SAM RICKETTS would rather watch chess than basketball - certainly when his Wrexham team are concerned.

Having played international football for Wales and in the Premier League with Hull City and Bolton, Ricketts is used to a tactical battle between two often evenly matched teams playing a similar system.

But life in the National League can be very different and Ricketts is working hard to try and change his players' way of thinking.

Ahead of Saturday's home clash with Gateshead, Ricketts said: "I want us to move the ball.

"If you don't have the ball you work hard to win it back, so when we've got it I want us to move it about.

"I want patience on the ball and sometimes it becomes possibly frustrating for the supporters, but I don't mind us keeping the ball at the back.

"The opposition have to come and press out at some point and if they don't then we will keep moving the ball, and quickly, because there will be a point where a gap appears and we attack that.

"I don't want a blood and thunder game of basketball every week, I want more control.

"It's the confidence to have the ball and pass it to someone who may be marked because you have to try and draw players out.

"Football when you get to the top level is more a game of chess. Can you move the opposition to create space for a team mate to come into?

"That comes with an awful lot of training and hard work.

"We are nearly 20 games into a season in which we have been very, very good.

"And to win a game when we haven't been at the levels we've set is probably just as pleasing, and probably more pleasing to be honest."