Wrexham to relish 'jeopardy' of top-six push

Zak Vyner feels the "jeopardy" surrounding Wrexham's quest to reach the Championship play-offs is something the squad will relish.

The Red Dragons go into Saturday's fixture with Sheffield United at Bramall Lane (15:00 GMT) in seventh place, sitting below sixth-placed Southampton on goal difference.

But Vyner - who reached the second tier play-offs with Bristol City last season - believes Wrexham can be proud of having plenty at stake with eight matches of the regular season remaining.

"If you ask any footballer, you do want jeopardy in this part of the season," he said.

"You don't want to be playing games with nothing to play for and you're just safe bobbing around.

"You want to be in a place where every game matters, every minute means something and every moment means something."

Despite dropping out of the play-off spots in midweek, the Red Dragons - who lost 3-1 at Watford on Tuesday night - remain in a strong position to challenge for a fourth consecutive promotion.

And having finished in the top six last year, Vyner has warned his new club to not get distracted by the results of other play-off chasing sides.

"There's loads of good teams in this league and especially this season where it's so tight between five or six positions," he said of the run-in.

"There's no point looking at, 'oh they've done this and they've done that'.

"You've got to just focus on yourself and make sure you're all ready to put in a good performance and get three points."

He added: "It's the business end of it, that's where we're at now and you've just got to stay calm, stay in control of what you can control, which is us, and what we can do to get ourselves right to be all systems firing on Saturday."

Vyner was sidelined with a toe injury when he moved to north Wales from Bristol City in the latter stages of the January transfer window.

But he has gone on to feature in seven successive matches across all competitions under Phil Parkinson having made a full recovery.

"It's one of those injuries that's going to grumble on a little bit, but I feel really good," he said.

"I feel like I'm in a place where I can push myself a bit more now and really get around the pitch so I feel good."

The 28-year-old spent almost two decades with the Robins but felt the mid-season window was the right time to end his long association with the Ashton Gate outfit.

"Obviously it's a big change, new place, new environment, I had such a long time at one place and then you come away from that," Vyner commented.

"It's always going to be difficult at the start just to get your bearings and stuff but I've really bedded in and the lads are great, everyone here is great and I've been welcomed in really well.

"I think coming into a team where I've come in injured and the team's doing well, so naturally, there's going to be not much change there.

"But I've definitely seen a lot of the competitive spirit, I guess, that has got the club to where it is and the back-to-back-to-back [promotions], you see why that's happened.

"It's just a new environment for me to sort of be a sponge in and just take what I can from everyone.

"It's been a good change, if that makes sense, and it's been one of those ones where you kind of see, this group is very, very talented."