On their journey towards automatic promotion, Wrexham have hit a mini bump in the road after losing three consecutive matches in all competitions.
The Reds were defeated 1-0 by Newport County three weeks ago and have since suffered an FA Cup thrashing at the hands of Blackburn Rovers and a 3-1 loss to League Two strugglers Salford City.
Phil Parkinson’s major issue throughout this storm has been their lack of organisation defensively. The Wrexham boss has chopped and changed his back three, which has only deterred them from being harder to break down.
Parkinson can perhaps alleviate some of that problem by starting youngster Max Cleworth for their clash against Bradford City tomorrow.
The 21-year-old, who has been described as the best ball-playing defender at the club, has rarely put a foot wrong when he’s played and deserves to make only his eighth league start of the season.
Wrexham have seen a huge contrast in fortunes in attack compared to their defence. The Reds are the joint-third top scorers in League Two with 55 goals in 28 matches.
Goal machine Paul Mullin and attacking midfielder Elliot Lee have weighed in with almost half of that total having scored 23 goals between them.
In the defeat to Salford, though, Wrexham lacked a lot of their cutting edge, registering just six shots on goal and one on target, via Sofascore.
Their threat at the top end of the pitch was practically non-existent and Parkinson must fix that issue by unleashing new signing Jack Marriott for his full debut against Bradford.
Why Jack Marriott must start v Bradford
Marriott was brought in to score the goals alongside Mullin to fire Wrexham into the automatic promotion places.
After all, the 29-year-old has netted an impressive 105 goals in 293 appearances as a centre-forward across his career.
For Wrexham to have pulled off a signing of Marriott’s calibre, who was hailed as a “real ace” during his time at Derby County, just highlights the ambitions of Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.
Parkinson must now throw him into the starting XI for his full debut after featuring for 10 minutes against Salford last weekend.
Marriott is the sort of striker who sits on the shoulder of the last defender and drags defenders into channels with his pace in behind.
There have been criticisms fired at Wrexham for the lack of service into Mullin, especially in recent weeks, but the addition of the former Fleetwood striker and the unselfish work he gets through on the pitch can open up more space for his strike partner.
Although Sam Dalby scored a consolation last time out, watching Mullin and Marriott in action together is a tantalising prospect that supporters will hope to see against the Bantams.