We’ve conceded five in a game before this season, but the Stockport disaster felt different.

I took the MK Dons and Swindon games in my stride as there were plenty of extenuating circumstances.

We were starting a new season, which is always the time when a strong side can lose its equilibrium, we’d only had four pre-season matches to tune up, and, by his own admission, Ben Foster had conceded goals he would have normally expected to save.

This was different, though. Since the Swindon game we’d developed a very solid base and looked a more coherent unit. In the following six games we conceded just three goals, and one of those was the hilarious penalty decision which gifted Bradford City the lead in the League Cup!

We went into the Stockport game, therefore, in mean mood, off the back of the thumping we dished out to Grimsby.

That’s why what followed was so perplexing.

It’s not as if we had a complete power outage from the start either. We looked really good in the first 20 minutes, penning Stockport into their own half and moving the ball around smoothly.

Then they scored, and the sky caved in.

I can’t help feeling that, quite apart from the way Stockport bypassed the successful press our wing-backs were executing against their full backs, the big factor in our defeat was our unwanted ability to concede a wide range of demoralising goals.

We ran the full range of dispiriting disasters:

n An against-the-run-of-play punch in the guts after dominating the first quarter of the game.

n An uncharacteristic individual error.

n A goal just two minutes after the second, which changed a worrying situation into a disastrous one.

n A goal five minutes after we’d reset ourselves at the break, knowing the next goal would be crucial.

n A final minute move which saw one of Stockport’s greatest goal threats wander from the halfway line into the six-yard box without anyone picking him up.

All those psychological blows are bound to add up, even when a side has proven itself to be as resilient as this Wrexham team.

It was a collective malfunction the likes of which we haven’t seen for a long time. The last time we conceded five goals in an away game was back in February 2014, under caretaker manager Billy Barr at Luton.

It must be said that the open, attacking approach which Phil Parkinson has adopted means we’ve conceded five goals in a game three times already this season, to add to the 6-5 against Dover, the 5-4 against Grimsby and the 7-5 against Barnet.

I wouldn’t have it any other way though, as Parkinson’s bold approach has allowed us to make the most of the attacking talent he has accumulated, and led us out of the National League wilderness.

The Stockport game did feel rather different though. While we’d conceded a total of 25 goals in those previous five defensive melt-downs, we’d also scored 25 ourselves. These were toe-to-toe scraps, two went our way and one was a draw.

In contrast, at Stockport we had nothing.

That makes last Saturday feel a little disconcerting. Was it a wake-up call to remind us that our front foot style can leave us open at the back?

I hope not: it’s our unquestioned fire power which makes us fearsome. However, this might be this season’s Barnet moment.

Last season we started the campaign in swashbuckling style, but changed things after the crazy 7-5 win over Barnet.

Clearly Parkinson felt we were taking a few too many chances, and a subtle tweak followed. On the left side of defence Callum McFadzean and Max Cleworth were often given leave to attack down the flank together, leading to devastating overloads when we were attacking, but leaving us wide open on the counter-attack.

The Barnet game saw this tendency exaggerated in both halves, and the outcome was a 13-goal tear-up!

Parkinson reacted decisively. Clearly Cleworth and McFadzean were merely following instructions, and both had been in good form, but Parkinson decided to tighten up that part of the pitch by introducing a far more conservative wide centre back in Jordan Tunnicliffe.

The result? Cleworth didn’t start any of the next 13 league games, although he maintained his good form in cup games, while Blyth Spartans were the only side to score more than once past us in our next 15 games, with Tunnicliffe an ever present.

Parkinson might feel he needs to take another look at the balance of his side after last Saturday. Whether he reconsiders the role our wide central midfielders have in covering our wing back, decides to play an out-and-out defensive midfielder or comes up with something completely different, I’m confident we’ve got the right man on the job.

Parkinson takes charge of his 100th league game as Wrexham manager on Saturday.

He’s the 15th manager to do so, and the 64 wins he’s already accumulated are by far the most any Wrexham manager has managed by the time they reached this landmark.