SHAUN PEARSON was taken aback by the reaction to his winner against Chester and admits another goal this weekend would be nice.

The Reds captain struck just before the interval after getting on the end of Marcus Kelly's free-kick and Wrexham held on for a hard-fought 1-0 victory in November's cross border derby at The Deva Stadium.

The arch rivals go head-to-head again on Sunday in the return fixture at The Racecourse and Pearson is hoping for another victory.

"To be fair, at the time I probably didn't realise how big a goal it was in terms of the reaction it had after the game," said Pearson.

"It was pleasing to get the winner and to see how much it meant to everybody.

"Everyone enjoyed that occasion and we will be looking to repeat the result on Sunday.

"Obviously we would like to score a couple more goals if we could but if it means taking a 1-0 win, we would snap your hand off right now."

Pearson, who joined Wrexham last summer from Grimsby Town, has scored four goals this season and he would love to add to his tally against Blues.

But with Wrexham challenging for promotion, Pearson admits picking up three points is the priority.

"First and foremost, the biggest thing is the result," said Pearson. "It doesn't matter what scoreline we win by, we just have to win the game.

"After that it would be nice to keep a clean sheet and then after that, of course it would be lovely to score another goal.

"I am probably due one at home, most of my goals have come away this season, so hopefully there will be a long overdue one at home on Sunday which can help us get three points."

Wrexham go into the game unbeaten in 12 games but nine draws in that spell has seen the Reds drop to sixth position, eight points behind leaders Macclesfield Town.

Pearson admits Wrexham, who have 10 games remaining, will need their promotion rivals to start dropping points if they are going to clinch the title.

But with six play-off spots up for grabs, and teams finishing second and third proceeding to a semi final at their home ground, and clubs in fourth and fifth staging qualifying round ties against the teams who are seventh and sixth, Pearson stressed the importance of Wrexham finishing as high as possible.

"You have to be realistic and getting ourselves back in the title race would mean other teams dropping points," said Pearson.

"Now we are relying on other things in that sense but first and foremost, and I said it even when we were up the top end of the league, we need to make sure we cement our place in the play-off positions.

"We want to get sorted for that as soon as possible and once that is sorted, you want to finish as high as possible.

"If we can manage to get ourselves back in the title race then brilliant. If not, then there is a big advantage of finishing second or third this year.

"Even fourth or fifth gives you home advantage in the first play-off game so we have just got to try and finish as high as we can because there is an advantage to it this year."