NORWEGIAN goalkeeper Marius Rovde, who is set to make his Wrexham debut this afternoon, is literally paying for his chance to play for the struggling second division club.

Racecourse boss Denis Smith yesterday revealed that his new loan signing will not cost the club a penny, with Rovde accepting a substantial cut in the salary that his present employers, Ayr United, are contracted to pay him.

"In this day and age when players are generally portrayed as being greedy, his attitude is remarkably refreshing," said Smith. "This lad is foregoing a lot of his salary to come and play for us and it's not going to cost Wrexham anything.

"As far as Marius is concerned, he simply wants to play football and, providing the international clearance paperwork is all completed, he will be in the side tomorrow.

"All the Norwegian players I've known are very confident and from what I've seen of him, I've been reasonably pleased."

As exclusively revealed in yesterday's Daily Post, Rovde, who has been given a free transfer by the Scottish first division club, is keen to try his luck in the Football League and he takes over from Kristian Rogers as one of two team changes against Swindon Town.

"Kristian is not happy but I would not expect him to be," added Smith. "He thinks he's had a pretty good season and I understand that both he and David Walsh will be disappointed.

"They've made mistakes, but that's par for the course when you are a goalkeeper. But they are both young lads who have a bright future in the game. Unfortunately I have to live in the present."

The Dragons' boss also recalls top scorer, Craig Faulconbridge, who completed his recovery from a three-match lay-off with 90 minutes in the reserves on Wednesday evening.

He replaces Andy Morrell, who ricked his neck in training on Thursday, but Smith said he did not want to tamper too much with the line-up that played at Oldham Athletic last Saturday.

"Robin Gibson has had a reaction to an ankle injury so the squad more or less picks itself," he said. "This is a big week for us because we have to beat Swindon tomorrow and Bury on Tuesday before going to Peterborough next weekend.

"A couple of wins will give everyone a lift and we have played well enough in recent matches to have picked up points. If you look at Swindon, the reports are that they are not playing well, but they beat Grimsby in midweek.

"I will be quite happy if we don't play as well tomorrow as we have recently if we take all three points. There are a lot of games to go, and while I accept that we have to start winning, we have a hell of a good chance as long as continue to perform as we have been.

"The signing of Marius has sorted out a problem that was possibly more perceived than fact and I hope that his arrival will give everyone, players and fans alike, a bit of lift going into tomorrow's game."

Swindon will again be without former Liverpool and England defender Neil Ruddock, who has not played for a month because of ankle ligament problems, and manager Andy King is also sweating on the fitness of Matt Hewlett and Paul Edwards. Both players were due to play in a midweek reserve team game, which was postponed leaving them short of match practice.

Hewlett, who missed four months of last season with a knee injury, has suffered a recurrence and has not played a senior game since the beginning of last month, while Edwards is recovering from a groin strain.

WREXHAM (probable): Rovde; Whitley, Carey, Roberts, Holmes; Phillips, Thomas, Ferguson; Sam, Trundle, Faulconbridge. Subs: Rogers, Lawrence, Chalk, Blackwood, Edwards.