So, we’ve left the National League. All long-standing Wrexham fans will be scratching their heads and asking where the miserable turn of events is.

We’re used to things going horribly wrong, and it would be lovely to think that, under our current ownership, we’ve ditched our reputation for misfortune and heroic failure.

This is the club, of course, which entered into the last 2 games of the 1976-77 season needing just one more point from two remaining home games to go up, and managed to blow it. We were level in both those games going into the 89^th minute, but conceded 3 goals across those matches in the last minute.

I’m reluctant to suggest that such mishaps are part of our nature as a club, but throughout the last 15 years it started to feel like it was true! How wonderful that we are free from the agonies of non-league football and finally able to get on with our lives!

Looking back, the time we’ve spent outside the Football League was cruelly frustrating, despite the moments of joy we experienced along the way.

It’s tempting to view our time in the National League as a series of disasters, which derailed us every time we might have got out of the division.

We could have got promoted at the first attempt, but two key injuries hurt us badly. One was a case of what might have been: Joe Allen, then a youngster on loan from Swansea, simply looked too good for the fifth tier. The problem was that he only lasted a game and a half before suffering a season-ending injury. We were left to wonder what he’d have done if he’d had a full campaign to wreak havoc for us.

A more concrete loss was the injury which halted Marc Williams’ sublime progress. Given a chance by Dean Saunders in his first match as manager, Williams took the opportunity with both hands and established a fine partnership with Jefferson Louis. Sixteen goals from 24 starts followed as Williams propelled us into title contention, but with 16 games left he picked up a broken foot from what looked like an innocuous challenge with Salisbury’s goalkeeper and his season was over.

Ours was too. Louis looked lost without Williams to guide him: he’d scored 10 in tandem with Williams but managed just one more without him. The whole team managed just 9 in that final stretch of 16 games, and 2 came against a wretched, relegated Weymouth side on the last day of the season. Three wins in the final 20 games of the season meant we slumped to mid-table.

Obviously, those weren’t the only injuries we suffered in the last 15 years, but some were particularly damaging to our promotion hopes. The nasty arm injury Danny Wright suffered in a meaningless last home league game of the 2012-13 season robbed us of our best striker for the play-offs. He managed 18 goals that season: might he have been able to make the difference in that horribly tense Wembley final against Newport?

Aaron Hayden’s late-season injury in 2022 cost us very dear indeed, as we lacked the level of quality in depth we currently boast. We picked up plenty of injuries in the second half of last season, but unlike the previous campaign, we were able to shrug them off and keep winning with panache.

Injuries haven’t been the only season-altering incidents to spike our promotion hopes over the last 15 years.

We also had the human drama of Dean Keates weighing up whether to stay or fulfil his childhood dream of going to Walsall. I could fully understand his logic in jumping up two divisions to take a once in a lifetime opportunity, although others couldn’t.

Whatever your opinion, there’s no question that his departure had a fatal effect on our promotion hopes. We were 4^th when he left, but managed just one more win that season as we slipped to 10^th.

We’ve suffered other traumas too: Brett Ormerod’s open goal miss at Wembley when there was no score in the play-off final against Newport was a particularly unhappy moment.

A couple of gallant but doomed attempts to get past Luton Town in the play-off were hard to take too, and we also saw our post-season end at the hands of Eastleigh, but only after we thought we’d taken the lead, only to be denied by a controversial refereeing decision.

Still, I think we can all agree that the greatest tragedy of all came when the wind blew the top off a glorious Cumberland sausage bap I bought at Workington Town. We’ve regained EFL status, but I’ll never get that sandwich back.