SHAUN PEARSON has reflected on Wrexham’s nightmare 2019/20 National League season - revealing genuine survival concerns when the Reds were rock-bottom heading into December.

A 2-1 away defeat at the hands of Ebbsfleet on Saturday, November 30, saw the Reds replace their fellow strugglers at the foot of the National League.

It marked Wrexham’s worst-ever position in their 155-year history and prompted the club to issue a statement, that read: “The Wrexham Supporters Trust, football club board, manager and players of Wrexham AFC want to apologise to you regarding the position we currently occupy in the National League.”

From reaching the play-offs just seven months earlier, Wrexham had picked up just 20 points from their opening 23 games to leave them in real trouble.

“I didn’t see it coming,” said Pearson as he tried to sum up the season, which was brought to an immediate end by the National League last week as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Hopefully lessons have been learned and we can move forward.”

The National League are yet to decide how best to finish the current campaign with null and void and using a points-per-game system for the outstanding fixtures up for discussion.

With Wrexham out of the drop zone out of the drop zone by a point it means the Reds will have avoided an unthinkable relegation to National League North.

“We’ve finished where we’ve finished,” continued Pearson. “At the halfway stage we were bottom of the league with 20 points.

“We were about to go to Eastleigh having been beaten by Ebbsfleet and I looked around and I wasn’t sure we had it in us to get out of the situation we were in.

“We were clearly in trouble.”

Wrexham were five points adrift of safety, but a run of three wins in four matches, starting with a 2-0 win at Eastleigh, heralded the start of an improved run of form.

When the league was brought to an early end Wrexham had taken 23 points from their 14 games since the halfway stage, winning seven.

And while Pearson isn’t proud of Wrexham’s campaign as a whole, he does feel that upturn in results - and the impact of boss Dean Keates - deserves highlighting.

“Credit must go to the manager,” said Pearson of Keates, who returned to The Racecourse for a second spell in charge in early October. “He helped the mentality of the group and gave it confidence.

“Because of the size of the club I don’t think what he’s achieved gets the credit it deserves. There have been big clubs, like Stockport and York, who have been relegated.”

Asked what Keates has done to turn things around since returning to the hotseat, Pearson continued: “He’s got obvious strengths and his recruitment has been very good.

“He has a way of playing that means we can keep clean sheets regularly, and that means you only need one goal at the other end.

“Last time he was here it was 4-4-2, but we’ve played 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 and we’ve played some good stuff, you only have to look at the wins against Woking and Harrogate for examples of that.”