Alex Reid has scored three goals in four games and Fleet will need all his firepower and more as they seek to take something home from North Wales this weekend.
The striker, currently joint top scorer alongside Myles Weston after both scored in the morale-boosting win over Barnet in midweek, played for Wrexham on loan in 2017/18 and scored three goals for the Red Dragons in 18 appearances.
He has already got that many for the Fleet in a third of the time and a fourth would go some way to erasing the club’s winless record at Wrexham.
This will be Fleet’s eighth trip to the Racecourse Ground with two draws and five defeats to our name since 2008. Reid played for Wrexham in the controversial 2017 meeting when a disputed goal that Nathan Ashmore clawed off the line was awarded followed by a soft penalty against Chris Bush.
That was followed up last season by a 4-1 defeat, with Fleet 4-0 down by the break. Neither side has enjoyed trips to the other’s home ground in recent years but with Wrexham only one point and one place better off than the Fleet, now would be the ideal time to alter all that.
The major news prior to this fixture, of course, is the home club’s parting of ways with manager Bryan Hughes. Wrexham, like the Fleet, have won only two games all season and Hughes has become their 10th managerial casualty of the last 12 years.
Former Wrexham and Wales boss Brian Flynn will take charge in a caretaker capacity this weekend. Flynn was previously manager of the club for 12 years from 1989-2001, winning promotion and gaining entry to European competition with them in that time.
There’s very little to separate the sides going into this one. Other than the single point difference, both sides have scored 16 goals although Wrexham have conceded five fewer.
Bobby Grant, a former teammate of Alex Reid’s at Fleetwood Town, is top scorer with four goals but with Wrexham on a winless running stretching back to the second weekend of the season, goals haven’t been plentiful enough.
The Red Dragons experimented with a 3-4-3 setup at AFC Fylde in midweek but that could be out the window once more now that Hughes is no more.
Wrexham twice took the lead at Fylde but were pegged back to lose 3-2, prompting plenty of fury amongst fans.
The squad should have enough quality to rise up the league table but Fleet will hope they can avoid any new-manager bounce and take advantage before the home side regroup.
The Wrexham side facing the Fleet is unlikely to show too many changes from last season, with the club having kept on 17 of the squad from the previous campaign. Former Bromley and Grimsby Town striker JJ Hooper has been missing with injury, while goalkeeper Rob Lainton is also on the casualty list so former Chelmsford stopper Christian Dibble will likely start. Both those players are back in training but Saturday may come too soon for them.
