Boxing Day 1998 and it's 17th against 12th in the old Division Two, the third tier of English league football.
Just over 9,000 fans are at Wrexham's Racecourse Ground for the visit of Manchester City, who have brought 2,700 fans of their own for the midday kick-off.
Those City supporters were watching a team at the lowest period in the club's history, somewhat marooned in the third tier and just five points above Wrexham coming into this game, but they went back to Manchester happy thanks to a solitary goal from defender Gerard Wiekens, who headed home a corner in front of the packed away end.
Fast forward 10 years, and Wrexham and Manchester City, peers on that chilly Boxing Day lunchtime, could scarcely have been further away from each other.
City were being taken over by their current Abu Dhabi owners, and Wrexham were being relegated from the Football League for the first time in 87 years.
Ten years after one of the lowest points in City's history came one of the lowest in Wrexham's, and the two clubs have remained on a steadfastly different trajectory in the 15 years ever since.
Until now.
Wrexham's return to the Football League would have been decent sized news whenever it happened - and it was likely to eventually happen regardless of the torturous process that is required to get out of a league that bafflingly only lets one go up automatically.
It would have made *some* headlines. Football fans would have nodded their heads and remembered that this is a storied club, the third oldest professional one in the world and a club capable of impressive feats. In 1992, when bottom of the fourth division, they knocked Arsenal, who were top of the first, out of the FA Cup.
But the exposure the club and area have been given since the takeover from Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds in February 2021 means that this promotion will be celebrated worldwide.
Wrexham and north east Wales, and area lied to by Brexit campaigners and frequently left behind by those who are supposed to lead us, are feeling the benefit as tourism and interest booms.
This promotion to the Football League, confirmed on Saturday, is only going to see that increase. The next series of the impressive 'Welcome to Wrexham' has its happy ending.
But these owners have been at pains to point out that this is not the end. It is nowhere near.
Whereas 25 years ago Wrexham were taking on Manchester City in the third tier of pyramid, this summer they will play money-spinning friendlies against Chelsea in North Carolina and Manchester United in San Diego.
Both will be stellar occasions and allow Reynolds and McElhenney to invite a greater galaxy of Hollywood stars to those that are willing to hop over to north east Wales at short notice to take in a game against Solihull Moors.
But the sense is that Wrexham and their owners won't stop until they are playing Chelsea, United and City in the Premier League.
That is easier said than done of course, and would no doubt require time and a lot more money than Reynolds and McElhenney will be able to personally invest, but the magnetic duo have contacts, and when contacts meet ambition then anything is possible.
For now though there is just promotion, and joy at returning to a status that the club used to take for granted.
At a time when clubs low down the pyramid are fighting for their very futures then nothing is for certain of course, and there are plenty at those clubs who will point to Wrexham's good fortune at being the outfit that Reynolds and McElhenney ultimately decided upon, because it could have been others.
The worldwide interest in what they'll do next is sure to be enormous, and there could well be a few more well-known names joining Ben Foster in next season's League Two squad if the 40-year-old goalkeeper decides to stay on at the club.
However, some of Wrexham's current stars, including Paul Mullin and Ben Tozer, turned their backs on League One football in order to join the project that was unfolding in north east Wales, so the step up to a new level isn't likely to faze them one bit.
The club are likely to embrace it too, and we already know that the owners will.
Welcome to the Football League. This Wrexham story is only just getting started.
