GRAHAM BARROW revealed that the reaction of his players during last week's FA Cup defeat at Newport convinced him to put his name forward for the vacant manager's job at Wrexham.

The 64-year-old has been appointed Reds' boss on a contract that runs until the summer of 2021, succeeding Sam Ricketts who took over at Shrewsbury Town on December 3.

Barrow, assistant to Ricketts, was continuing as interim manager for the second round replay at Newport when he decided to make his intentions known having seemingly distanced himself from the position.

The Reds played the majority of the game with 10men following Luke Young's early dismissal but were still on level terms at the interval.

Newport won 4-0 but Barrow was impressed with the players - and he wanted to become Racecourse chief.

"In all honesty I was never not interested," said Barrow, who only recently signed a new contract extension to stay on as assistant manager.

"When you work with managers, there has to be a cooling off period and fortunately for me the board did not appoint somebody straight away.

"The cooling off period with Sam leaving, which was a shock to everybody, and it was ironically the cup game at Newport where we were down to 10 men after 10 minutes.

"The response from the players was fantastic. It don't care about the scoreline, it wasn't 4-0, had they not scored the first goal as early in the second half then I think we would have taken them all the way.

"But the response from the players certainly outweighed beating Eastleigh 2-0 and I thought 'these lads are always going to be in every game, they are going to give you everything so why not stay with them'.

"I thought 'why not me' so here I am."

Barrow, who has managed and coached from the Premier League to National League level since calling time on his playing career, including stints as boss of Chester, Wigan, Rochdale and Bury, took over as assistant manager at Wrexham in July.

He spoke of his pride at becoming the new manager.

"I am delighted but also proud as well because I have been here long enough now to know what pride there is about the club," said Barrow.

"From day one that struck me and probably struck me last year when I came here watching games.

"You get to my time of life and maybe I thought these days had gone if I am being honest after leaving Wigan.

"But you never say never and I will give it my best shot."

Barrow believes the spirit in the camp is key to National League high-fliers Wrexham maintaining the promotion challenge and believes he has an exceptional leader in captain Shaun Pearson.

"Hopefully continuity is a major thing," said Barrow.

"It is dead easy to say the dressing room is fantastic and the lads are great but it is a fact.

"One individual, the captain, really struck me when I came watching for Fylde last year.

"He was on my shortlist and I think they actually tried to sign him when I actually came here.

"Shaun is key to the dressing room but we worked hard at signing good characters anyway.

"What struck me was there was always that basis here to work on and we just had to keep adding good characters and good players to it."

Barrow knows fans expect success at The Racecourse.

"What comes with the passion is a pressure to get results," said Barrow.

"I did have a reputation about getting clubs out of trouble like Bury when they were administration but it is much better to take over a club in this situation.

"I would like to think I was a part of it to be where we are today, now we have got to pick it up and carry it on."

The process is well underway to bring in new signings to boost the promotion challenge during the January transfer window.

"We had already started that process," said Barrow.

"But the weight has gone firmly on my shoulders, that is what happens to the manager.

"I always give it everything as assistant manager but ultimately the final decision usually falls with the manager.

"I get that, I have been there."

Barrow, who has been working with coaches Carl Darlington and Jussi Jaaskelainen, revealed a former team-mate of his will come in as his right-hand man in the coming days.

"It will be a pleasant surprise to most people I would have thought," said Barrow.

"It is somebody I have known a long time, we have played together. It is not just good mates because we have drifted apart."

Dennis Lawrence, John Askey and Dave Challinor were among the names linked with the position but after holding talks with various candidates, director Spencer Harris said Barrow was the best man for the job.

"It has been a very busy couple of weeks for the board," said Harris. "We have considered a wide range of candidates.

"We have left no stone unturned in making sure we cast the net wide so we made sure we made the right appointment for the football club.

"It just so happens that the outstanding candidate was already here.

"The board has talked with Graham over the last 10 days in some depth, talking through the various different options.

"Graham has worked at every level of football, four years in the Premier League and has done a great job as a manager previously, and from where we find ourselves today Graham was the outstanding candidate so we are delighted that we could get that over the line relatively quickly within a couple of weeks."

When asked whether a familiar face at the helm was decisive, Harris added: "Continuity is always a factor but in this case it wasn't the deciding factor.

"Continuity will be very welcome for us, it will help us over the next few weeks for sure, but it is less about continuity and more about the outstanding characteristics of the man."