DEFENDER Simon Spender believes Wrexham can secure their Football League status this week and avoid a final-day nail-biter against Boston United.

The Dragons, who have won three of their last five away matches, visit neighbours Shrewsbury Town this evening before taking on Walsall at the Bescot Stadium on Saturday.

And the 21-year old full back believes tonight’s game in hand over the likes of fellow relegation contenders, Boston, Bury and Accrington Stanley could prove to be a pivotal moment.

“This is a big week for the club and for us as players,” he said yesterday.

“The Shrewsbury match is our game in hand and we need to win it in order to put the pressure on the clubs around us when they play on Saturday.

“In recent weeks we have performed better away from home than at the Racecourse so two wins is not beyond the realms of possibility.

“If that happens and results elsewhere go our way at the weekend, we could be safe by Saturday evening.”

Spender has more than played his part in Wrexham’s late rally, scoring one and having a hand in two more goals at Lincoln 10 days ago and then providing the cross from which Neil Roberts fired home the only goal of the game against Torquay United on Saturday.

And there has been a dramatic reversal in defensive fortunes in recent weeks with the Dragons conceding only three goals in their last six outings, which has boosted confidence ahead of the short trip to the Gay Meadow.

“We’ve certainly made too many mistakes over the course of the season, but we seem to have put that right in the last few games and we have picked up a few results,” he added.

“I didn’t play in the home game against Shrewsbury when we lost 3-1, so I’m hoping to be involved tomorrow. We know it’s going to be a difficult game and the derby tag always adds a little bit of extra pressure.

“But we know we will have a good following from our own fans and hopefully things will go our way.

“We certainly don’t want the uncertainty to go to the last day of the season and everyone knows this game tomorrow is a big chance for us to do ourselves a power of good.”

Manager Brian Carey admitted he had been delighted with the maturity shown by Spender in the past few weeks.

“He had a good run of form at the beginning of the season and since he came back into the team last month, it’s been the same,” he said.

“The main thing now is that he maintains that form over the course of the next three matches and that goes for all the players involved.”

Wrexham have no fresh injury concerns following Saturday’s hard-fought success and Carey is confident his side will give Shrewsbury a sterner test than in the previous encounter, when Steve Evans was sent off.

“We didn’t turn up in the first half of that game, which caused a build-up of frustration that culminated in us going down to 10 men,” he added.

“We didn’t do ourselves any favours on the day and we didn’t handle their front two players particularly well, but we know all about Shrewsbury and we know what they are all about, so it will be different this time.

“We have to take full advantage of the game in hand, do ourselves some good and drag a few other teams into the equation.”

“A win tomorrow would see us climb a couple of places in the table and if we do what I know we are capable of, we won’t have to worry about what is happening anywhere else.”

Shrewsbury, who consolidated their play-offs push with a 2-1 win against Accrington on Saturday, have doubts over defensive trio Danny Hall, Lee Canoville and Richard Hope.

Wrexham fans are reminded that tonight’s clash is all-ticket and the few remaining tickets will be on sale at the Racecourse until 4pm this afternoon