BRYAN HUGHES' half-time team-talk once against worked wonders against Boreham Wood.

The stakes were high at Meadow Park where victory would take Wrexham top of the National League.

Both teams cancelled each other out in the first half and Hughes felt his players were weighed down by the pressure of getting a win to become new leaders.

Hughes, who saw Wrexham score three goals in the opening 15 minutes of the second half to win 3-2 at Havant and Waterlooville on Saturday, told his players at the interval to enjoy the game and the Reds struck twice to seal a 2-0 victory and take over at the summit.

"I wanted them to press a little bit more," said Hughes.

"I spoke to them at half-time and I felt looking at that first half, even though we matched them all over the pitch, we looked like a team that had pressure on them.

"There was a bit of emphasis on us going top of the league and when I spoke to them at half-time, I wanted to take that pressure off them.

"I don't think I have seen the pressure these last few weeks. I felt that was the first time I have seen it in those first 45 minutes, just in glimpses.

"Maybe there was a bit too much pressure on them and the players were feeling it so I just wanted to address that at half-time.

"I just said go out there, no pressure; it doesn't matter if we go top of the league or not tonight, we have still got 12 games to go, we are in a healthy position.

"Just go out and play with the freedom that you showed on Saturday, and enjoy the game.

"It is a nice pitch, enjoy playing and I am sure when the chances come, we will take them and that is what happened."

Wrexham made it four wins in a row, with three of those coming under Hughes who was pleased to see his side pick up a positive result courtesy of Ben Tollitt's brace.

"Absolutely delighted," said Hughes.

"We knew it was going to be difficult, Boreham Wood have been in a bad run of form; one win in 10 games and a heavy 4-0 defeat against Hartlepool on Saturday, but we knew they would have a go at us in that first half, and they did.

"What was pleasing for me was we battled through it. It wasn't a fantastic performance by us but we did what we had to do."