Dean Keates wants Wrexham to banish the memory of an opening day disaster by picking up a first victory at Maidenhead United tonight.

Wrexham began a 10th season in non-league with a disappointing 1-0 defeat at home to Macclesfield Town on Saturday.

“We can’t dwell on it too much,” said Keates. “We will look back at it and learn from it.

“It is not the start we wanted to get off to. There is a lot of optimism around the place and I don’t see why it shouldn’t continue.

“It is early days. It was the first game of the season and we need a reaction down at Maidenhead.”

Keates wants his side to carve out more opportunities at York Road tonight in a bid to get the first points on the board.

“There wasn’t much in the game,” said Keates. “It was a game of hardly any chances and it took the kid to hit one from 30 yards. On another day it doesn’t go in.

“We had decisions that didn’t go our way but ultimately we did not put them under enough pressure, we did not create enough chances. That is something we need to rectify at Maidenhead.

“There was a reaction second half. We were a lot brighter and played on the front foot.

“We pushed them back but the couple of half chances we did create we didn’t take.

“It is not just the strikers. We need to take chances. We had enough corners to make a threat and we didn’t get much on the back end of that.

“We need to go down to Maidenhead now and get a result.”

Maidenhead, managed by former West Ham and England midfielder and ex-Braintree Town boss Alan Devonshire, were promoted to the fifth tier for the first time in the club’s history last season after beating Chelmsford City in the National League South play-off final.

Talking about his side’s prospects heading into the new National League campaign, Devonshire said: “We’re going into the unknown a bit so we’re not entirely sure what to expect.

“Everyone is looking forward to it, we’ve got very difficult games to start with but we like a challenge. Just look at last season.

“We’ve got to embrace it, we’re one of the part-time clubs but we’ve got a strong work ethic.

“We’ll see how we go, time will tell how well we adapt but we’ve got a good squad and we’re looking like we could have a good season.”

A late equaliser earned Maidenhead a 1-1 draw at Maidstone United on Saturday and Keates admits the Reds are also heading into  the unknown.

“They are a bit of an unknown quantity,” said Keates. “We have never played them before but we will look back at the games that they have been in and have a look at the best ways of going about getting the points that we want.

“It is their first home game in the division. They got an equaliser in the last minute on Saturday so they will be in a buoyant mood.”

Keates will be without striker Chris Holroyd who dislocated his shoulder at the weekend.

“Chris popped his shoulder out so he will definitely be out for the next few games,” said Keates, who remains hopeful of signing another striker this week.

“We are still waiting,” added Keates. “We are interested in somebody; he was available, then he was unavailable, now he’s available again.

“It is just waiting to see what happens off his club.

“Ideally I would like to get the lad in on a permanent deal. If not then we will have to look elsewhere and it might be a case of a loan.”