Denis Smith hopes that Wrexham may have turned a corner

The Dragons sit just two points above the League Two relegation places.

"We find ourselves in a very poor position in the League, but we have things back that lift you," Smith said.

"Now Steve Evans is back in the side and Lee McEvilly scored and played 90 minutes, which is amazing because he's been ill, we have two goal threats."

Wrexham did well to stay with the Championship promotion-chasing Rams and McEvilly pulled the visitors back to 2-1 after Arturo Lupoli struck twice for Derby.

Italian youngster Lupoli, on loan from Arsenal, completed his hat-trick to send Derby through to the fourth round.

But Smith believes he saw the first signs that Wrexham are ready to emerge from their doldrums.

"We've got to keep working, we've got to work as hard as we did against Derby," Smith said.

"But we won't come up against that quality of team in our division.

"So if we can play that way against Derby we've got to ask why can't we do that in our own division.

"We've had little spells where we've done it, but we have to do it consistently now."