SAM WEDGBURY has hailed the quality of the current Wrexham squad and believes they are strong enough to attain promotion back to the Football League this term.

The 28-year-old defensive midfielder was among the 14 players recruited by Dean Keates in the summer as part of an extensive overhaul of the Wrexham squad.

Wedgbury made the move to North Wales from Forest Green Rovers, where he was part of the squad that clinched promotion to League Two last term.

With more than a third of the National League season played and Wrexham third in the table, Wedgbury says his current club can emulate Rovers’ feat.

“It’s been a very positive so far,” said Wedgbury. “When you think that 14 new players were brought to the club in such a short period of time and we look at where we are right now, we have to be satisfied with that.

“We’re in third place and just three points off the top of the table, which puts us in really good shape for the rest of the season.

“There’s a lot of quality here and a really good team spirit and it feels good to be a part of that. Obviously, as a group, we’ve set targets ourselves for and we know it’s going to take a lot more hard work for us to get there.

“The play-offs should be the very minimum we should be aiming for and I think that’s a very realistic ambition.

“That’s a big part of why I came to Wrexham – because of the ambition within the club to progress and to push for promotion.”

In a congested National League table, only six points separate current leaders Dover Athletic and mid-table Hartlepool.

Unsurprised at how tightly-contested the league is this term, Wedgbury expects the top sides to break away from the chasing pack in the weeks ahead.

“It’s never really been like that in the division before, but when you’re playing against these teams week in and week out you see why the league looks like it does” he added.

“It has been really tight all season, with every team taking points one week and dropping them in games they’re expected to win a week later.

“But I think we’ll see things to change in the next month or so with a lot of big games for ourselves and other top half sides.

“I expect the top of the league to open up a bit by the end of November and we want to make sure we’re still in there by then.

“Personally, I think it’s great that there are so many teams up there fighting for the top places, including some of the so-called smaller budget teams like ourselves.

“It’s a long season and home form is a key part of achieving success and we have to sustain that across the course of the season as well as nicking three points in away games here and there.”

The Reds’ saw an impressive 11-game unbeaten run ended in timid fashion in a lacklustre 2-0 defeat at Fylde, which preceded a 2-2 draw with Leyton Orient last weekend.

Despite an improved showing against the O’s, the Reds’ positive attacking display was tempered by the frustration of conceding a late equaliser.

And Wedgbury has admitted his own frustrations in recent weeks after missing the win at Dagenham through illness, while suspension kept him out of the Orient game.

He said: “It has been a bit stop-start for me recently after a pretty decent first 12 or 13 games for the club.

“Obviously it was annoying to miss games in the last few weeks because you always want to be in contention to play.

“From a team point of view though we were proud of going 11 games unbeaten and everything seemed to be going really well.

“But I think the Fylde result needed to happen in a way. The performance was nowhere near good enough from ourselves and it gave us a wake-up call.

“It stopped any complacency setting in among the players and showed us that you can’t just turn up in games and come away with points after a performance like that.

“We saw a reaction in the Orient game where we were disappointed not to come away without the three points.

“But the challenge for us now is to kick-on again and try to put another unbeaten run together.”