MARK CARRINGTON is no stranger to managerial departures at Wrexham but he believes new boss Bryan Hughes could be celebrating automatic promotion in a couple of months.

The 31-year-old, who arrived at The Racecourse in September 2013, is the longest serving player in the Reds squad and made his 200th appearance for the club earlier this season.

That was under Sam Ricketts whose assistant Graham Barrow also had a brief spell in the Wrexham hotseat before former Reds' midfielder Hughes was last week unveiled as the third manager of the campaign.

Despite the changes, Wrexham have remained in the promotion mix and are only four points behind leaders Solihull with a game in hand.

Although the competition is fierce for the National League title with 14 games to go, Carrington insists Wrexham have as good a chance as anybody.

"It is all to play for," said Carrington. "Results couldn't have gone any better for us at the weekend so it has kept us right in the mix.

"We just have to take it one game at a time and make sure that we do our job, and see where it takes us.

"There are a good few in the mix who will all be thinking that they can go on and win it.

"We are one of them as well. There is no reason why we can't be the ones that do it."

Carrington welcomed the speedy appointment of Hughes following Barrow's resignation and has been impressed with the 42-year-old.

"Another manager has come in, I have played under a few now in my time here!" said Carrington, who was signed by Andy Morrell and has also played under Kevin Wilkin, Gary Mills, Dean Keates, Andy Davies, Ricketts, Barrow and now Hughes.

"Hopefully this is going to be the one that takes us out of this league.

"I like him. Really good, full of energy, brings new ideas to the group, fresh approach and training has been really good so good signs.

"It was a bit of a shock about Graham, it came out of the blue for the lads but it has been sorted quickly and we are ready to finish the season off well."

Hughes' first game in charge ended in a 1-0 victory over Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday.

That was Wrexham's second win in a row after beginning 2019 with five successive defeats, a run that had prompted calls from Carrington and other players to quickly stop the rot and ensure there was no repeat of last season's failed promotion challenge after Keates left The Racecourse.

"We said when we had a bit of a sticky patch a few weeks ago that we can't let what happened last year happen again," said Carrington.

"We have got to learn from what happened and the lads who were here last year have been big on making sure that we stamped out whatever needed to be done.

"The end of last season was a disaster and we had to make sure we got round the rest of the lads and make sure that it didn't happen again.

"Hopefully we have turned that corner now and come out the other side of it.

"We have got a tough game at Havant and Waterlooville on Saturday, if we go there and win that it stands us in good stead."

Stuart Beavon's 74th minute goal gave Hughes a winning start and although Wrexham have played better, Carrington says a win was the priority.

"It was a great result for us," said Carrington. "A great three points that we needed.

"A good performance on the whole, second half we played well and probably should have got a few more goals so pleased with it."