One of my clearest memories of James Jones was at the side of the pitch after an away game. He was waiting his turn to be interviewed with Wrexham’s media team about the game, and there was something odd about him.

I couldn’t put my finger on it for a while, as I surreptitiously scanned him for clues. I really must stop doing that, and I also need to stop my new habit of admitting that I do it in the press.

Anyway, after a while I worked out what it was. He was doing something I’d never seen him do before. Something so out of character it had totally thrown me.

He was standing still.

Jones has always been a study in motion. He simply never stops moving, his boundless energy a defining feature of his game.

No matter what stage of the game we might be at, or how gruelling the contest had been, Jones never stopped running. I don’t want to reduce his contribution to our back-to-back promotions to an excess of energy: he had many more fine qualities. However, his boundless ability to keep shuttling from box to box, cover opponents’ runs and overlap our right wing back was a huge part of our success.

I was saddened to see him leave Wrexham last Friday. An honest servant and important part of our rise, he’d served us superbly. However, last week’s news had an air of inevitability about it.

Like a manager who’d taken his team up to the Premier League only to find the sudden jump up in quality cost him his job, Jones was a victim of his own success.  As he helped to propel us up the divisions, he hastened the arrival of players who would push him out of the first eleven as we looked to maintain our momentum.

He was drafted in during Phil Parkinson’s first transfer window at the SToK Cae Ras, one of several players who had proven themselves two levels higher in League One. The return to that level has seen his time on the pitch massively restricted, though.

Understandably, Parkinson has looked to add quality and experience to his squad as we’ve scaled the divisions, and the arrival this season of players with higher division experience like Ollie Rathbone, Matty James and George Dobson has pushed Jones down the pecking order.

If we’d found ourselves playing out a season of consolidation he might have been given more chances in league games, but our pursuit of promotion has meant Parkinson has had to be ruthless.

Jones put in the hard yards to get us here, though. He appeared in all but 5 games of his first season, his 16 goal involvements an impressive illustration of his contribution at the sharp end of the pitch.

Sometimes I wondered if his prodigious work rate blinded us to the fact that he was very effective in the final third. He might have arrived in a hurry, but he was able to set himself for a final pass or shot once he got into position.

He set up Paul Mullin’s equaliser against Notts County on his home debut, burst through the lines and played one of the passes of the Parkinson era to allow Jordan Ponticelli to score at Aldershot, and struck an 83^rd minute equaliser in the memorable win at Halifax.

In March, as the pursuit of Stockport County really got going, he hit a remarkable run of form, scoring 4 goals and making 3 assists in games as we hit our stride. The only points we dropped in that period were a goalless draw at Bromley; it was the only game which didn’t feature a Jones goal contribution.

In his second season with us he specialised in dramatic contributions off the bench, scoring a late winner against Bromley and striking our first in the FA Cup thriller against Sheffield United. He assisted the winner in the return match against Bromley too, the start of a 5 game sequence which saw him set up 4 goals, including one ion the titanic Notts County showdown which as good as clinched the title for us.

Elliot Lee’s arrival, plus that of Andy Cannon in December, increased competition in the middle of the pitch, but Jones remained central to our plans. He started 33 league games, appearing in 43 in total, and started the last 11 matches. Once again, when the chips were down, Parkinson turned to Jones.

He featured in 26 of our first 32 matches in the following season, playing a key role in our successful return to the EFL, but a late red card in our Boxing Day win at Swindon marked a turning point for him. When his suspension was served he started just 1 of the next 8 games. It was, perhaps, no coincidence that we suffered 4 consecutive losses at the end of that run of games, and Jones was restored to the starting eleven for the 1-0 win against Notts County. However, he was injured in the final minute of the game: it didn’t seem too serious at first, but it transpired that his season was over. He’d been fit for each of the subsequent 152 games we’d played since his arrival.

This season opportunities have been limited, and he has been hampered by injury once more. He was absent through November, and when he returned to the pitch against his old club Crewe in a Vertu Trophy game, he broke down again after 32 minutes.

It’s sad to think that was his last appearance in a Wrexham shirt, but he leaves with the gratitude of a set of fans who appreciate his role in three and a half glorious years.

His transfer to Burton Albion means we’ll cross his path soon, and he will be a superb addition to a side which is making an improbable surge towards safety, propelled by the goals of another player who left us this season, Jón Daði Böðvarsson.

Two honest professionals whose departure says much more about our rapid progress than any failings on their part, I hope they enjoy great success at their new club. Except when they play us, of course!