A fan's view on Wrexham's demise

For 87 years Wrexham FC has ensured that north Wales has had a presence in the Football League.

In a Welsh nation that regards rugby as its number one sport, north Walians have always put football first and pride in the achievements of their only league club has been central to this.

Not many years ago Wrexham was synonymous with FA Cup giant killing and long is the list of Welsh internationals who have played for the club.

'Involve and engage'

But now we fans must accept that the inevitable has become a reality with relegation to the Blue Square Premiership.

With relegation will come recriminations. Brian Carey possibly could and should have done more in the summer to improve a squad that had performed so badly the previous season and only saved itself on the last day.

Brian Little inherited the worst squad in the league and his desperate attempt to bolster the playing staff in January did not have the desired effect.

With little money made available Wrexham ended up with a mixed bag of moderately talented journey men lacking the fans' loyalty to the shirt and singularly failing to gel into a team.

The problems though are not solely of this season's making and go back to August 2006 when the club came out of administration.

The new owners promised much and presented the fans with a ten point plan for the future with talk of Championship ambitions.

Despite some improvement off the field, the past two seasons have been a disaster where it matters most to supporters - on the pitch.

Equally concerning is that nothing has been done to secure the long term future of the Racecourse ground and that the much publicised redevelopment is taking longer to implement than envisaged.

The club should listen to its fans, says David Preece

Disappointingly, in March the owners alienated many of the fans by rejecting without explanation an offer from the Wrexham Supporters Trust to invest a much needed £300k in the club for a minority shareholding.

For the future the fans' message to the club's owners is simple enough. You can't do it all on your own. There are thousands of fans who love this club and want it to be successful - involve and engage with them much more than you have done and give them representation and a real stake in the club.

Bring in board members who can contribute time, ideas, skills and investment, back your manager with a realistic budget and build closer partnerships with the council, the Welsh Assembly and sports bodies to secure funding and support for an international stadium in north Wales.

Wrexham has always been a football town and shared in the highs and lows of the team.

Two years ago when extinction was a real possibility our present situation would have been gratefully accepted. We coped with and survived administration and will do the same with relegation.

Other teams have dropped into the conference and come back stronger. Together Wrexham will do the same, sooner rather than later.