Jake Lawlor believes Wrexham must learn to deal with the fact sides will “up their game” against the Dragons as they continue to challenge at the top end of the National League.
Wrexham head into the weekend in second place in the fifth tier, four points adrift of leaders Leyton Orient but with a game in hand, after claiming six from a possible nine points over the festive period.
The Dragons entertain a resurgent Dover Athletic on Saturday before heading to Bromley on Tuesday for their outstanding fixture, knowing successive victories could see them overhaul the Os at the top.
Wrexham will be desperate to bounce back following their New Year’s Day 2-0 defeat at fellow promotion hopefuls Salford City, and Lawlor says the Dragons must be wary of the threat from Andy Hessenthaler’s outfit.
Dover looked all but dead and buried in the early part of the season, the Whites, who lost 1-0 at home to the Dragons on the opening day of the season, claiming only four points from their first eight games to languish in the bottom four.
Chris Kinnear, who was in his second spell in charge at the Crabble Athletic Ground, was subsequently sacked with the club in 23rd place after 14 matches, and replaced by Hessenthaler, who has masterminded a resurgence in form to see the Whites up to 18th place and three points clear of the drop zone.
“Every game you go into it is tough, but every game we go into we expect to beat them,” said the centre-half.
“Every game they will want to beat us, teams will up their game against top teams, but we don’t fear anyone and we will go back to playing our game and hopefully get the win.”
Wrexham missed out on the chance to make it a perfect start to the New Year as they went down to a 2-0 loss at Moor Lane.
The Dragons headed into the New Year’s Day contest on the back of successive home wins over Salford (5-1 on Boxing Day) and Solihull Moors (1-0 on Saturday).
Lawlor was taking positives from the festive period, and says the respect shown to the Dragons in the return clash at Salford on New Year’s Day highlights the quality within the squad.
Lawlor added: “I think we’d have taken six points from the three games.
“I think we’ve got to take the positives from the three games. On another day something falls for us (at Salford), we had a lot of ball, especially in the second half and they sat off after that first goal and made it difficult for us.
“I think they had to do that (sit deep) because of how well we did on Boxing Day. Every time we went forward and hit them on the counter we looked like we were going to score, so full credit to them, they sat in and made it very difficult for us on New Year’s Day.”
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Saturday’s visit of the Whites is Brad Walker’s final game for the Dragons as his loan from Crewe Alexandra comes to an end.
Manager Graham Barrow has been vocal about his desire to keep Walker at Wrexham beyond his loan spell, while earlier this week he tied up Bobby Grant, who had been at Wrexham on a short term loan from Fleetwood Town, on a permanent deal until the end of the season.
