IT may be 30 years ago but Andy Preece remembers it well, the day he signed for Wrexham.

“There’s a few things you don’t remember about your time in football but I vividly remember the first day I came to Wrexham,” said Preece.

“I didn’t have a car at the time so I came on the train and I remember getting off at the railway station and walking to the ground.

“That was my path to a professional career and I’ll never forget the massive opportunity that Brian Flynn gave me.”

Preece had impressed Flynn in a Welsh Cup tie while playing against the Reds for Worcester and had been invited up to The Racecourse.

“I’d had a good game at St George’s Lane and I think I scored and Brian asked me to go to Wrexham. There were a lot of good young players coming through into the team like Gareth Owen, Waynne Phillips, Phil Hardy and Chris Armstrong,” he said.

“But I was hardly experienced coming into that team. I was only a tiny bit older that those younger players and the club was struggling.

“I had my good runs in the team but up and down is probably the best way to describe my time at Wrexham. But it was a huge experience and one I always look back on fondly.

“There were some good people at Wrexham. Joey Jones was brilliant with me as was Kevin Reeves. Both internationals with loads of advice to pass on.

“But I lost my place to Steve Watkin - another of the young players coming through - and then Stockport County came in for me and Danny Bergara paid £10,000 for me.

“Confidence is a big thing in football and it helped that I scored just 20 minutes into my Stockport debut at Swansea and never looked back after that.

“I think I’d scored about 13 goals in 50-odd games for Wrexham but at Stockport, it was one every other game.

“Stockport were flying at the time and we had some really good players.”

Wrexham had given Preece a good grounding on his first steps in professional football while Stockport will always bring back good memories for Preece.

The two sides will meet in the National League on Monday and Preece just hopes that both sides will experience better times in the future.

“It’s sad to see where they both are but with new owners at both clubs, the signs looks positive,” said Preece. “Stockport are stabilising after drifting even further down than Wrexham while Wrexham’s new owners will certainly get things moving.

“They’ve brought in valuable experience already and look to have their fingers on the pulse.”

Preece, 53, is also now operating at non-league level and is Director of Football and assistant boss at National League North outfit, Chorley, who have a cracker of an FA Cup tie to look forward to in the New Year - Derby County at home in the third round.

And the FA Cup brings back marvellous memories for Preece, who left Wrexham just weeks before their great giant-killing act against Arsenal in 1992.

“I scored the winner against QPR in the FA Cup in 1994 and QPR were top six then,” added Preece. “It was a great day. The stadium was packed out.

“QPR had Trevor Sinclair, Ray Wilkins, Les Ferdinand and Andy Sinton playing for them. It was a shock to beat them,

“It was one of the best goals I’ve ever scored and it almost definitely got my move to Crystal Palace.

“In those days everyone would watch Match of The Day - there wasn’t all the channels available like there are now to watch football.

“The FA Cup is a great competition. It can change the fortunes of clubs and players and I’m sure Alan Smith talked to Ray Wilkins before he paid out £350,000 for me. I made Stockport a nice profit considering they only bought me for £10,000.”

Preece would team up with his former Wrexham strike partner and best pal Chris Armstrong at Selhurst Park.

Four goals in his first seven games continued his upward curve but Preece’s good time at the Palace was short-lived as he was sold off to Blackpool for £200,000 in 1995. Successful spells continued at Bloomfield Road, then at Bury where he became player-boss before ending his Football League playing career at Carlisle United.

His coaching and managerial stints have seen him return to where it all started at Worcester and in the Welsh Premier League with Airbus.