I’m absolutely thrilled that Notts County are joining us in the EFL next season.

Quite apart from the massive injustice of recording the second-highest points total in the history of league football in Britain and still not going up, I wouldn’t wish upon anybody the frustration Wrexham have been carrying round since 2012.

That was the year we compiled a phenomenal 98 points. Until this season, it remained the most achieved by a side which wasn’t promoted in the history of the league pyramid. The obstacle that season was a Fleetwood Town freakishly fuelled by Jamie Vardy’s goals.

It was heart-breaking to see such a phenomenal campaign end in disappointment, and I didn’t want to see a side which managed a further 13 points than Andy Morrell’s superb side suffer the same experience.

Instead, although there was a sense, sparked by Wrexham’s performance on Easter Monday, that teams had worked out a way to counter County’s style of play by restricting the supply line from Ruben Rodrigues, John Bostock and Matty Palmer to Macauley Langstaff, they squeezed their way past Boreham Wood and Chesterfield to claim what is rightfully theirs.

Their story is peppered with remarkable achievements which deserved the ultimate reward. The scale of Langstaff’s goalscoring feats can be summarised in one telling phrase: he scored more than Paul Mullin!

Rodrigues’ passing and finishing had been decisive all season, and Wrexham fans might argue his ability to pick the right moment to fall over was important too! His form collapsed at the end of the season, but he clearly should be playing at a higher level.

Aaron Nemane and Adam Chicksen have been outstanding examples of how to stretch the play with wing-backs. Palmer is one of the best midfielders I’ve seen in 15 years at this level, and Luke Williams, appointed 5 years after his only previous management job ended in relegation for Swindon, justified the club’s faith in him in spades.

I have reservations about the efficacy of his mind games as the run-in unfolded. He admitted that his constant protestations that the title was already won was an attempt to prepare his side for an extension to the season, but I’m not sure it will have filled them with confidence. However, when a manager has made as many great decisions as he has this season, you’ve got to allow him an error or two. After all, he’s good, but he’s no Phil Parkinson!

County are a classy club with a sense of perspective and a knowledge that football is much more than a game. Seeing their staff suffer the penalty shoot-out alongside a portrait of former CEO Jason Turner, who tragically died just weeks earlier, was the most poignant moment of the most emotional season.

2022-23 was a remarkable season for us, and the performances, results and points total were all our own work. Getting out of the National League had become a quest, and we were desperate to complete it. Winning the league by a country mile with no opposition in sight would have been wonderfully satisfying. But it was Notts County who made it epic.

County’s challenge creates story-lines. The resumption of our contest in League Two will be one of the fixtures we’ll be looking out for when the season’s schedule is released. With the two sides which dramatically thwarted us last season, Stockport County and Grimsby Town, also potentially on the agenda, there will be some memorable match-ups next season, and narratives which potentially could stretch across seasons.

That’s mouth-watering for fans, but. In the 1990s I remember looking forward to games with Stockport, Tranmere and Crewe as the four teams scaled the leagues simultaneously.  There’s an extra level of excitement, though, because those story-lines play into the narrative of “Welcome to Wrexham”.

The longer the show is popular, the longer we’ll be able to capitalise upon that and accrue more international fans. Having new instalments of familiar rivalries will make for compelling viewing, in the stadiums and on your chosen streaming platform.

Ironically, by making the title race such a nail-biter, County have potentially made us an even tougher proposition for next season. The second season of “Welcome to Wrexham” is bound to be an absolute blockbuster, with the drama of our titanic tussle with them for the title. A title which was won by Christmas would be rather less gripping television!

Instead, there’ll be the melodrama of Ben Foster’s penalty save and the incredible visuals of the trophy lift and the parade through town. That will be what is called “Appointment to View TV”!

County’s stout resistance, and their refusal to throw in the towel in the face of an opponent who was compiling the best season of results in the history of domestic football, was heroic. However, it will probably result in us making more money and gaining more fans than if they’d failed to put up a fight!

Next season, they might wish they’d finished 20 points behind us and won in the play-offs!

However they did it though, justice has been served. It would have been an absolute disgrace if they hadn’t joined us in League Two next season, after the remarkable sequence of results they put together last season. I’m glad they haven’t had to suffer that Fleetwood feeling.