A GUARANTEED top four spot with two matches left to play, both at home to the bottom two. What an incredible season this has been for Steve Dale’s Wrexham.

Realistically, this was our ambition for the season, but there was plenty of realism before the campaign began. Making the top half was an ambitious target; in truth, consolidation in the division would have been a success.

But under Rob and Ryan, hanging around hasn’t been an option. Obviously, the constant rise in status of our men’s and women’s teams mean we are increasingly likely to hit a level where further swift progress will be difficult: the challenge becomes exponentially more difficult, and there’ll come a point where consolidation will be necessary.

That point hasn’t been reached yet, and the Sunday team continue to exceed expectations. Victory over a combative Aberystwyth Town last Sunday earned that coveted top four slot.

The next challenge, clearly, is to get to the level of the top two.

Cardiff City and Swansea City both have the advantage of years affiliated to a professional set-up. We’re still getting used to the new set-up for the women’s team, which is a good thing: it means we have a lot more potential for growth then the top two.

The second phase of the season will offer us more opportunities to test ourselves against the Southern giants. We’ll face both of them home and away, with an initial target of earning more than the one point out of 12 we collected in the season proper.

It should have been more than that, as our dramatic opening day game against The Swans ended with an equaliser for the visitors deep into added time, despite us having an extra player on the pitch.

We’re fitter and more composed now and would surely not let that lead slip if we got into that position again.

To put the remarkable success of this season into context, consider this: if we are able to finish the first phase of the campaign with home wins over Cardiff Met and Pontypridd, we’ll have done the double over all of the five teams beneath us in the table. Talk about consistent!

Our ruthlessness when playing the teams beneath us is something fans can usually only dream of, but Dale’s side have been flawless.

Even when they were faced with a 2-0 deficit at TNS after 11 minutes, they kept their cool, were level before the break, and gave off a sense that the victory would be inevitable from that point.

Although he doesn’t have a massive squad, Dale has used his resources skilfully: key players like TJ Dickens and Rebecca Pritchard were rested on the bench for that match, coming on to make decisive contributions in the second half.

Our first venture into the phase two play-offs won’t end in a title, although our ambition will be to finish above Swansea.

However, it will be a chance for us to show how we’ve grown and, more importantly, begin the process of building up for a sustained title challenge next season.

Phil Parkinson’s title bid continues on Saturday and we’ve only played at Salford once before, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

We’d beaten them on Boxing Day 2017 in one of the most spectacular performances of the pre-Parkinson National League era. That 5-1 win put us firmly in the frame for a title push, and a bedraggled City side were flattered by the scoreline, only scoring their goal in time added on.

The tables were well and truly turned when we made the return trip three days later. We were put through the wringer as reality hit home.

In contrast to the previous match, Wrexham never really looked to have a cutting edge, despite some tidy build-up play. City grabbed two goals with incisive attacking play and then managed the game really well.

Salford ended their first campaign in the fifth tier with promotion to the Football League while we fell away.

For manager Graham Barrow this was the beginning of the end as his strong start as manager ended and a sequence of defeats led to his shock resignation, making him the shortest-lived permanent manager of Wrexham in the club’s history.