PHIL PARKINSON admits it was a tough call electing to hand Ben Foster a starting place ahead of Mark Howard but he felt the veteran goalkeeper proved his worth as Wrexham picked up another victory in the quest for automatic promotion.

Parkinson decided to bring in reinforcements after Rob Lainton damaged knee ligaments in the 2-1 win at Bromley and is set to miss the rest of the season.

Foster has come out of retirement and signed a short-term deal at The Racecourse, returning to The Racecourse 18 years after he enjoyed a successful loan spell with the Reds.

Spells at Manchester United, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion and Watford followed and although Foster called time on his career in September, the former England international has returned to Wrexham to boost the title challenge.

Parkinson decided to start Foster instead of Howard for Saturday's home clash with York City and Wrexham won 3-0 to remain three points ahead of Notts County with a game in hand.

On putting the 39-year-old straight into the team despite not playing since the back end of last season, Parkinson said: "It is always difficult, no matter what your pedigree is as a player, that you come in and only have a couple of days training, especially because he has been out of action for a while.

"But when he came in on Thursday in training, he was excellent and he was very confident he'd be fine to play, and he certainly showed it.

"It was tough because Mark has been part of the team which is right at the top of the league, and he has done well for us.

"Obviously we brought Ben in because we want to make sure we have got all bases covered for the run-in and we didn't want to take any chances.

"When you get a chance to sign a goalkeeper of Ben's quality, you have got to take that.

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"It is always tough on somebody else but Mark took it like a true professional.

"Those decisions are never straight forward but Ben coming through it like he did is a great boost for us."