I’m looking forward to the Shrewsbury game more than you can imagine, but my excitement is tinged with regret. I’ll have to miss the women’s team playing Cardiff City as the games clash, and that’s a real disappointment to me.

It’s been a pleasure to follow the team’s fortunes and see them continue to set new standards for the club week on week. Now I’ll miss the opening game of the second part of the season, and it’s a fascinating match-up.

A quarter final in any competition is not to be sniffed at, and when you get a chance to take a pop at the dominant force in the game on your own patch, it’s time to get excited.

In Wrexham’s case, there’s the added interest of measuring what point we’re at in our upward trajectory. Cardiff are the best in Wales, and the only side to beat us at The Rock, but we’ve come a long way in the three months since that game.

Although we lost 3-0, the scoreline only told part of the story. We were terrific, and the better side in the first half as we carved out, but missed, a number of chances. In the second half City’s superior fitness told, though, and we were out on our feet as they took a grip in the latter stages of the game.

Things are different now, though. Zoe Clair’s efforts as our strength and conditioning coach hadn’t had time to take effect at that early part of the season; the benefit of that sort of work doesn’t reveal itself straight away.

However, in the subsequent three months we’ve seen a clear improvement in our stamina. The last two games, both against Briton Ferry, were a case in point. We really powered through them in the latter stages, doing to them what Cardiff did to us.

There’s a fascinating mentality shift to consider too. When we faced Cardiff in October we were 4 games into our adventure into the top flight, and perhaps showed too much respect for the champions. We were tremendous in that first half, but it was our threat on the break which troubled Cardiff. Since then, we’ve dominated sides which are well-established in the Adran Premier, and know we can take Cardiff on toe-to-toe.

City are still the favourites – how could they not be when they they’re unbeaten this season, with only one draw to their name? But we’re a different team from the one they faced at the start of the season, and we were a phenomenon back then.

We are now a confident force in the Adran Premier, and are still in the title race. Pre-season a finish in the top four would have been seen as a successful first go at the top division. Now we’re 5 points clear of 5th with a game in hand, and our four remaining home matches are against the sides in the bottom four.

To stay in the title race, we’ll need to get a good result at the Cardiff City Stadium later this month. A positive performance tomorrow would set that game up nicely.

The sad thing is, this fascinating clash will probably be buried under the hyperbole of the Shrewsbury derby. I know that’s the way of things, for the moment, and I’m not going to be a hypocrite about it; after all, I’ll be in Shrewsbury on Sunday, not Cefn. But try to keep an eye out for how Steve Dale’s side fared tomorrow evening. They’re going to explode into something very special soon, and I can assure you that the earlier you jump on the bandwagon, the more joy you’ll get from it.