Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson ahead of the FA Cup fourth round replay at Bramall Lane, Sheffield. Picture date: Tuesday February 7, 2023.
The Red Dragons headed to Salford City looking to cement a standing inside the automatic places, but have now slipped to fourth in the table. They still boast games in hand on those around them, but have suffered three consecutive defeats in all competitions – with Newport County and Blackburn Rovers also putting them to the sword.
Wrexham were two goals down inside 16 minutes against Salford, as the hosts scored from a couple of corners, and Parkinson said afterwards: “We gave two goals away from corners which are ridiculous. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb against a team who are on a good run. They are a physical, set-play team who get the ball into Matt Smith and make it a real scrap and if you give two goals away like that, it is very difficult. We got one back but the third goal, we weren’t strong enough in our box again so it was very disappointing.”
Wrexham, with Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney calling the shots, have become a big scalp for fourth tier rivals and Parkinson added on his side needing to do more in order to meet the many challenges that they face: “We have to find a way on our travels when the pitch isn’t great, or the other team plays a certain way, to come through these games with points because we have come out second best against Salford in important areas in the game. But if we had defended those two set-plays properly, we would start getting a foothold in the game but we gave Salford a huge lift. We knew what type of game it was going to be and we worked on that but you can’t legislate for two corners going in like they did. We got back in the game with a good goal from Sam [Dalby] but the third goal was a real blow for us because the conditions were in our favour second half and you fancied us with that goal to get back in the game.”
Parkinson’s side will be back on home soil next weekend, when playing host to Bradford City, and have seven days in which to pick the bones out of a disappointing performance against fellow stars of a popular documentary series – with Gary Neville, David Beckham and Manchester United’s fabled ‘Class of ‘92’ filling the boardroom at Salford.
