Jay Rodriguez joined Wrexham in January but has not had the most prolific stint at the Racecourse Ground so far.
With Wrexham in dire need of more goals from their strikers, two new number nines were signed in the 2025 winter window.
Sam Smith arrived in a record deal after hitting 11 goals for Reading in the first half of the League One campaign.
On the same day, Wrexham snapped up Jay Rodriguez from Burnley on an 18-month deal, paying the striker £15,000-a-week.
Rodriguez has a wealth of experience in the Premier League and Championship so big things were expected once he dropped down to the third tier.
What Jay Rodriguez is ‘excellent’ at in Wrexham training
However, so far at least, the 35-year-old has largely failed to impress the Red Dragons.
Wrexham fans have hit out at Rodriguez on numerous occasions amid his lack of goals and connection with Smith.
The English did finally find the back of the net for the first time in 11 matches last week, scoring the only goal of the game versus Stockport County.
However, Wrexham fans still weren’t convinced by Rodriguez, who took an awful penalty before eventually putting in the rebound.
Now, as per Leader Live, Matty James has revealed that the striker is actually ‘excellent’ at taking spot-kicks in training.
He said: “As a defensive midfielder, scoring is not really a big thing for me. But a striker wants to score goals so when the penalty came, I was buzzing for him.
“Some of the penalties I’ve seen him take in training have been excellent and I think he’ll admit that wasn’t the best but he redeemed himself with an unbelievable finish.
“It’s his first goal and we are all delighted for him. Hopefully he can get a couple more before the end of the season.”
Matty James comments on Exeter City
While fans continue to remain unimpressed with the ex-Burnley man, Rodriguez is likely to start for Wrexham versus Exeter City this weekend.
It’s another huge game in the hunt for automatic promotion, with James expecting a ‘tough’ test.
He added: “For us, it is just taking it game-by-game. We have got a tough game away at Exeter next and we have got to go there with a plan and try and execute it.
“If we focus on us as a team in each individual game, and keep knocking the wins off and make sure people know that we are still there or thereabouts, it will be a tough ask for other teams around us to keep winning.
“It is not looking at who other teams have got, it’s all about us and us getting the job done, and then move onto the next game.”