KEVIN ROBERTS says the players will be looking to restore some pride back in themselves and get the promotion challenge back on track with three points against Maidstone United at The Racecourse tomorrow.

The Reds produced their worst performance of the season on Tuesday as they lost 3-1 at home to Barrow who scored three times in the first half, Kieran Kennedy's goal after the break merely a consolation.

It was the second defeat in a row and leaves third placed Wrexham four points behind leaders Leyton Orient, but also mindful that the chasing pack are in close pursuit.

Roberts insists the Reds will be determined to make amends against the struggling Stones.

"We can't have our heads down, one game won't define the season," said Roberts.

"We are in third place, we are in a good position and we have been up there all year so we are still confident.

"Knowing this bunch of lads, we will definitely get a reaction tomorrow.

"The lads will be wanting to get a reaction, give the fans something to shout about and get a bit of pride back into ourselves.

"You can lose a little bit of confidence but not much - it is more of a pride thing and the lads will want to get that out of the system."

The promotion challenge faded badly 12 months ago, with Wrexham failing to make the play-offs following a woeful run-in but Roberts is focused on making sure this is not another missed opportunity.

"Looking back, the squad last year was nowhere near big enough," said Roberts.

"It was pretty much the same people playing every week and we just seemed to die off, and obviously losing the manager didn't help.

"It is a great squad of players here with the same attitude as last year, obviously things can happen but it is not in our head that anything like that is going to happen.

"We have just got to keep trying to push towards the top."

Barrow, who handled the windy conditions much better, opening the scoring after just three minutes and took advantage of two more errors to extend their lead by the interval.

"We all know it is not acceptable," said Roberts.

"We haven't had too many of them this year so that is why I think it comes as a bit of a shock to everyone, including ourselves and not just the fans.

"We have just got to pick ourselves up from it now. We normally get a reaction after a performance like that."

Wrexham's six game unbeaten run came to an end as they suffered a first defeat under Bryan Hughes on Saturday as title rivals Leyton Orient triumphed 1-0.

That was a game of big magnitude but Roberts admits the manner of the Barrow reversal was much more difficult to stomach.

"That is two defeats on the bounce now but the Orient one was nothing like that," added Roberts.

"It was a top of the table clash so Barrow is definitely the most disappointing one because of the way it happened.

"Both teams have got to deal with the wind, they played to the conditions and we never.

"Sometimes you have got to recognise that you can't play the way that you want to play, you have got to manage the game right.

"Obviously you never want to get beat and everyone is disappointed with the first half.

"The second half wasn't great but we played to the conditions and tried to get something out of the game but it still wasn't good enough; the first half was definitely the one that wasn't acceptable."