THE massive clashes just keep coming. Drawing Shrewsbury in the cup is nothing short of immense.

This fixture has the potential to be terrifically cathartic.

In 2008, when we plummeted out of the Football League, the trauma was numbed by the inevitability of it all; we never really looked capable of rallying as we did the previous season and stringing together the results necessary for survival.

That final whistle at Hereford wasn’t a painful moment, as it merely confirmed the inevitable relegation which had been coming all season. Instead, it was more of a moment for morose reflection.

Instead, the real punch in the stomach amidst the slide into the National League came at Shrewsbury.

We might have been resigned to the fact that we were doomed, but we turned up en masse at Shrewsbury in the hope of seeing a bit of spirit from our team.

There were honourable exceptions – Neil Roberts’ fury at some of his team-mates is well documented – but overall, we produced an awful display and were flattered by the 3-0 scoreline.

With five games left of the previous season we’d spoiled The Shrews’ farewell party at Gay Meadow, snatching a 1-0 victory in the penultimate game at their ancient, beloved stadium.

Our first match at their new ground also came five matches from the end of the campaign and was the emotional counterpoint to that victory. It hurt much more than any other loss as we stumbled into 15 years in the National League.

I don’t want to get too carried away with the idea of emphatically wiping that memory out on Sunday.

Let’s not forget that we’re the lower division team here. Shrewsbury put three goals past our arch-rivals, Notts County, on their own patch to reach this stage and they put an emphatic full stop to a run of poor results with a 3-1 win over Fleetwood on New Year’s Day.

We are the underdogs, but didn’t our own New Year’s Day match show that we have an unquenchable appetite for the remarkable?

Three goals in injury time are incredible enough, although the amount of time added on was, admittedly, enormous. The context of those goals was what made them so astonishing.

Barrow got their game plan spot-on, and grabbed a ludicrously early goal which their much-vaunted defence was able to defend. There’d been no sign that we were about to launch a comeback as their back five held firm and then suddenly – Bang. Bang, Bang – we scored three goals in less than five minutes.

How did we do it? A combination of self-belief, indefatigable spirit and quality.

This team believes it can do incredible things. It believes because it’s done it before, over and over. It believes because the incomparable support they get from the stands makes them believe.

With such vociferous fans willing them on, and a record of heroic, impossible fight-backs, it’s easy to see why this Wrexham side feels it’s never beaten.

And then there’s the quality. Barrow’s biggest mistake was to come up against players like Steven Fletcher and Paul Mullin. Given a sniff of a chance to strike, they decisively took the game away from the visitors.

I’ve always felt that Fletcher didn’t arrive in the same circumstances as signings like Glen Little, who was restricted to dazzling cameos off the bench.

Fletcher played a full season last year, and with his lack of a pre-season and a niggling knee injury hopefully addressed, he could become the embodiment of the January cliche “like a new signing”.

He’s shown since arriving that he’s too good for League Two. If we are able to enjoy his services for the rest of the season, our opponents will have a major problem on their hands.

There are few players who can change a game, and at this level Fletcher is as good as they come.

Whether we use him at Shrewsbury or not is a moot point. Parkinson has faith in his squad, and isn’t scared of rotating, even when the opposition are formidable.

Remember, he switched his team around at both Coventry and Sheffield United last season, and they performed for him. Whatever side he selects on Sunday, it will be one he has faith in to do the job.

Remember that combination of self-belief, indefatigable spirit and quality? It’s a formidable mix, and it’s why we have a chance of wiping out the memory of our previous game at Shrewsbury.

It’s the mix Neil Roberts had on the pitch, and why we will, at the very least, go to The Shrews’ new home and put up a fight for the first time.