It’s the end of the season and we weren’t promoted. What an odd feeling!

Our ludicrous run of consecutive promotions is at an end: famously, we are the first team in professional football to scale the pyramid so swiftly.

Our progress didn’t end, though. In fact, you could argue we’ve just witnessed the greatest season in Wrexham AFC’s history, and that the best is still to come.

Actually, it’s difficult to argue against this being the zenith of our 162 years so far. We achieved the highest final position in our history, sustained an attempt to be promoted to the top division until the final day of the season, and finished a full ten spots higher in the pyramid than we have ever done before.

1977-78 has always been considered our finest campaign, and it must be recognised that we won two trophies that season – the Third Division title and the Welsh Cup – alongside magnificent runs to the quarter-finals of both English cup competitions.

However, this season we have been consistent in the second tier, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that we got to the last sixteen of both the cups we excelled in 48 years ago.

So, I suppose I should feel saddened that all that led to nothing when we drew with Middlesbrough on Saturday, and even more disappointed that we actually held onto sixth place until Hull got their winner (which was borderline offside, by the way!)

Yet I don’t. Instead, I just feel proud and optimistic.

The source of my pride is obvious. The players and staff have done everything in their power to get promoted and have represented the shirt with honour.

The source of my optimism is equally clear.

I’m reminded of how I felt after we lost a ludicrous play-off semi-final 5-4 at home to Grimsby Town in our first season under Phil Parkinson.

I should have been devastated: we’d given Stockport a headstart as we’d been restricted in building our squad by the transfer windows, an encumbrance no other side in the National League was handicapped by. Heroically, we chased them down, only for the pursuit to be declared a failure on the final day of the season, and then we’d collapsed in the play-offs against a side we ought to have beaten.

Yet, I didn’t feel bad about it. My logic was that we would go again the next season with a team which had dominated the division, plus the addition of another five or six quality players.

I was fascinated to bump into Humphrey Ker just after the final whistle and find he saw things in exactly the same way.

Of course, we didn’t know that Notts County would also invest well and meet us toe-to-toe in the most remarkably prolific title battle in British football history. Still, as we made it in the end, that just added to the fun!

I’m not naïve. I know that the Championship is not simply another league you can throw money at and dominate. There are plenty of teams with a lot more money behind them than us, despite what certain branches of the media might suggest.

However, we are on an upward trajectory.

I’ve realised over the last couple of years that Wrexham under Parkinson, among all the other generous gifts they’ve lavished on us, have also taught me something about myself.

I used to think I was a pessimist. Certainly, when it came to football my pre-season mood would be glass-half-full at best.

Yet now I approach every new campaign with a spring in my step, anticipating success.

I used to think Parkinson had turned me into an optimist, but I now realise that’s wrong.

Instead, he has revealed to me that I’m a realist. I thought I was a pessimist because most of the time I was right to fear the worst; now I get excited because I can see we’re heading in the right direction.

If you need further convincing, consider this: how do the other sides in the Championship see us?

Last summer, when most Wrexham fans were anticipating a siege as we tried to accumulate enough points to succeed, I felt like a lone positive voice at times.

However, their concerns were allayed when I considered what the other Championship sides must have been thinking. Surely, they looked at our spectacular rise from non-league football and asked themselves one simple question.

Where is Wrexham’s ceiling?

Would we just rip straight through the second tier on the way to the Premier League? It must have been a sobering thought. While we didn’t manage it , we certainly gave it a good go!

I don’t think I’m being optimistic in anticipating further improvement in 2026-27. After all, we’ve consistently invested well in the Summer under Parkinson’s guidance. Why should the next three months be any different?

So don’t fret about us not going up. It could be worse.

Just imagine supporting a team so desperate to get just a tiny taste of what we’ve got that they appoint a manager with the same name as ours in the hope some of the magic wears off on them!