BATTLING against relegation to National League North is a new low in Wrexham's history but Danny Williams remembers how being part of the team that lost the club's Football League status seemed like the end of the world.

When Brian Little's side went down 2-0 against Hereford United at Edgar Street on April 22, 2008, it meant the Reds' 87 year stay in the league came to a halt.

Williams, who had helped Wrexham avoid the dreaded drop from League Two the previous season with a final-day win over Boston when Brian Carey was in The Racecourse hotseat, felt the pain more than others.

The Wrexham-born midfielder had been relegated to the fifth tier with his hometown club and it was hard to take.

"I never really played much that season because of my back," said Williams. "I think I played around 10-12 games but I came back towards the end of the season.

"It was an awful feeling when we were relegated and it was hard to take. It was horrible.

"I am not giving it the home-town club thing but it's not the same for players who don't know about Wrexham and the history of the club, and where the club has been.

"It was definitely my worst moment in football. You get over it but it was hard considering the team we had at Wrexham when I first joined and we beat the likes of Middlesbrough.

"When I came back for a second time we had a decent team but players never got replaced and we ended up being relegated."

Wrexham parted company with manager Denis Smith in January 2007 and appointed first team coach Carey as his successor.

After staying up with a 3-1 success in the winner-takes-all clash with Boston, the Reds again struggled in the 2007-08 campaign and Carey was replaced by Little in November.

Results did not improve in the coming months and the inevitable relegation followed with four games to go, and Williams felt poor managerial decisions after Smith was relieved of his duties cost the club.

"I think the end was when they sacked Denis because they never really replaced him," said Williams.

"Brian was a great bloke but he was not experienced and it is different when you are managing a club in the Football League.

"And as an inexperienced manager, it is the calibre of players that you are able to get in."

Little was far more experienced than Carey, managing in the Premier League with Leicester City and Aston Villa, but his arrival failed to have the desired effect.

A total of 39 players were used during Wrexham's relegation season and Williams says a lot of those brought in were not up to scratch.

"It was going downhill after we stayed up; players were leaving but they weren't getting replaced and we didn't have the calibre of players we needed," said Williams.

"I don't think we would have won the League of Wales, it was a poor team.

"Brian Little did not care. I used to speak to him a lot as I was out injured and you could tell he was not bothered.

"It was hard watching it when I was out and it is probably just as hard watching now.

"Trying to find that next win, even that next draw, it was tough."

Former Liverpool trainee Williams joined Wrexham in March 1999 and after leaving two years later, returned to The Racecourse in the summer of 2004.

Although plagued by a back injury during his four year spell which ended following relegation, Williams helped Smith's side win the 2005 Football League Trophy at The Millennium Stadium during a turbulent season which also saw the Reds deduced 10 points for going into administration.

The highs and lows of this that campaign summed up a rocky period in Wrexham's history.

But although survival following the never-to-be-forgotten win against Boston was a success of sorts, Williams does not class it as a high point during his Wrexham playing days.

"There are highs and lows all the time with Wrexham," said Williams. "My high was winning the LDV Vans Trophy.

"In League One we were doing alright but then we had the 10 points deduction for going into administration and that was a low because we were relegated.

"I had more lows that highs and a low for me was my back injury but staying up was not a high.

"We should not have been down there in the first case."

Wrexham's 12th season in the National League has not gone to plan and Dean Keates' side are currently 20th in the standings, just two points above the bottom four with 16 games remaining.

Inconsistency has been a huge problem and the players were booed off at the end of last Saturday's 2-1 defeat against fellow strugglers Aldershot Town who could have won by a bigger scoreline.

Williams admits he did not expect to see his former club, beaten in the play-off eliminator tie by Eastleigh last season, to be in this position fighting to avoid relegation.

"I have not been to see Wrexham this season," said Williams.

"You get decent teams in the league but I don't know what the teams are like in the Conference. I imagine that there are some decent teams at the top.

"By all accounts, Wrexham have got a decent squad on paper and I am surprised to see them in that position.

"Dean has steadied the ship a little bit but when you are down there and losing, it is hard."

Williams is confident that Keates, who is looking to bolster his squad in the January transfer window to give the relegation battle a boost, can lead Wrexham away from trouble.

"I can't see them being relegated, I can't see it happening," said Williams. "I think they have got enough to stay up."

Whether Wrexham reach safety or not, Williams feels there are underlying issues at the club that need resolving ahead of the 2020-21 season.

While no-one can knock the fan owned model and volunteers giving up their time for nothing, Williams says there is not enough people with "football knowledge" running the club, although he welcomed the recent addition of Racecourse legend Dixie McNeil to the club's board of directors.

"It is what they do the next season," added Williams.

"Wrexham have been there or thereabouts the last couple of seasons and to fall as low as they have, something is wrong somewhere.

"The main thing for me is that the people running the club are business-people but you have got to have football knowledge.

"Dixie McNeil coming onto the board means there is some football knowledge there and he is a decent bloke, but there are not many of them."