One swallow doesn’t make a Summer but it was great to see Chris Maxwell’s second Wrexham debut find him at his best. Excellent reflexes, an air of authority and a return to that nice habit of keeping clean sheets which we’d mastered for so long but have let slip of late, all led to a sense that the trip to Forest Green ended with us in a better place than we had been at the start – and certainly a better place than we were on Tuesday night, when the wrist-slashing mood on Red Passion summed up a fear that Joslain Mayebi’s injury had seriously compromised our ambitions for the season.

We now boast the two best goalkeepers statistically in the club’s history on our books, a fact I hinted at last week: I thought I might as well offer some evidence to back that up now it’s come to pass!

They’re two of only three goalies Wrexham have ever had to average less than one goal conceded per game throughout their careers with us (as you can see in the table above, Andy Dibble is the third). That’s quite a feat, and although it’s fair to say that the excellent defensive organisation introduced by Dean Saunders and developed by Andy Morrell have a great deal to do with those figures, one certainly shouldn’t dismiss the contribution of Mayebi and Maxwell. After all, poor old Andy Coughlin has conceded goals at an average of 2.14 per game and is yet to keep a clean sheet behind the same defence.

Clean sheets has been an issue this season, which is why it was so gratifying to see Maxwell start with a shut-out. Too often we’ve let a soft goal in and while that bad habit started off as the concession of the odd sloppy consolation, it has now spread to be something more costly. It’s interesting to note that, while Maxwell lets in goals more regularly than Mayebi, he also keep clean sheets more often. Hopefully this is a trait he can bring back to the side. (As for an explanation of why that should be, I’m not sure. I can only assume that Gateshead have a lot to answer for – if you take that 7-2 calamity out of his stats he’s just 0.02 goals per game behind Mayebi!)

There’s plenty more football to be played before we can properly assess where the arrival of Maxwell leaves us, but clearly if he can bring that happy knack of keeping clean sheets to the club, our ambitions are more likely to be fulfilled.