While Accrington’s visit to the STōK Cae Ras represents another important step in the quest for back-to-back promotions, it’s Sunday’s game at Flint which deserves to be the focus of attention this weekend.

Steve Dale’s side take on The New Saints in the semi-final of the Welsh Women’s Cup in a game which evokes memories of days gone by for the football club.

The relationship between Wrexham and Welsh football is profound, but since football got itself properly organised with the expansion of the Football League beyond the top division, that bond has been gradually undermined.

We’ve not played in a Welsh league since 1896, although it should be understood that, although it was called “The Welsh League”, it certainly wasn’t what it said on the tin. It was a Wrexham area league: our most distant opponents were Chirk!

We played in the competition before looking for opposition further afield, which is quite understandable. As the game rapidly grew, we needed serious competition or we’d be left behind. We played for two seasons in the Welsh League, won it both times, and in total won 21 of our 28 games in the competition, losing twice.

The Football Association of Wales didn’t organise a national league until 1992, anyway, and with travel between north and south even more challenging than it is now, it’s no surprise that ambitious Welsh teams looked east for challenges.

Being a border town, we’d always had links with teams and competitions from over the border.

The Welsh Cup ran like a rich thread through our seasons, though, offering a reminder that Wrexham was the cradle of football in Wales, played a massive role in the game’s early development, and is still the throbbing Welsh heart of the game: there’s little rugby up here to distract us from the serious stuff!

Wrexham reigned supreme in the competition, and still do.

Despite not being allowed to contest the cup since 1995 (with one bizarre interlude which doesn’t deserve consideration), we are still the side which has won it the most times.

It’ll be a long time before TNS overtake us, as they’re 14 wins behind us, and a whopping 31 final appearances in arrears!

We won the first final, and The Racecourse played host to nine finals in a row soon afterwards. The 1888 final was even played on a field off Chester Road!

Sides in the English league pyramid were expelled from the Welsh Cup 29 years ago, but its importance was undiminished. Anyone who remembers that memorable day, when we beat Cardiff magnificently at the Arms Park in the last final we were allowed to contest, will vouch for that.

Our excellence of the FAW’s competitions even continued after we were removed from the Welsh Cup!

It didn’t take long, two years to be precise, for the FAW to realise that they’d thrown the baby out with the bath water when they expelled us, Cardiff, Swansea et al from their competitions, and they tried to claw us back in.

The vehicle for this was the FAW Invitational Cup, renamed the Welsh Premier Cup after one season, which threw the prodigal sons in with the best of the League of Wales in what was initially a bloated competition, created to also fill some gaps in BBC Wales’ schedule.

And, of course, we dominated that too.

We won it five times in the first seven years of its brief existence, failing to reach the final just once in the first nine editions.

The women’s team already does a fine job flying our flag in national competition, having torn through the second division of the Welsh league set-up and made a huge impact on the top tier. They’re doing a wonderful job of honouring the club’s proud heritage in the Welsh game, and their intention is to go on to make an even greater impact as time goes on.

It won’t be easy, as Cardiff and Swansea both have head starts over us in terms of their integration with the facilities of their respective clubs. But that hasn’t put off Wrexham from having a good go at them in the past, and this Wrexham women’s team isn’t short of fight.

They have a spirit and quality to recreate days like the Gary Bennett-inspired Welsh Cup final of 1995. They’ll have to overcome TNS in a fascinating derby semi-final first, but this side is as capable as the men’s team of making wonderful memories.

It feels appropriate that, two days after Saint David’s Day, Wrexham AFC Women will uphold a proud tradition: our quest for Welsh trophies.