The season I'd rather forget

She had a pint of lager chucked all over her at Maine Road and she got into Bloomfield Road for a quid (yes a quid!) Francesca Merola tells the story of her 1998-9 season…

After returning from a successful Isle of Man Tournament - even though we didn't win - and with Rushmania fully established, it was the start of a new season. For some reason, I had this really strong feeling that this would be our season for glory - how wrong was I? I never thought that come May we would be scraping the edge of relegation by three points. And it had all started so well. Even the arrival of Kop legend - Liverpool and Wrexham - Rushie couldn't obscure the events that had happened in the summer of '98. With Marriott leaving, there was a great sense of expectation put on the shoulders of Mark Cartwright, which made me kind of uncomfortable because of his lack of senior games. But I put my confidence in him and fully backed him - which is something those jeering yobs who think they're Wrexham fans should consider doing in future.

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A convincing 3-0 win over Reading, first game of the season, put us third. The fact that Rush hadn't scored didn't really bother me as I presumed that he was 'adapting to the Second Division game'. Surely, I thought, he'd score in the next match? Again, how wrong could I have been? Being knocked out of the Worthington Cup by Halifax back in AUGUST - even though we played well in the second leg - didn't exactly thrill me, but it was only the Worthington Cup - not a cup at the top of Wrexham's list, if they had one. The first leg proved to be Marriott's final game for Wrexham; he was on the bench, and afterwards headed off to the Stadium of Light and Sunderland. I for one was sad to see Wrexham lose such a valuable player. We also started the season without Neil Wainwright, who went to join Marriott at Sunderland. August was a varied month with wins, draws and losses, with the Reds finishing a reasonable 7th at the end of the month. Feelings of promotion started to arise: was this to be our year? Based on the pattern of previous seasons - when August has always been a bad month for Wrexham - it was looking that way. The game that stood out for me in August was definitely the Man City game. Every player on that pitch played their hearts out and handled everything Man City threw at them - comfortably. One player that did stand out was Mark Cartwright - the best match I have seen him play. If it hadn't been for him, we would surely have lost about 6-0. The Wrexham fans did us proud as well. Everything the Mancs shouted, we shouted louder; well, kind of - there were just a couple more City fans than us. I also enjoyed the nice little confrontation between the Manchester Red sitting in front of me and ten bald, fat Mancs on the other side of the wall - which resulted in me and the bloke sitting next to me getting a pint of lager chucked all over us. Aren't the English so polite!!

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SEPTEMBER was back to the old routine. This time we lost three - against every Red's favourites, Chesterfield, and Second Division new-boys Stoke City. Worse though was the absolute thrashing that Gillingham gave us - they deserved to win, with none of our players playing particularly well. One compensation from this month was the defeat of Macclesfield, thanks to Gaz Owen and Deano - giving us something to cheer about. After the defeat at Chesterfield, we dropped eight places to 15th, but still I had faith in the lads.

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OCTOBER was a more balanced month. It was pleasing to see Wrexham having a stable home record of two wins; that would have been perfect if we hadn't lost to Swansea in the Premier Cup - a game which I think we should have won (as with all the games we played in the WPC - with us being the highest placed team in the competition). Despite another thrashing courtesy of Wycombe and what I thought was a well-fought and narrow game with Burnley in which we just lost, it was nice to see Dave Ridler score his first goal for the Reds - a player who I highly rate (and I don't just mean as Mr Wrexham FC!!). Even at this early stage in the season, I still hoped Wrexham would be in the top half at least; but we had slipped one place and we were now in 16th. But I knew Wrexham were too good to be a Third Division side, and so the threat of relegation was never an issue for me.

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The month of NOVEMBER saw the loan move of Terry Cooke from Man City. After an impressive start against Burnley at the end of the month, Cooke - I thought - never really set the Racecourse alight. I don't think he was beneficial to Wrexham in the same way that some recent loan players have been - for example, Mark Wilson. This was also the month which saw the mystery disappearance of Mark McGregor from the Wrexham line-up, and with him being one of my favourite players it was a worrying time. Was he seriously injured? Was he going to Elland Road like the rumours said? Would that £20 I spent getting his name put on the back of my shirts be a waste of money? Fortunately for me it wasn't - and soon Bandage Boy was back in action. Our first FA Cup match against Peterborough was a nail-biter, with the ever-improving and impressive Brammer getting our winner very, very late on. Wrexham managed to move up the table, but were still in the bottom half at 14th. But the main thing was that the team seemed to be playing well, with only two defeats that month - the highlight being the close match at Oldham and only just losing.

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DECEMBER just got worse and worse. Letting a two-goal lead over Swansea slip really summed up the way that Wrexham were playing - and Deano getting a harsh red card just topped it off. Thankfully though, some things were going right for us as well: we progressed through in the AWS, and we also beat York City to go into the hat for the 3rd round of the FA Cup. The chance to play a Premiership side. And who did we get? Bloody Scunthorpe! A bad period over Christmas - which saw us lose narrowly 1-0 to Man City and, convincingly, 3-1 to Preston - really started to make me feel slightly nervous, with the real prospect of visiting crap grounds next season like the Deva Stadium and the Vetch. This wasn't helped by the sight of the table with Wrexham 19th - just above the relegation places.

