finished strongly. They equalized through a penalty, and in the closing moments of the match, Craven pulled off two genuinely brilliant double saves to avoid what looked like a decisive victory for us turning into a painful defeat.

Craven has the capacity to do this. She shows up when she is needed. And in that regard, her goalkeeping is just as important as the goals we accumulate at the other end. On our journey to dominate Wales, we can always rely on the Craven arms.