The start of every season is a step into a brave new world. The start of most Wrexham seasons is a terrifying charge into a burning building, punctuated by prayers, curses and a nagging question in the back of your mind about why you’re putting yourself through this. So, forgive me for clinging to familiar comforts.

Our midfield and attack might have been reshaped, but the back four remains reassuringly untouched.  It hasn’t just started with two clean sheets in a row: against Fylde we were reacquainted with a comforting truth. Shaun Pearson is a beast of a centre back.

There were a number of good performances in a well-deserved point against strong opposition. I’m not even saying Pearson would get my shout as man of the match. But in context it was tremendous.

AFC Fylde boast, for my money, the best striker in the National League, although perhaps not for long. Danny Rowe has everything, and he keeps delivering, game-in, game-out. He scored 28 goals last season, of all shapes and sizes. He can shoot from distance with either foot, hits a wicked free kick and is obviously a danger in the box, Last Saturday he kicked off the season with a superb winner, a left-footed curler into the top corner from twenty yards.

And Shaun Pearson bullied him all night.

Pearson was relentless, and although you could see Rowe’s class in the rare moments he found himself a moment’s respite from his tormentor, his threat was essentially snuffed out.

The Wrexham skipper was massive. He won his headers, he won his tackles, and he provoked Rowe into a series of fouls which really ought to have seen him receive a yellow card for the accumulation of fouls. That’s how much Pearson got under his skin.

And of course, no consideration of Pearson can be made without a mention of Manny Smith. Smith was superb at Dover last Saturday, and his consistency is illustrated by the fact that, in the closing seconds of Tuesday’s first half, something happened which stunned everyone. He actually made a potentially costly mistake. Seriously, that really happened. Those things happen about as regularly as solar eclipses, and Rob Lainton saved the day anyway.

The level of performance Pearson and Smith are no surprise, of course. But they’re the standard we need to keep hitting if we’re going to succeed this season. Just ask Danny Rowe: few defenders at this level have confined him like this.