Bottom-club Wrexham take on Mansfield Town, the side immediately above them in the table with a one point advantage, at Field Mill tonight (7.45pm) in their crucial relegation showdown.

Wrexham then entertain 19th-placed Macclesfield, who are still not out of trouble despite winning their last two matches, at The Racecourse on Saturday in another key battle.

Eight points adrift of safety, Little stressed the importance of Wrexham picking up points against their two fellow strugglers.

"It is probably the biggest week for the club since this time last year," said Little today. "Certainly in my time at the club, it is the biggest week.

"Two of the last three games have been away but we thought we would have got more points than we did.

"We genuinely have to get something out of these two matches.

"I am not saying we have to win both but we are getting to the point we need to win games or the gap will be even bigger. It is not rocket science to say these two games are vital to us staying in the league.

"It would still be possible if we did not pick up any points but we have to avoid that at all costs. Our belief is we need to do something these two games."

Wrexham have eight matches remaining in the battle to preserve their Football League status and Little acknowledged the need to keep in touch with the sides immediately above the Reds.

"If the gap is bigger in a week, and we are eight or 11 points behind, that is massive," said Little.

"But we will never give up.

"These two games are not the be all and end all, but they are very important. And it is important we close the gap or it will be harder to catch the teams ahead of us."

Wrexham operated with an adventurous 3-4-3 formation in Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Barnet before switching to a 4-4-2 system.

Ultimately it was poor defending that cost Wrexham, who conceded the opening goal in first half injury time and Little said the Reds have to cut out the errors during their eight game run-in.

"As a manager, when you play a certain way, people say you should have played this way or that," said Little.

"We have just made too many individual mistakes.

"No one individual is responsible for where we are, it is a collective thing.

"If we can sort that out, hopefully it will give us a chance of winning games."

Little was hoping to welcome back midfielder Neil Roberts who missed the Barnet defeat because of a viral infection.

However, Roberts knocked himself unconscious in training yesterday after falling awkwardly and is a doubt so Danny Williams is on stand by.

"Danny is the kind of player we need and we might take him down there depending on how Neil is," added Little. "Danny has now played a few reserve team matches and he is the kind of character you want in the squad."

Mansfield boss Paul Holland is under no illusions that only three points against Wrexham tonight will realistically keep alive Mansfield's season.

Holland said: "I would probably go as far as saying it's a must-win game, but I'm confident and I think the players share my confidence.

"Everyone has identified the Wrexham game as being crucial, and they are right, but the one at Macclesfield is just as important.

"We just want to go to Dagenham on the last day of the season in a position where if we get a result we will stay up.

"Dagenham have dropped into it, Macclesfield have a hard run-in and Chester are not completely out of it. They only have five games left and if they lost those it would give us a chance."

Meanwhile, John Batchelor, the former owner of York CIty who is bidding to buy Mansfield Town, is reportedly planning to rename the club Harchester United after the team in the former Sky series The Dream Team.

Ask Brian

If you have a question for Brian Little email it to digitalnews@nwn.co.uk and we'll ask as many as we can during our next video interview with the Reds boss this Thursday.