Well, what a way to prepare for a game like this!

The Stockport County semi-final was always going to be an absolutely titanic clash as the first of two meetings between the outstanding sides in the National League.

There’s only one team good enough to halt the Hatters, and that’s Wrexham. Nobody else has the quality to threaten to beat them to the league title, and I admit it’s a big ask for Wrexham. However, this team has such momentum, that you wouldn’t assume it’s out of our grasp.

Likewise, who is going to stop Stockport from winning the FA trophy if it isn’t Wrexham? Should they get to Wembley, it would be a massive shock if Stockport were not to lift the trophy.

That’s one of two reasons why this is the best possible draw Wrexham could’ve had in the FA trophy. You might argue that it’s best to avoid the strongest opponent you could possibly draw, but I beg to differ.

When the draw for the semi-final was made, Stockport were the side that we knew we’d have to overcome at some point if we were to lift the trophy. Much as it’s understandable to wish to avoid them and hope somebody else will do the job for us, I prefer to take a more pragmatic view: if we have to play Stockport in order to win the trophy (and we almost certainly do), I’d rather it was at The Racecourse than on neutral ground.

Secondly, a home game against Stockport offers us an opportunity to strike a psychological blow. Boreham Wood were flying until they arrived for their FA Trophy 5^th round tie. We walloped them, and repeated the feat when they returned for a league game three weeks later. Can we do the same to Stockport?

Last Saturday‘s result was a perfect illustration of why I feel positive. I completely understand the logic of those who suggest that our 6-5 win against Dover was a sign of weakness. After all, it is quite a feat to concede five goals at home to anybody; to do so against a side which has won one match all season is a remarkable failure.

However, I prefer to take a somewhat more optimistic view. This was a glorious illustration of the relationship between the team and the fans. Even at 5-2, when there was a smattering of booing from the Racecourse faithful, it didn’t last long and almost immediately the fans were backing the team again. Remarkable! The team had suffered a disastrous collapse, created by a perfect storm of peculiar circumstances, yet the fans never failed to back them. 

Here was support at its purist. The fans have been treated to magnificent fare by this team, and when they collapsed for the first time there was no way the fans were going to leave their side. The nature of our comeback only cemented that relationship further. I’ve already got tingles down my spine imagining the atmosphere before the game on Saturday.

Obviously, conceding five goals at home to a side with one win to their credit all season looks awful. However, everyone is allowed an aberration and I suspect this was ours. 

Dover caused problems because they played with the freedom of a condemned team. They were relegated already, so they adopted an incredibly bold approach, leaving three players at the pitch most of the time. We weren’t prepared for that, because frankly it was lunacy! Likewise, there’s no way they would do this if there was something riding on the game. It was a freak match played in freakish circumstances and we won. All Logic says that we should lose that much, and yes we refuse to lose

That’s why we should carry more confidence into the Stockport match than before the Dover game. We had an absolute disaster, we were losing 5-2 with less than 20 minutes left, we were losing in the 91st minute! But we won. It doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you do. It’s handy if you just refuse to lose, though. That seems to be the state we are in as we approach this massive match.