Little puts best foot forward in bid to satisfy Wrexham's desire for rapid return to League football

That was not necessarily the case a few years ago when the oldest professional club in Wales went into administration and almost out of business. Tuesday's defeat at Hereford may have ended Wrexham's 87-year stay in the Football League, but Little has plenty of reasons to be optimistic he can bring them back up - just as he did with Darlington at the first attempt two decades ago.

"To be honest, I had the same taste in my mouth on Tuesday as I did then at Darlington," said Little, who took over in November with the club already facing an uphill battle. "I'm fired up enough to get it right. It will be more difficult this time, but I hope I can do it."

The board agree, judging by the new two-year deal they have offered the former Aston Villa and Leicester boss to haul Wrexham out of the Blue Square Premier Division. Little, 54, will not need to be told to go if he fails.

"Someone will get it right sooner or later," he added. "I get the first stab but I won't stand in someone else's way if it's not right. I owe that to the club."

As Wrexham's plight worsened, Little and his staff began watching Blue Square Premier games with one eye on next season, and he admits non-league's top-six are at least a match for his current squad.

But he has promised to be ruthless in his rebuilding work this summer, and points to Wrexham's strong ownership, youth policy, training facilities and fan base as reasons why it is not all doom and gloom. Like he says, it's only the team.

Off the pitch, plans are underway to redevelop the Kop end of the Racecourse Ground and turn it into what the local council have rather grandly described as "the Millennium Stadium of the north", and chairman Neville Dickens - who succeeded Alex Hamilton two years ago following a turbulent spell that saw the High Court order the former owner to hand back the ground - hopes to build a hotel on the site vacated by one of his car showrooms.

"We're a little bit battered and bruised but the most important thing is that a club which almost went out of existence a couple of years back is now very solid behind the scenes," added Little.

"Hopefully the team has gone as low as it possibly can, and it can bounce back as well."

After winning re-election to the Football League in 1966, finishing rock bottom in 1991 when there was no relegation, and surviving at Boston's expense on the final day last season, it was perhaps inevitable that Wrexham would take the fall one day.

Their loyal supporters now hope they can follow in the footsteps of clubs like Colchester, Carlisle, Doncaster and - most recently - Aldershot in coming back even stronger.

But with Cardiff on their way to an FA Cup Final, it is still a bitter pill to swallow for a club which enjoyed its greatest era in the 1970s with players like Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Dai Davies and Dixie McNeil, as well as earning a reputation for cup upsets.

Peter Jones, Wrexham's official historian and a fan for 40 years, has been around long enough to have seen not only the famous 2-1 FA Cup win over Arsenal in 1992, but the European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final against Anderlecht in 1976 as well.

"We want those days back," said Jones. "It's hard seeing the games and places we have to visit next season, and look forward to the delights of Histon and Stevenage Borough.

"Going down is not what we wanted but I was sat in a board meeting of the Wrexham Supporters Trust three years ago when we discussed setting up a new team like AFC Wimbledon because we thought we'd lost the club.

"Now everything is geared to going forward and we have to be positive."