I CAN’T imagine it’s fun to play against Wrexham if you’re a defender.

For starters, you’ve got Paul Mullin to deal with, and we all know that he’s got that movement–finishing–genius thing going on.

We also have Sam Dalby, a mobile physical presence with a penchant for smashing the ball into the roof of the net, and Ollie Palmer, who will physically grind you down and dominate in the air.

Sometimes it can be a challenge to make the most of having three strikers in your squad. Especially when you have a player like Mullin, who is a guaranteed starter as long as he is fit.

How Phil Parkinson has juggled his attacking options has been interesting as he’s sought to make the most of his resources

Palmer, of course, was signed as one of the final pieces of the jigsaw in Phil Parkinson’s first attempt to fashion a title winning side in the National League.

We might not have won the title, but Palmer certainly delivered on his part of the bargain, becoming a prolific foil for Mullin.

The following season, Dalby arrived as a youthful apprentice to the strikers. He had to wait his turn before getting a chance to start, his first 10 Wrexham appearances coming off the bench, and it wasn’t until late September that he notched his first goal for us in the thrashing of Torquay United.

Dalby improved as the season went on, and despite not managing back-to-back league starts until February (he scored in both games, naturally!) and setting a club record for most substitute in a season, he ended the campaign in the first team, as we finally made it out of the National League.

He showed that he could perform against high quality opposition like Coventry City, and could rise to the big occasion to boot. Palmer was going through a challenging time as his form wavered. By the end of last season, Dalby clearly seemed to be first choice alongside Mullin.

In the absence of Mullin, he was afforded the chance to cement his place in the first eleven on the opening day of the season, when he was chosen ahead of Palmer, to partner Billy Waters up front against MK Dons.

It didn’t work out though. Whether the blame for the failure of that partnership lay with the strikers or with a lack of good support and supply, the fact is that both were withdrawn on the hour. At that point Wrexham, invigorated by Palmer, started to look dangerous.

Palmer had enjoyed an excellent pre-season and carried his excellent form into the start of the campaign.

That performance off the bench meant he leap-frogged Dalby in the pecking order, and it took a while for the young forward to find his form. In and out of the team, he suffered a frustrating time.

However, the EFL Trophy offered him a way to get some first team minutes and attempt to get his rhythm going again.

His performances in that competition led to him getting another chance in the league. Both Palmer and Dalby have shown real quality this season, but neither has quite managed to nail down that spot alongside Mullin definitively. To be fair, this partly is because both of them are too good to be left out of the starting eleven for any length of time. Parkinson’s rotation of the pair has helped to keep them both on their toes.

When Stephen Fletcher has recovered from surgery, we’ll have an impressive array of attacking talent at our disposal; so impressive, in fact, we might be able to enjoy the luxury of loaning out Jake Bickerstaff in the second half of the season despite his impressive development this season.

Our well-stocked forward line has been prolific in the latter stages of games, and late goals have helped us out quite a bit in our most recent clashes with Colchester United.

We last played them in the 2004-05 season, and benefitted from 90th minute goals in each match. The home game saw all the scoring in the second half: Lee Jones gave us the lead, but we needed a last gasp goal from Hector Sam to earn a 2-2 draw.

Neil Roberts scored early in the second period at Layer Road and the game looked destined to finish in a 1-1 draw too, but Chris Llewellyn snatched the winner in the dying embers of the match.

Overall the fixture, which goes back to 1947, is well balanced: Wrexham have enjoyed 18 wins from 52 matches, while The Us have won 19.