Wrexham’s start to life in League One shows they are on track to challenge for promotion – and leave an exclusive club to start their own.
Only a handful of sides have the distinction of winning back-to-back promotions, as Wrexham managed in jumping from the National League to the third tier last season.
But no other club has earned three promotions in a row in English football’s professional game.
That’s the prospect Phil Parkinson’s side face if they can keep up the form shown over their first ten games in their return to this level for the first time in 19 years.
Making the leap from League Two to the Championship isn’t unheard of with five sides having completed the feat since the millennium.
They include two teams who went on to eventually reach the top-flight. They include Brighton in 2000-2002 under Micky Adams and Peter Taylor, and Luton Town – who had earlier won promotion from the National League at the expense of Wrexham – under the stewardship of Nathan Jones and Mick Harford.
Former Wrexham captain Darren Ferguson managed it with Peterborough between 2007 and 2009, as did Burton under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Nigel Clough in 2014-2016, the Brewers another side who had previously gone up from the fifth tier.
And current League One rivals Rotherham have pulled it off twice, first in 1999-2001 under Ronnie Moore and then again between 2012 and 2014 under Steve Evans who is now back at the club for a second spell with the Millers.
Wrexham’s current tally of 20 points after ten games stacks up well against the most recent teams to go from fourth to second tier, although lag behind Luton who amassed an incredible 28 points from the first 30 on offer before going on to win the title with 98 points, 12 ahead of their nearest rivals.
Burton were only two points better off than Wrexham on their way to a second-placed finish in 2016, while Rotherham (19) and Peterborough (17) were both behind Parkinson’s points return to date, Posh going up automatically behind future Premier League champions Leicester and Rotherham going up via the play-offs.
Of course, such numbers will mean little to Parkinson and his composed managerial style which has served the Dragons more than well during his time at the Racecourse.
But it does show – if the table did not already – that Wrexham should already be taken seriously as challengers as they back up James McClean’s claim that they are “more than a match” for their League rivals.
And if they do, they would not only emulate Swansea City’s successive climb from fourth tier to second under John Toshack, but stand alone as back-to-back-to-back promotion specialists.