WREXHAM wing-back Alex Smith described his side's three-goal performance as the icing on the cake after the Dragons halted a run of five games without a win against Stockport County on Saturday.

The former Everton and Chester man, who played an influential role in his side's success, said: "Taking the three points was the most important thing for us today. Nothing else mattered for us, not even the score."

The 29-year-old defender admitted he had some sympathy for the visitors, who played virtually the whole game with 10 men after Ludovic Dje was sent off for violent conduct in the seventh minute.

"It was a bit unfortunate they were down to 10 men for such a long time," he added.. "I didn't see the incident, but from all accounts he used his elbow so he deserved to get sent off.

"Sometimes it's hard to play against 10 men, but we passed the ball well and we were patient so we deserved to win, but so you should playing against 10.

"It could have been six or seven at the end but three was enough. It's an old cliche, but it was just about winning today. We are now going into a two-week break because of the international matches, so we didn't want to lose any more ground than we have to.

"But we were made up with the performance, which was something we've managed in brief spells during every game we've played so far. The problem - particularly at Leyton Orient and at Wycombe - is that we haven't perhaps strung them together for 90 minutes." Racecourse boss Denis Smith said the early dismissal had obviously tilted the balance in his side's favour.

"The sending-off helped but we started positively and it was clear from them having three centre halves they were going to defend a fair bit," he said.. "But he had to go because it was an elbow.

"They won't be happy with it and the lad himself won't be happy, but we've been patient, we've got the goals and if you had said before the game we'd win 3-0 - or even 1-0 - I'd have been delighted."

With a two-week break in prospect the Dragons boss is optimistic that injured players Andy Holt, Paul Warhurst and even Matty Crowell could be back in contention for the next League Two challenge against Torquay United on October 15 and he admitted that a first win in six games had come as a relief.

"We needed to win today, we've got that and hopefully we'll start getting players coming back now," he added.. " A clean sheet always helps and we scored three good goals so I'm pleased.

"I was happy for Jon Walters to get a goal but I would like to see few more tap-ins because we don't always need to score great goals. We've seen in training what Jon can do, but he's got to do it more often.

"I said at half time I expected Mark Jones to get a hat-trick. He was unfortunate not to.

"Hopefully we'll get a few more performances like that through the season as we get players fit and get them working. But if we win all our home games and continue to play as well as we have away from home then I'll be happy."