Dean Keates takes charge of his 150th game as Wrexham manager across his two spells at the club today. Ironically, an FA Trophy match is the last fixture he’d want to have today.

The only priority this season is our league position, and while an FA Cup run could have yielded some handy cash for mid-season recruitment, the FA Trophy certainly doesn’t have such financial potential.

Therefore, the chances are that we’ll see a side more akin to those we fielded in that Tunnocks Caramel thing (I don’t think that was a dream, was it?) Mark Carrington’s next game will be his 250th for Wrexham, but I don’t reckon it’ll be happening at Halifax.

It’s not just the lack of prize money which makes today’s game a bit of an irritation. After last Saturday we want to play our next league fixture as soon as possible.

Coming hard on the heels of an excellent win at Eastleigh, the way we beat title-chasing Solihull Moors was impressive. With our next league game coming against Sutton United, the side we pushed into the relegation zone with those victories, and a clear midweek finally allowing Keates to work uninterrupted with his squad, we’d have been desperate to carry that momentum into such a massive match.

That extra time on Colliers Park will allow us to further bed in the three-man defence which helped us keep consecutive league clean sheets for the first time since February. It’s ironic to think that, in turning to a shape which you really wouldn’t associate with Keates, he has started to find the defensive security he brought to the club two and a half years ago.

Not as ironic as Bryan Hughes’ dalliance with the formation though. In the Summer we played it in half our pre-season games, but never looked like turning to it in serious matches until we were in crisis. It felt like we’d wasted half our preparations for the new campaign working on something which was then returned swiftly into its box.

I doubted that the formation suited the players we had at the time, but the addition of Kieran Kennedy has significantly improved the depth of our quality in the centre of defence, and the need to have more thrusting wing-backs on both sides is diminished now we find we’re fighting for survival rather than looking to run riot in a promotion push.

In both matches with a back three, that central trio have defended our penalty area ferociously. The midfield and wing-backs have worked tirelessly, and Omari Patrick’s exciting pace has suddenly brought some menace at the sharp end. What a shame we’re not playing our relegation six-pointer this weekend, just when the pieces have started to fall into place!

Since reaching the 2015 FA Trophy final, we’ve failed to set the competition alight. Under Keates we fell at the first hurdle twice, losing at home to both Tranmere and Harrogate Town. Rovers’ win was revenge for the season before, when we won 4-2 at Prenton Park, thanks to goals by Manny Smith, Wes York, Dom Vose and Sean Newton, only to then lose 1-0 at Torquay. Last season we beat Boston United at home, but were then beaten at home by Leyton Orient.

Our recent record at The Shay is poor in the league, but rather impressive in the cups. You have to go all the way back to March 1993 for our last league win in Halifax, as Steve Watkin bundled in the only goal of the game as we closed in on promotion.

Since then we’ve visited The Shay five times in the league, drawing two and losing the others.

It’s a different story in the cups though. We’ve won our last three games there when freed from the shackles of the league. Our last victory came on the way to Wembley in 2015, as Neil Ashton scored the only goal following a remarkable run by Kieron Morris on a gluepot of a pitch, earning a place in the semi-finals.

Our previous cup tie there was in the FA Cup preliminary round in 2009, and we squeaked through thanks to a last minute Wes Baynes goal.

Our visit to The Shay in August 1998 also ended in a win, but sadly that wasn’t the end of the story. We’d already lost the first leg 2-0 at The Racecourse, but took on the challenge of an unlikely come-back with enthusiasm.

Neil Roberts opened the scoring just before the half hour and, after putting the home defence under constant pressure, we levelled the tie when Karl Connolly scored from the spot with 13 minutes left. It looked like we’d completed the job when Neil Roberts seemed to have scored with a header, but the linesman ruled that the ball hadn’t crossed the line, despite appearances to the contrary. Frustratingly, we went on to lose the ensuing penalty shoot-out.