RICHARD HOPE spoke of the importance of building on the derby victory at Chester City when Wrexham travel to Wycombe Wanderers tonight.

Wrexham face highflying Wycombe just 48 hours after winning 2-0 at their arch rivals, a result that leaves the Reds three points away from safety.

And although skipper Hope knows that fifth place Wycombe will be no pushovers, he said recent results against other teams challenging for promotion means the Reds are more than capable of getting a positive result at Adams Park.

"It was a good result against Chester and important that we got three points. It has given our survival hopes a boost," said Hope.

"But there is no point getting a good result at Chester and following that up with defeat. We are going to Wycombe in good spirits and want to build on that.

"We have got nothing to lose. Wycombe are in a play off position but they are beatable. Everyone is beatable in this division, as we have shown.

"But as the gaffer has been telling us, any point is better than nothing.

"We just have to try not to get beat and if we win, even better."
Hope believes victory at the weekend has made Wrexham's relegation rivals sit up and take notice, and the 29-year-old hopes the Reds' position improves further following tonight's full League Two programme.

"A lot of teams around us would have been hoping that we would have been beaten at Chester, or drawn at best," said Hope.

"The fact that we won and closed the gap means a lot of teams will be panicking now, and we have to play some of those teams at home yet.

"It certainly looks a lot better than if we had not won at Chester.

"All the other teams are playing tonight and if results go our way, who knows. But there is still a long way to go."

Having conceded six goals in the last nine matches, resulting in just one defeat, Hope is pleased with the Reds' current defensive record.

And with Paul Hall and Michael Proctor on target in Sunday's derby win, Hope is looking for Wrexham to further improve their goal tally at the other end: "It was another clean sheet at Chester and our defensive record is looking quite decent," he added.

"We still need to build on scoring goals though and we are looking to do that.

"We are looking solid enough at the back so hopefully we can get the goals to beat Wycombe."