Theres plenty of points to play for

Wrexham manager Denis Smith today vowed to keep right on to the end of the promotion road.

He said to the Evening Leader: “There will be no let up. In fact, from here on in, I will keep on the case like nothing else. I still believe we can make it but we need one vital ingredient now more than ever - goals. We’ re simply not scoring enough and haven’t been all season. ”

Wrexham are now down to 10th in the table after failing to win any of their last three games. Denis Smiths side failed to score in there two away games to Bristol City and Bournemouth and conceded 7 goals, and that was followed up by dropping two points at home to Rushden and Diamonds with a 1-1 draw.

But Smith said: “I keep saying this, promotion - and relegation - is over a season. Neither of those issues are decided in February or March. That’s why I say we will keep going right to the end and I’m going to keep ramming that into the players from here on in. There are those here whom I don’t need to keep saying it to - but there are some I have to keep working on.”
Centre-back Brian Carey clearly comes into the first category in Smith’s opinion. Carey missed training today because he didn’t feel well. Smith said: “Brian wasn’t fit enough to play on Saturday - but he insisted on playing.

“That’s the sort of lad he is. He wants to play for this club and he wants to get us into the first division. Those are the sort of characters you need at every club.”
Physio Mel Pejic also revealed striker Lee Jones had rang in to say he was also feeling unwell.
Smith said: “We’ll have to see how both are before looking at the side for tomorrow’s game at Oldham. But it’s another big chance for us to get back up there where we need to be. We’re still only three points off the play-off positions so it’s still all to play for. We’ve got a lot of points to shoot for and, believe me, we’re going to go for them.”

The game at Boundary Park is not 100 percent certain of being on because the ground was yesterday unfit to stage a Rugby League Challenge Cup-tie.

Smith said: “I don’t know what the overnight forecast is. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens, but obviously we want the game on. I’d like to get three points sooner rather than later.”
Smith is delighted to include centre-back Dennis Lawrence and skipper, Darren Ferguson back in the squad. They both missed the Rushden game because of one-match suspensions.
 

Smith said: “They’ll both come back into contention which might be just as well in view of what I’ve heard this morning about Brian Carey. I thought Shaun Pejic did okay for us in Dennis’ absence on Saturday, but the decision to go with three up front was obviously a bit of a gamble.
 

“Had we won, it would have been the right decision. Had we lost, it would have been wrong. The fact that we drew, I suppose, makes is half-right! But seriously, we need to start scoring more goals from here until the end of the season if we are to make it.
“We had one really good chance on Saturday but unfortunately it wasn’t taken. We’ve got to start taking those chances if we seriously want to make the play-offs.”
Rushden and Diamonds goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown made a great near-post stop to deny Chris Armstrong, who then clipped the rebound to Chris Llewellyn. That gave Llewellyn a free header and he should have scored. Instead, the ball came back out off the crossbar.