What a massive weekend we have in store! This is what you follow football for!

Obviously, Monday’s game has been on our minds for a while as we take on moneybags Birmingham City. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to claim we’re the financial underdogs!

However, the day before we have an equally massive match, which gives our women’s team a chance to start the season by making a massive statement of intent. Wrexham versus Cardiff City has always been a massive game for us, but Sunday’s game is particularly mouth-watering.

Steve Dale’s side have every reason to anticipate the new campaign with relish, especially after the final game of last season.

The message from the campaign was clear: we’d made remarkable progress and clinched an outstanding league position, finishing in third place. However, there remained an apparent gulf between us and the big two, Cardiff and Swansea.

We set ourselves up really well against both those sides when we faced them, but ultimately would be worn down, and often the floodgates would open when we had to open the game up in the second half. However, our final clashes of the season against them were a different matter.

Yes, we lost both games, but they were massively different from what had gone before.

The match against Swansea City at The SToK Cae Ras ended in a cruel injury time winner but we’d dominated the match. A draw would have been a cruel outcome considering the performance we put in.

Then, our final match of the season saw us travel to Newport to face Cardiff City in the Welsh Cup final. Cardiff’s virtual invincibility in the Welsh women’s game over the last couple of years, coupled with their near-home advantage they were enjoying, made them overwhelming favourites.

Overwhelming is the adjective I’d reach for to describe how the game went, but it wasn’t us who were being overrun! Wrexham were superb, controlled the game, but sadly failed to turn supremacy into goals. When Cardiff, who’d grabbed a first half goal on the break, scored a second late into the game, the roar which greeted the goal told a story.

The large Cardiff contingent in the crowd had been largely silent throughout the game as they watched their usually dominant side chase the ball and pack their penalty area, clinging onto their lead.

The celebrations of the Cardiff players told a tale too. They weren’t used to having to hang on to survive, and their raucous celebrations showed that they knew they’d dodged a bullet.

We’d had good spells in all our games against the big two, but those matches were the first time we’d actually sustained that level of performance for the whole game, and actually been indisputably the better side.

The challenge for the new campaign is clear: we’ve shown we deserve to be at the top end of the league: now we need to build on those performances and actually beat the Welsh League’s giants. We also need to sustain a title challenge.

With a squad which developed markedly in their first season as semi-professionals, and has welcomed some exciting new signings over the Summer, those goals are most definitely within our grasp.

Phil Parkinson’s side are making a great start to the season, but keep an eye on our Sunday team. They’re embarking on a challenge which is equally exciting, and they have the wherewithal to achieve their goals.