WREXHAM Striker Chris Armstrong has bitter sweet memories of his last trip to the Isle of Man when he was an unknown youngster beginning to make his way in the game.

A member of former manager Brian Flynn's squad more than a decade ago, the ex-Premiership star still remembers a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Stoke City, but he is confident history won't repeat itself this year.

The Dragons, five-times winners of the island's annual pre-season tournament, clinched their place in this year's final by virtue of a 4-1 victory against First Division Burnley on Tuesday and will be going for a third successive win.

Yesterday Armstrong said: "It should be another good game. Having beaten Burnley, I think we will be disappointed if we don't pull it off again.

"I think we got stuffed by Stoke the last time I was here, but this group of players is a lot better. The gaffer has got a cracking squad together and I definitely get the feeling we are capable of going places."

Armstong, who has played little first team football in the past two years because of injury problems, opened his goal-scoring account for the Dragons with a penalty on Tuesday and has no regrets about returning to the Racecourse in a bid to kick-start his stalled career.

"I knew Wrexham were a good side because of the way in which they won promotion last season and I was expecting to see some good players here," he said.

"My initial assessment is things are looking good for next season too.

"I am determined to enjoy my football from now on, but it won't be easy because there are no easy games nowadays and there are a lot of experienced footballers at this level.

"I have been impressed by what I have seen and there is a lot of quality in the squad. We had a couple of good results and things seem to be going very well."

But the 32-year-old anticipates stiff competition for places with fellow strikers Chris Llewellyn, Lee Jones and Hector Sam all eager to impress manager Denis Smith.

Smith meanwhile declared himself well satisfied with Tuesday's victory, in which his side bounced back from conceding a goal after only 30 seconds when keeper Paul Whitfield failed to gather a cross.

"I was very pleased with the performance," he said. "We were not switched on from the beginning, but Paul will learn from that. It was a bad mistake but we then showed good character and we had to defend quite a lot as well.

"We scored four goals but we had to work very hard defensively, because Burnley were very good going forward and I thought our discipline was excellent. At the end I had three 18-year-olds and two 20-year-olds out there, so it looks good for the future.

"Matt Crowell had a super game, Craig Morgan and Shaun Pejic likewise, and you would be struggling to find a bad performance from anyone."

Smith gave his players a day off yesterday. But he has promised then a couple of hard training sessions today.

"Everybody will be given the opportunity to see what they can do," he added. "The players have put me under pressure in terms of selection for Saturday which is great."