Wrexham Dean Keates is intent on strengthening his squad before their next National League fixture against Yeovil Town at home next weekend.
“We’re working away on recruitment,” said Keates. “It’s been hard – with the FA Cup players can be cup tied, etc, but now all being well I’d like to think we might bring in one or two players ready to go towards Yeovil.”
The Dragons had to postponed Saturday’s league match at Eastleigh because they have a Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Scottish Challenge Cup quarter-final against Rangers Under-21s at Ibrox.
Keates then prepares his players for Tuesday’s Emirates FA Cup replay against Rochdale at Scotland before Wrexham have back-to-back home clashes against Yeovil next Saturday and Fylde the following Tuesday.
“Ideally we would want to be playing a league game, but it is what is,” says Keates. “It’s the quarter-final of a cup at a great stadium and an opportunity for us to go up there and play.
“We are at the point now where we’re in it, we want to try and win it.
“It’s been relentless with the FA Cup fourth qualifying round against Chesterfield going to a replay and now a replay against Rochdale. We’ve only had one full week of training without a match.
“It’s been Saturday-Tuesday since I’ve come in. That will come into my thought process.
“There will be a couple of team changes.”
Long-term injury victims Manny Smith and loan signing James Horsfield, who has suffered knee ligament damage, are out, while JJ Hooper will also miss the trip to Scotland.
“JJ is not too far away from the squad, but I wouldn’t have thought he’d back this weekend.”
💬 KEATES | "We’re at the point now where we’re in it, we want to try and win it.”
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— Wrexham AFC (@Wrexham_AFC) November 14, 2019
Rangers defender Lewis Mayo, a 19-year-old who has been at the Gers since the age of seven, described the cup tie against Wrexham as ‘an exciting fixture for us’.
He spoke to RangersTV and said: “We have done really well to come this far. It’s an exciting fixture.
“We are really making a statement about what we are about and when a team like Wrexham comes to play us at Ibrox that has to excite you.
“I expect Wrexham to be tough.
“It will be great. Hopefully there will be a bit of noise. The support we had at the Bratislava game was incredible.
“We do really appreciate the fans there and it does give you the extra lift on the pitch.
This is the first time Wrexham have played a competitive fixture in Scotland, although they defeated Scottish teams Ayr United and St Mirren Colts at home on their way to the last eight.
The Dragons are the last non-Scottish team in the competition after Cymru Welsh Premier club Connah’s Quay Nomads and National League Solihull Moors went out in the last round.
Rangers Colts defeated Solihull Moors in the last 16 after a 3-3 draw.
Tunnocks Caramel Wafer Scottish Challenge Cup quarter-finals:
Friday, November 15: Raith Rovers v Elgin City (Stark’s Park, 7.45pm)
Saturday, November 16: Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Clyde (Caledonian Stadium, Inverness, 3pm); Rangers under-21 v Wrexham (Ibrok Stadium, 3pm); Stenhousmuir v Partick Thistle (Ochilview Park, 3pm).