'It's not just Wrexham - half a country need a fully-functioning stadium again'

On April 30, 1985, Mark Hughes defied gravity to volley in one of the most iconic goals Wales has ever seen. It was in front of 23,494 people in Wrexham - the hot bed of Welsh football - and led to a famous win against the football powerhouse of Spain.

The crowd was packed with youngsters with questionable fashion sense but sure of one thing - North Wales was the place to be for football. If you'd have told them a few decades later Wales would no longer use the stadium or even the region, that the Kop they were standing in - as their fathers had before them - would be shut and that Wrexham as a club wouldn't even be in the league they simply wouldn't believe you.

Now, nearly 40 years later, watching top-class international football in Wales involves a laborious four-hour trip to Cardiff. Roads are impenetrable. Packed trains can't cope. You can't take your kids as it's invariably on school nights and you can't even see the games on free-to-air TV.

Yet we love the game, founded in Wales just a few miles from the Racecourse, more than ever. Some will say it's progress, that the population centres of the south now embrace the game like never before and we have to relinquish our rights.

But it doesn't need to be like this. We all know the Kop needs rebuilding - and now, finally, we can help achieve it.

Today North Wales Live backs a campaign to help build a new stand to take the Racecourse back to its former glory and make it a true 'Stadium of the North'. Not just for Wrexham, but for half a country who need a stadium to become a fully-functioning one again.

The project needs your help. Signing a declaration of interest will show the UK Government you think the Kop development - part of the wider Gateway project to