GOOD news has been in short supply at the Racecourse during the season just gone but following Swansea's automatic promotion at the weekend at least Wrexham manager Denis Smith won't have to re-arrange his holidays to accommodate an FAW Premier Cup final at the end of the month.
And you'd imagine he wouldn't need to lift his players for Wednesday's last-ever match at the Vetch Field as the Dragons bid for further success in a competition that has been hugely beneficial to them over the years.
The prospect of £100,000 in prize money, together with a 50% share of the gate receipts from what should be virtually a full house, is a financial boost not to be sniffed at. Yet, if Saturday's Racecourse League One farewell is any guide, Smith is facing an uphill task to extract one more performance from a team that looks to be running on empty.
His hopes of sending the club's supporters away for the summer in optimistic mood came crashing down on another disappointing day at the office when - as he pointed out afterwards - too many of his players had their minds on other things.
Their post-match salute to the second-largest crowd of the campaign spoke volumes, with player of the season Andy Holt struggling to find anyone willing to share the scarcely onerous burden of showing off the LDV Vans Trophy, and the body language of Carlos Edwards and Steve Roberts, in particular, suggesting they possibly won't be around in August.
But Wrexham - and the popular Holt - will be sticking around for another 12 months at least as a result of the reprieve announced earlier in the week by the club's administrator, David Acland. And if the fans needed any reassurance that the club's future is anything but bleak, the presence of nearly 2,000 Huddersfield supporters might be the proof.
It was Acland who steered the Terriers through their recent troubled past that included a spell of five months without any wages being paid until a locally-based businessman, backed to the hilt by the footballing public, came to the rescue.
Acland wants a similar result at Wrexham and has given the Dragons boss the go-ahead to start planning for a fresh start in League Two - which is where Huddersfield were when current manager Peter Jackson came in.
One result short of a place in the League One play-offs after winning promotion this time last year, Huddersfield provide an ideal role model for the troubled Racecourse outfit and their exceedingly comfortable victory on Saturday set a new club record of eight wins and a draw from their last nine outings "It was an excellent performance and I was just disappointed that the run did not come earlier," said Jackson. "The play-offs were there for us but the run did not come together as soon as we would have liked.
"I thought we dominated the game in the first half and could have been three or four up at half time. In the second half we soaked up a lot of pressure but never really looked like conceding today."
But it was rarely anything more than a competent display from the visitors as another example of Wrexham's poor home form, as much as the Football League's 10-point deduction, highlighted just why they have struggled since Christmas to win matches at the Racecourse.
Without naming individuals, Smith was openly critical of a performance that lacked cohesion and tempo, the only real passion surfacing in a running battle between skipper Darren Ferguson and Adnan Ahmed, both of whom were booked after a series of repeated skirmishes.
For much of the afternoon, otherwise, it was a powder-puff affair and typical of an end-of-season contest in which nothing was at stake.
Even a much-publicised and preplanned pitch invasion by so-called Wrexham supporters proved to be a damp squib, although the dozen or so individuals who caused the game to be held up for a minute or so could well have heaped more unwanted problems on the club's head.
Fortunately, though, the over-whelming majority of the crowd were focused on demonstrating exactly what the club means to them and the town. They ignored the sort of lack-lustre performance that would normally invite derision and instead issued a defiant message to absentee owner Alex Hamilton who, despite rumours to the contrary, made no attempt to gain access to the ground.
Having said that, his presence would have undoubtedly spiced up the action, which almost got off to an explosive start with Ahmed's off-target shot just 40 seconds into the game.
Huddersfield keeper Paul Rachubka made his first and only meaningful save in the fifth minute, turning an Edwards long-range effort over the crossbar. Defender Michael Collins was slightly fortunate not to concede a 15th-minute penalty when he handled a Matt Crowell cross from the right.
Wrexham's one real moment of flair came after 21 minutes when a slick move involving Dennis Lawrence, Juan Ugarte and Danny Williams put Chris Llewellyn through but the striker slid the ball wide of the goal.
The non-descript contest was only briefly brought to life when the visitors went ahead two minutes before the break. Not for the first time, the home defence was caught napping by a set-piece, Huddersfield's first corner of the game being delivered with precision by Ahmed for David Mirfin to steer a header through the crowd and into the corner of Ben Foster's net.
Llewellyn, who would have written himself into Racecourse folklore had he taken even half the many chances that have come his way during the past two seasons, squandered another opportunity from Holt's 45th-minute pass, beating Rachubka with a tame shot that gave Danny Adams time to get back and clear off the line.
An ear-bashing from Smith during the interval had the desired result insofar as Wrexham's workrate was concerned but the end result was less forthcoming. Five corners to Huddersfield's one reflected the territorial supremacy enjoyed by the Dragons but it was the visitors who went closest, Pawel Abbot seeing his 81st-minute effort rebound off the post.
And a glaring miss by susbstitute Hector Sam in the third minute of added time, when he put an unchallenged header wide of Rachubka's goal, not only summed up Wrexham's afternoon but their season as well.
WREXHAM: Foster; Pejic, Morgan, Lawrence; Edwards, Williams, Ferguson, Crowell (Jones 70), Holt; Ugarte, Llewellyn (Sam 64). Subs: Smith, Bennett, Done. BOOKED: Ferguson.
HUDDERSFIELD : Rachubka; Clarke, Mirfin, Adams (Schofield 82); Holdsworth, Brandon, Ahmed (Fowler 80), McCombe, Collins; Abbott, Booth (McAliskey 71). Subs: Senior, Mendes.
BOOKED : Abbott, Ahmed.
REFEREE : Lee Probert
ATT: 7,151
NEXT MATCH : Swansea, FAW Premier Cup final, Vetch Field, Wed, 7pm.
* MAN OF THE MATCH ... Dennis Lawrence
* Defied injury to play, big-hearted and gave everything.
