SHAUN PEARSON felt it was only a matter of time before he scored his first goal of the season - and knew it would be an important one.

Pearson got off the mark in Saturday's clash against Braintree Town, the Wrexham captain heading home a Luke Summerfield corner in the 67th minute to secure a 1-0 win at Cressing Road.

Having gone close to scoring in previous matches, Pearson still opened his account earlier than last season when he netted his first Wrexham goal in the 2-1 victory against Eastleigh on October 7, 2017.

"It is sooner than last season but it has been frustrating this year because I feel I have had so many chances," said Pearson.

"I missed a sitter at Eastleigh, I had one disallowed at Maidenhead, I have hit the bar and had a couple cleared off the line.

"I have got my head on everything but it just wouldn't go in for me so I was delighted to score.

"All I kept saying was I would get an important one so I was delighted to get an important one and get a win 1-0. Hopefully I can get a few more."

Wrexham had to dig in to clinch victory against bottom of the table Braintree who are still looking for their first win since clinching promotion back to the fifth tier.

"You look at Braintree's results and they have not been beaten heavily in any game," said Pearson.

"They have been competitive in all the games, have got draws and lost by the odd goal.

"It is a difficult place to come but I think we just learned from the Solihull game, we had a bit more know-how.

"Obviously I gave them a chance in the first half which I shouldn't have done and Rob Lainton made a great save second half as well.

"Other than that, they have not had too much."

Pearson was pleased Wrexham retained possession in the latter stages to make sure they were not put under an unnecessary pressure.

"At the end, we kept the ball in the corner and are learning how to see a game out and win a game comfortably rather than having to defend ball after ball into your box," said Pearson.

"We have got a few older heads but we drew 2-2 against Bromley and we had a couple of chances where we could have taken the ball to the corner at 2-1 in the 90th minute and we are shooting and things like that.

"But at Braintree we took the ball to the corner and saw the game out without any fuss at the end.

"We are learning and that is young lads as players and us a team.

"We showed another way of winning. We have played some nice stuff at times to win games this year and we showed a good sign to get a nitty-gritty 1-0 win away from home."

Wrexham sit second in the table and the haul of 21 points from the opening 10 games is the Reds' best return in 11 seasons playing in the fifth tier.

Pearson believes the table is now starting to take shape and the centre-back, who has helped Wrexham keep seven clean sheets, wants to remain among the pacesetters.

"The league hasn't completely formed but you are getting a better idea now," added Pearson.

"Teams have played nearly half the teams in the league so generally it will be a fair reflection of where you are at.

"Obviously there will be a couple of teams come up from the bottom half and a couple of teams that are near the top will drop down but we are delighted with our return and we will be looking to push on now."