He is to sign a new two-year extension to his present contract that is up at the end of the season. That could even lead to a third year.

Ferguson - 32 yesterday - has agreed the deal with manager Denis Smith and has now only to put pen to paper. Details are now with Ferguson’s agent, his brother, Jason.

Smith, who has carefully worked out details of the deal, said today to the Evening Leader: “The initial deal is a two-year extension to his present contract, but there is a possibility of that leading to a third year.

“I’m delighted Darren has decided to stay with us. As you say, he is effectively committing himself to Wrexham for the rest of his career. That’s marvellous news for this club.

“The thing is, Darren wants to stay here. He likes it here and he is enjoying playing for the club. He feels as fit as he’s ever done and we have talked this thing through. Darren has got so much to offer. His range of passing is excellent and, as you can see in matches, he’s got marvellous vision of when and where to play those passes.
 

“Also, he’s a winner - and I like that. He likes to win. That may sound a bit silly because people will say all the players here should be winners. But some people will just go that extra yard to win - and Darren is one of those. Another quality he has which I like is he is a leader.

“He speaks his mind which I like very much. He puts his views over whenever we have team talks, or whenever he feels he needs to. It’s important we have got people like that at the club. It shows their true feelings for what they are doing and that’s what I want.”

Ferguson said today to the Evening Leader: “I’m delighted to be staying, but it wasn’t a difficult decision. We sorted things out and once the talks were on we soon reached agreement. It is a big commitment but I’m happy to do that for this club.

“The new deal will effectively take me to the end of possibly my playing career. I was 32 yesterday - I’m getting old! But this new contract has come at an important time to me and my family.

I’ve got two children now and obviously I’ve got a family to think about.
“When this new deal is up I will have been here almost eight years. That’s a long time in football, but this is a good club.

I wouldn’t have agreed to stay if we were just treading water. I feel we are going in the right direction. The gaffer has done particularly well since coming in here. He got us out of the third division and back in the second, and here we are on the verge of making it into the first division.

“I feel these are exciting times for Wrexham Football Club. The gaffer brought in two big name players during the summer in Chris Armstrong and Chris Llewellyn and he’s been very patient.

But they now seem to be doing what he always knew they were capable of and the confidence at the club is very high at the moment.
“The thing is, I’m still ambitious. I want to play in the first division.

It would be great if I achieve that with Wrexham. I know what it means to all the supporters and I’m very happy with the relationship I have with them. I like playing for this club and, given a bit of luck, I feel we can go on from here and really do well this season.”
 

Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, comes to watch his son play for Wrexham whenever he can. He saw him score a memorable FA Cup winner a few seasons ago against Middlesbrough at The Racecourse and has become something of a Wrexham fan since then.