A YEAR ago Wrexham were top of the National League table and heading down to Leyton Orient for what many were billing as a title-decider.

The Reds had rookie boss Bryan Hughes working wonders after the Sam Ricketts and Graham Barrow pre-and-post Christmas pantomime, and the dream of returning to the Football League’s promised land looked a real possibility.

All eyes were on Wrexham - the TV cameras were there - and so were the Reds fans, who once again travelled in big numbers to Brisbane Road.

But all the hopes went west in the East End of London that day as Wrexham lost top spot before suffering more play-off heartache with a 1-0 home defeat to Eastleigh in their aptly-named Racecourse eliminator.

The failure to create and score goals again proved their downfall but fans were sticking by Hughes - Wrexham’s first and last £1 million player-turned manager - as the start to the season was encouraging. They beat Barrow - the current league leaders - on the opening day. Remember that?

Despite taking a fantastic following of 1,600 to Notts County in mid-August, the supporters were starting to ask questions and more importantly where the goals were going to come from again.

Wrexham’s tactical ethos of the last few seasons has been based on the defence but keeping record numbers of clean sheets just didn’t wash with most fans.

Hughes, to be fair to him, tried to change that. But it came at a price. Wrexham were leaking goals - a 3-2 defeat at free-falling AFC Fylde in September the final straw for the axe-wielding board of directors.

But who would they turn to next in a bid to revive the Reds’ fortunes?

A lot of fans didn’t want him but Dean Keates, who had walked out on Wrexham 18 months previously to understandably take charge of his hometown-club Walsall, was the ‘only choice’ according to Reds legend Dixie McNeil, who was given the job of heralding in the return of the managerial Messiah.

Hughes’ record after that title decider at Orient was not good with just seven wins from 23 games. The 11th defeat at Fylde signalled his end.

It’s hardly been breathtaking since Keates came back in with Wrexham winning eight of the 22 league games since he returned at the start of October.

Wrexham have drawn four of those matches and suffered 10 defeats, one of which saw the Reds suffer a new low on November 30 when the 2-1 defeat at fellow strugglers Ebbsfleet saw the Racecourse outfit slip to the bottom of the National League - the club’s lowest ever league position.

Keates’ only task was to keep Wrexham up and he’ll probably just about do that - especially if only three clubs are relegated at the end of the season.

But his style of football is not one for the purist - and those who had to endure Saturday’s dullest of goal-less draws at home to Eastleigh will vouch for that.

Entertainment is the name of the game but at this critical stage of the season, points do matter more than performances.

Get this season out of the way and then comes the time for massive changes in the summer.