DEAN KEATES defended his decision to name an unchanged side as Wrexham produced another lacklustre performance.

The Reds were second best as they lost 2-1 at Chesterfield on Saturday but Keates kept faith with the same starting XI for the dour goalless draw with Halifax in midweek.

Wrexham lacked creativity and ideas in the final third as they failed to have a single shot on target during the 90 minutes.

“Consistency is massive and I had to show the players a little bit of consistency,” said Keates.

“That is why I kept the starting XI.

“We didn’t play good enough in possession at the weekend, I thought we did better today but we have to be better in the final third and create opportunities.”

Jordan Ponticelli and Adi Yussuf again led the attack but the duo failed to make an impact.

Keates refused to blame the strikers for Wrexham’s lack of cutting edge and threat in the final third as his side were restricted to shots from outside the area.

“The forward players didn’t really get the opportunity,” said Keates.

“The most we had was probably from distance and midfield players.

“The detail of our set-plays wasn’t good enough, we didn’t hit the target and we didn’t work the keeper enough.

“We did not create enough in the attacking third. The end ball, the final product, was not good enough.”

Wrexham failed to keep a clean sheet in their previous seven league games, two poorly defended goals condemning the Reds to defeat at Chesterfield.

Keates feels the clean sheet was a positive ahead of two successive away matches at King’s Lynn this weekend and Eastleigh on Tuesday.

“It is a clean sheet. Go back the last few games and we have conceded sloppy goals in the first 20 minutes,” said Keates.

“We spoke about the mindset being right from the start so we take the positives on the back end of that.

“But we want to be winning games, especially our home games, and we didn’t do enough to create enough opportunities to win the game in the final third.”