KEEPING a clean sheet meant just as much as victory to Steve Parkin.

Wrexham's assistant manager saw his side register a 4-0 win against Altrincham in front of a season's best home crowd of 10,107 to maintain the 100 per cent record at The Racecourse and stay second in the National League.

Although finding the back of the net has not been an issue this season - Phil Parkinson's men are the top scorers in the division with 46 goals in 16 league outings - the Reds have struggled for shut-outs at the other end.

But Parkin was pleased to see Wrexham come through the game without conceding any goals.

"We are a bit disappointed that they got that shot in at the end because we have been hankering as a defensive group to get clean sheets," said Parkin.

"We have found them hard to come by this season so to get one today is really satisfying.

"We were good attacking at one end of the pitch and good defensively at the other.

"We have been free-scoring this season but we have looked a little bit open.

"Sometimes when you are a little bit open in this division, we have seen that teams have got players who can punish you and we have had that a few times; certainly we had it in the Barnet game.

"It was important that we were a little bit tighter, more compact defensively, and we were so that is really pleasing."

Wrexham, who scored four quality goals through Paul Mullin, Ollie Palmer (2) and James Jones to stay three points behind leaders Notts County, had failed to keep a clean sheet in the last eight league and cup games.

The last team that failed to score against Wrexham were Torquay who were thrashed 6-0 on September 24 and Parkin feels the shut-out will be a confidence-booster.

"The quality of the goals was outstanding but in my career, which has been fairly long now, if you suddenly start keeping clean sheets, that does bring confidence. There is no doubt about that," said Parkin.

"To get a clean sheet, it is not all about the defence, it is about the team and when get a clean sheet you know that the team has worked hard defensively and I think we did that very well against a team that has got some really talented players."

Wrexham produced a poor first-half performance in the previous game when they trailed 1-0 to Halifax Town but the Reds turned things around after the break to win 3-1 following a much improved display.

Parkin wanted a better start to the game against Altrincham and the players responded, with the Reds leading 2-0 at half-time.

"The build-up to the game, the talk was about the way that we didn't start the game the other night," said Parkin.

"We thought we were sloppy and we weren't quite at it, and on another occasion we could have got punished more handsomely than we did.

"Obviously we showed that resilience second half to get back in the game and go on and win it, but you can't start games like that.

"The manager had a chat with the players and we showed them a video about how we played against Altrincham last year, and the intensity which we played at.

"To be fair, they have duplicated it; the lads have done exactly the same."