Here, Brighton and Hove Albion fan, and editor of the Evening Leader's sister paper the Denbighshire Free Press, Nic Outterside offers a new perspective – that of an away fan visiting The Racecourse on a day he will never forget: Wrexham v Bristol City, November 20, 2004.

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Brighton fans turned up to show solidarity with the North Walians in a time of extreme crisis as the Dragons faced administration and the prospect of The Racecourse bring sold off.

I am a proud dad of five wonderful children and have attended the birth of all but one of them. I put poetry and music at the top of my list of interests.

From that you can probably gather that I am an emotionally driven person.

But nothing in the past 48 years prepared my sensibilities for our day at The Racecourse on Saturday, November 20, 2004 – a day which was, quite simply, one of the most emotional days of my life . . .

From a personal perspective this day was a culmination of 37 years supporting my beloved Brighton and Hove Albion.

So what of the day?

The journey across Manchester and along the M56 and M53 into Wrexham remained uneventful – only the damned weather seemed to get even worse.

We turned into the capital of North Wales at just past 12.30 and parked the car in a comforting side street of well kept terraced houses some five minutes walk from The Racecourse ground.

Pulling on our stripes and collecting our leaflets, placards and balloons, we opened the car door and stepped on the street.

"It's bloody raining," my then wife Ruth exclaimed "… and freezing cold!"

We carefully wrapped up our small son in layers of winter clothes and set out to find what the day would have in store.

Our band was not complete (where were the rest?) but all the time local people were coming up to us and shaking our hands … and in Nathan's case thrusting handfuls of sweets into his!

We made our way into the impressive and new Pryce Griffiths Stand – usually reserved for home support.

It had now turned 2pm and the ground was beginning to fill (unusually early).

A casual glance around and, among the sea of red, I saw and briefly met a Millwall and a Blackburn Rovers fan – neither of their teams had a game and they said it seemed natural to be here!

While talking to them I glanced and saw a middle-aged man in a Brighton shirt and his son making their way to the other end of the stand – still don't know who they were, but many many thanks for coming and adding to the occasion!

This was an "event" and the ref for the day (even though he later lost his golden labrador and white stick to award Bristol City an unreal penalty) had given the OK for kick-off to be delayed until 3.15pm!

More razzmatazz followed and we all breathed a corporate sigh of relief when the game eventually began.

The half passed in a dash of singing and back-slapping.

The second half seemed to pass even more quickly. News from Withdean was not good (we had lost 1-0). We all wondered how the day had panned out on the Sussex coast. Wrexham, meanwhile, lost 3-1.

But for us, this was a day we would never forget.

Even as we left – most of us a few minutes early to make a start on our long journeys home – and walked down the steps, more of the home support rose to applaud and say farewell. Even back in the car – waiting for the roads to empty – people were knocking on my windscreen and door windows to say "thanks".

This day was all about Wrexham, but I make no apologies for not restating again their case.

This report is a personal perspective for how it felt to a Brighton fan at their party.

It was awesome and I just wish the tens of thousands who pay hundreds of pounds plus a year for their seats at Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal could all have been at The Racecourse and feel for themselves the real heart of football.

Thank you to the people of Wrexham from my heart and good luck for the future!

Have you got a favourite Wrexham FC memory?

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