Spender himself has competition for the right back role in the shape of new signing Kyle Critchell and Wes Baynes, but the former Wales under 21 international admits it is good for the Reds that the same can be said about other positions.

"Both teams have kept clean sheets and that is positive," Spender said after seeing manager Brian Little field two different sides in pre-season matches.

"Whoever gets into the team is expected to do a job. There is a real fight for places this year, and we did not have that last season.

"And everyone has to be fighting to keep their place because there are good players to come in if someone has a bad game.

"Every position there is someone ready to take your place and we needed that competition. Everyone is pushing and wants to play so hopefully we do okay."

Spender, who made 32 league starts last term, is aiming to feature even more regularly this season:"I don't think I can take any positives from last season because of where we finished so I am hoping for a lot more," he said .

"I want to be starting more often and play as many games as possible, do well and try and help Wrexham get back in the Football League."

Spender admitted that the Wrexham squad have had some tough training sessions since the summer break and said the hard work will continue in the build-up to the new season.

"It is going well," added Spender. "We have had a couple of hard days training but that is to be expected.

"We have done a lot of work on the training ground on defending and counter attacking, and we will move on to more finishing work.

"We've defended well in friendly games but we need to score goals now.

"The main thing though is we are not conceding and keeping clean sheets is good for me as a defender."

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.