Shortly after the last match of the season (Gillingham) I suffered a huge personal loss when my granddad passed away out of the blue. Regular readers will know that it was my Grandfather that first took me to see the mighty Wrexham and who attended nearly every match with me. He had converted his son, my cousin and I into Wrexham supporters. Somehow he made us follow an unglamorous team and keep showing up to matches even when many would stay at home due to continued poor performances. So what, many people will be thinking? Well, my Grandad had been going to Wrexham for 51 years. There’s not many other people who can say they stayed loyal for such a long time. I believe if our club didn’t have a hardcore base of fans, such as those at the back of the Kop, the regular season ticket holders or people like my Grandad who would scrape enough money just to go on a Saturday afternoon, then the club would be in a state like Chester. No money and in a constant fight for survival. SO, to all the TRUE 100% loyal supporters - thanks for keeping our club alive, you’re a rare breed. You haven’t opted to follow a Premiership team who you will never watch and you won’t just turn away when the club does badly. To me that is what is important when following a club. Another 
thing my Grandad frequently said to me was: “I don’t go to Wrexham to see them win; I go because I want to see good football, be it from Wrexham or the opposition.” This was a blatant lie. I know Grandad was as die-hard a supporter as anyone else. I guess this is why my Nan insisted on him being buried in his Wrexham scarf!

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Well, Euro 2000 is upon us and I am following Holland as Wales didn’t make it. I do have a valid reason for this: I have Dutch ancestors going back 200 years. After subscribing to the Wrexham Internet mailing list (highly recommended) I received a story about some pubs in Cardiff and Swansea who were offering a free bottle of Budweiser to every customer for every goal scored AGAINST England. I think this is a fantastic idea, but of course people have been complaining about racism. On the subject of racism - according to most matchday programmes - anyone chanting racist comments in a football ground can be arrested. Does this mean that when people put their hands in the air for the “HANDS UP IF YOU HATE ENGLAND!” chant they can be arrested?

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I’m utterly disgusted at the cancelling of the Shrewsbury pre-season game. Trouble would have been inevitable, especially with the EBF presence, but surely if the game was sufficiently policed, trouble could have been avoided. We rarely get chance to see rival teams anymore. I propose a triangular tournament between Us, Ch****r and Scumsbury.

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Well, we’ve finally signed the Trinidad lads and I can’t wait to see how they perform. This interest has been heightened by the fact that one of them was approached by Newcastle - but his agent recommended Wrexham. One thing that has bugged me is how long it has taken for them to become Reds players; maybe they could have helped us out last season when the initial interest was shown. On the new-signing front Wrexham have also acquired Roche from United on a season-long loan. He is described as an “attacking defender” if there is such a thing. I wonder when Wrexham last had an attacking defender who was true quality. Deryn springs to mind.

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I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Gareth Owen on 10 years fantastic service. Many people I have spoken to have voiced their own opinions as to what the best Gaz moment has been. My fave is the winning goal in the WPC final against Cardiff a couple of years back. Others mentioned his long, accurate pass against West Ham which created the goal for Lee Jones and his great performance in goal against Burnley. Ten years of giving 100 per cent week in, week out. Cheers Gaz, I hope there’s more magic to come.

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King Karl has left. Despite the fact that he lost some of his edge recently (and then regained it), I am really going to miss him. I don’t know what his stats were but you just have to remember his hat-trick against Scunthorpe or any other storming moment.

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As usual I will end with a profound thought. England to crash out of Euro 2000 when Germany win 27-0 (causing loads of pubs to go bankrupt)? DEFINITELY. Have a good pre-season and see you all on the Kop.

Keep the faith, Matt Wedderkopp