WREXHAM'S Shaun Pejic is ready to stake his claim for areturn to League Two action after completing a full 90 minutes yesterday.
The 23-year-old defender took part in a friendly against Stoke City reserves in the Potteries under the watchful eye of Racecourse manager Denis Smith and home team boss Tony Pulis.
Also keeping an eye on proceedings were new Bournemouth manager Kevin Bond -who was accompanied by his father John - and Lennie Lawrence, now working with Paul Trollope, whose Bristol Rovers side are Wrexham's opponents this weekend.
Pejic, who missed the start of the season because of an Achilles strain in his left leg, then damaged the other during the 5-0 defeat at Accrington Stanley just over a month ago, but he is now hoping his injury woes are behind him.
And although the Wrexham side went down 3-1 to Stoke, Pejic had ahand in Wrexham's consolation, meeting a Matt Crowell free kick and heading across the face of goal for Jamie Reed to score.
"It feels good to be back playing football," he said. "I had just got over one Achilles problem and then I was hit again, possibly because I was over-compensating for the original injury.
"But at last it feels a lot better and playing today has been a bit of a bonus because the club don't have areserve team game coming up for a couple of weeks.
"So as well as being beneficial for me, it has helped a few of the other lads as well because there's only so much training you can do."
Pejic admitted he was eager to push for a place in Smith's side this weekend as the Dragons bid to halt a slump that has seen them lose six of their last seven league matches.
"It's difficult to put your finger on exactly what has gone wrong, but we are leaking goals for some reason and it's got to stop," he added.
"But the blame is not totally down to the lads at the back because we are playing a team game and that means you start defending from the front.
"We were doing that well in the early part of the season and we need to get back to the basics.
"Everybody has a job to do in closing down the opposition all over the field and that's something we have been concentrating upon in training this week. But I'm confident we can get ourselves out of the position we are in and everyone is aware of how important Saturday's game is.
"First and foremost the objective will be to keep a clean sheet."
Meanwhile, Denis Smith insists he will continue "badgering" rival managers with requests to bring players in on loan.
The Dragons have lost nine of their last 10 games and Smith aims to bolster his squad in time for Saturday's visit of Bristol Rovers, who have seen keeper Steve Phillips come through a reserve game yesterday.
"We are continuing our search and I'm ringing clubs who I've tried before," said the Dragons boss.
"There's been players who have been set to come here on loan, but for one reason or another - such as injuries - their clubs haven't been able to release them.
"It's very frustrating and I am badgering people to try and get players in before Saturday."
