Here’s my column from last week’s Leader. It forms part of the paper’s comprehensive pre-match coverage every Friday, featuring interviews, an in-depth look at the opposition and lots of statistical analysis. All content in the column (c) www.leaderlive.co.uk.

What’s the difference between Wrexham and Manchester United? Very little at the moment.

We might be operating at opposite ends of the professional domestic game, but there are striking similarities between the two clubs. Both squads clearly have the potential to blow their opponents apart, but by the same token have short comings when they don’t have the ball.

If anything we’re in a better position than Louis Van Gaal’s team as our expectations are different. For United a finish outside the top four would be a disaster, meaning a second campaign outside the promised land of the Champions League. If they miss out on the most lucrative tournament on the planet for too long they’ll be in real danger of collapse as the Glazer family begin to reassess the wisdom and circumstances of their investment. Before long they’d be finding themselves getting used to playing their first FA Cup ties before Christmas and trawling Google Maps to work out routes for away games against Braintree, Dover Athletic and Wrexham.

As for us, that erratic streak might just be enough to satisfy our ambitions for this season. Our form marks us out as the sort of team which finishes somewhere between fifth and tenth. We can beat anyone on our day and throw points away against anyone when it isn’t. But that means we’re dangerous so if we sneak into the play-offs – and remember that fifth place would certainly fulfil that requirement – then we’d be exactly the sort of side you wouldn’t want to come up against, because if you hit us on the wrong day we could end your season in an instant.

And there’s something else in our favour compared to United. The opposition. I’m not trying to break the stunning exclusive that the Premier League is stronger than the Vanarama Conference: I’ll leave that to the tabloids. However, the contextual strength of our opponents is very different. Manchester United have to contend with the fact that, in Chelsea and Manchester City, they face two sides who are capable of blowing away the rest of the division, putting together long runs of wins and leaving the Red Devils trailing.

There is no dominant side at Wrexham’s level. We look like the sort of side that could scrape into the play-offs given a following wind, and frankly so do all the other teams around us. There’s no overwhelmingly strong side – Barnet might be top but they don’t look in a different class to the rest of us. So the play-offs will be populated with mercurial teams who look good on occasions but are flaky. Just because we are a bit up-and-down doesn’t mean we can’t finish in the top two or three in this division.

So Wrexham and Manchester United are likely to experience similar campaigns this season, but our chances of emerging satisfied are far higher than theirs. If you’re a Wrexham-based United fan, why not considering coming over from the dark side and having a bit more fun than you would watching your team scraping a point at West Brom?