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Thankfully, JANUARY was a better month and began with the Reds getting into the 4th round of the FA Cup by beating Scunthorpe. Finally, I thought, we were getting back to our old hard-to-beat selves. The AWS campaign was also going well with the defeat of Hull City away. That night saw the birth of a new Kid on the Kop: Robin Gibson played his first senior game for the Reds and played it well - finally a player with the speed and skill to lift the Wrexham team and fans. Other victories followed, including a very impressive performance by the whole team, and our two new loan signings Carl Griffiths and Jeff Whitley in particular; they got a goal apiece in the defeat of Colchester. This was followed by an oh-so-sweet revenge victory over Chesterfield in the AWS, but it wasn't as pleasing as it would have been if it had been in the FA Cup. Talking of the FA Cup, a good performance against Huddersfield wasn't enough to beat them, and so the replay was to be at the Alfred McAlpine Stadium. Although January was a month for cup success, our league form continued to be dreadful - thrashings by Reading (4-0) at the beginning of the month and a poor game against Preston saw us lose 5-0; this left us hanging on to Second Division football in 19th place.

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FEBRUARY was by far the best month for Wrexham in the league away. The month hadn't started off well with us getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Tubby Thornley and the Huddersfield lads; not even the memory of the thousands of pounds' worth of fireworks could make me feel any better. However, February was a month of wins galore for Wrexham. A win against Macclesfield at a very, very wet Moss Rose started it all off, with a 2-1 win over Luton continuing the run. This match saw the introduction of new young star Jake Edwards, who showed a lot of promise early on. The most impressive win was against Stoke City. The players played really well and again showed the play of Wrexham teams gone by. There was a neat little goal from Macca (you know when a team is playing badly when it's Macca who's scoring the goals). By the end of the February, hopes of Second Division football at the Racecourse were lifted a little with the Reds moving up five places to 14th.

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The beginning of MARCH saw a new keeper at Wrexham with Tommy Wright replacing Mark Cartwright as No.1 - giving Mark a rest not only from the consistent games, but also from the unfair criticism of the fans, who never got behind Cartwright when he needed them. A win at Northampton, which saw Robin Gibson get his first, well deserved senior goal for the Reds, continued Wrexham's fantastic away record of five consecutive league victories. Blackpool soon ended that run with a 1-1 draw: their equaliser coming with a penalty which I think should never have been. The only highlight was getting in for a quid: still, a quid is still far too much money to pay to get into that so-called ground. Even though we had moved up, briefly, to 12th, losing 3-0 to Millwall resulted in us dropping down to 14th. That was only the start of our losing period. One step away from Wembley…and all we had to do was beat Wigan. The first leg ended with us not only losing 2-0, but the fans who had turned up to cheer the Reds on ended up doing more harm than good. The Brammer incident springs to mind here. Need I say more - a helping hand in his eventual departure to Port Vale. The second leg was even worse. Not only did we lose the match 3-2 and lose out on the chance to go to Wembley, but we also lost one of our promising youngsters - a challenge from Carl Bradshaw ending Robin Gibson's short season in the senior team. Along with Brammer, Carl Griffiths also moved to Port Vale - a player who should have really been playing for Wrexham next season. The fact that he really wanted to play for Wrexham made the non-signing of him more stupid. March also saw lots of action in the transfer market - Wrexham bringing in Paul Barrett, Stuart Elliott, Danny Williams and Michael Ryan, with Barrett and Elliott playing well in their first couple of games.

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APRIL was a mixed month for Wrexham, but I was still not convinced that Wrexham were 100 per cent safe from the dreaded Third Division. Wins over Bristol Rovers and Gillingham helped restore the faith. The 1,800-odd fans who turned up to watch the game can proudly call themselves true supporters; when Wrexham needed their support they were there; I could hear Jacko especially. But what didn't help were the defeats by Walsall and Oldham. In both games Wrexham had plenty of chances to win - or even draw the game. Even so, the month ended with a very solid and commendable performance by the players to hold Fulham to a draw - and showed that Wrexham were too good to be a Third Division team. This was shown in us moving up a place in the league to 13th. The win against Cardiff at home raised hope of some glory for Wrexham this season, with all the players playing well, especially first-choice keeper that game, David Walsh.

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MAY came and went, and could easily be forgotten. The league campaign ended with safety from relegation and nothing to play for, but a creditable draw at Bournemouth showed Wrexham never stopped fighting till the end - ending up three points from safety. The second leg at Ninian Park could be looked upon as a lesson for Wrexham, letting a two-goal lead slip and two minutes away from getting knocked out after going behind before Andy Morrell scored the winner. Could have been very embarrassing for Wrexham! Not as embarrassing though than what happened on 23rd May. An awful defeat by a sometimes better Barry side summed up Wrexham's season and luck.