LEIGHTON MCINTOSH believes getting amongst the goals for Wrexham in pre-season will ease the pressure on him when the 2019-20 campaign kicks off.

McIntosh is among the strikers brought to The Racecourse as Reds boss Bryan Hughes attempts to address the shortage of goals that hampered his side last term.

Having been a prolific goalscorer in Scotland for the likes of Peterhead, Arbroath and Airdrie in recent years, McIntosh will be expected to continue that form south of the border.

McIntosh opened his Wrexham account in Saturday's 2-0 victory over Telford and the frontman says pre-season goals bode well for when the Reds get down to National League business with a home match against Barrow on August 3.

"As a striker you are always itching to get a goal, especially in pre-season," said McIntosh.

"You want to hit the ground running when it comes to the season so I am really pleased to get the goal and get the win as well which is always important.

"Speaking for myself as a striker, I always like to try and put pressure on myself and if I can get a couple of goals before the season starts, it brings that pressure down a little bit going into the season because you have hit the back of the net and you get that feeling.

"Slowly but surely you gain that composure so I am delighted."

Wrexham performed well in the 1-0 defeat against Portuguese top-flight side Portimonense during last week's training camp on the Algarve and the Reds were given a tough test at Telford United on Saturday.

But Hughes' side dug deep to seal victory with goals either side of the break from McIntosh and Bobby Grant, and the former believes Wrexham will benefit from facing the National League North outfit.

"The manager said that Telford would be a lot more similar to the teams we will be facing in the league," said McIntosh.

"It was a completely different test to what it was in Portugal but I thought the boys dealt with it really well.

"We stuck to our guns. We played the same formation, we were solid and we dealt with things that were coming our way, a lot of crosses into our box and things like that, and we came away with a clean sheet.

"We got the performance in Portugal but didn't quite get the win, although there were a lot of positives.

"Against teams from the leagues below, you want to get the fans going and get good results going into the big games."

Wrexham face Stoke City at The Racecourse in their next friendly tonight (7pm) and McIntosh is expecting another difficult assignment.

"It is always good to face lots of different levels of opposition," added McIntosh.

"You need to have as much variation as you can in pre-season because one team might test you in one way, and another team might do something completely different that we are not quite familiar with."