Phil Parkinson shares what he told Wrexham players in the dressing room straight after Birmingham City defeat
Wrexham have fallen to a first league defeat of the season after losing 3-1 away at Birmingham City on Monday night.
Excitement was high heading into this one as Wrexham travelled to St. Andrew’s to take on Birmingham City.
Celebrities were at the forefront of this one with Birmingham’s Tom Brady sparking a rivalry with Wrexham’s Rob McElhenney.
Come 8pm on Monday though, this was all about the players – no matter how many times the camera cut to David Beckham in the stands.
Wrexham made a truly blistering start as Jack Marriott fired home early on as Birmingham failed to deal with a corner.
That was about as good as it got though as Jay Stansfield bagged a brace for the hosts before Tomoki Iwata wrapped up the win.
Phil Parkinson on Wrexham message
The night started so well for Wrexham but it just wasn’t to be as Birmingham’s quality came through.
The Blues dominated possession and barely gave Wrexham a sniff of goal after finding the equaliser, handing Phil Parkinson a difficult night.
Parkinson spoke to Sky Sports (16/09, 22:23) after the game and shared his thoughts on Wrexham’s display.
Parkinson felt that Wrexham were ‘excellent’ in the opening stages and switched the ball effectively before Birmingham found a leveller.
The Wrexham boss added that his message to the players after the final whistle was that they didn’t respond to going behind well enough.
Parkinson noted that Wrexham aren’t used to conceding and didn’t show the required reaction to half Birmingham’s momentum.
Parkinson added that Wrexham were too deep in the second half and gave the ball away too cheaply, allowing Birmingham to dominate.
“I thought we were excellent at the start,” said Parkinson.
“We got the goal, switched the play well, contained them really well and with their first shot on target, they get a goal and get back into it.
“I’ve just said to the lads, we haven’t had many setbacks in terms of conceding recently and our reaction to conceding the goal wasn’t what it needed to be. We gave the ball away too cheaply, gave the ball back to a very good team too many times and gave them control in the game.
“Second half, we just said to the lads that we just sat a bit too deep and we didn’t get up to the ball, we didn’t engage quick enough and we got punished by two moments of real quality,” he added.
Parkinson didn’t see an immediate response after Birmingham went ahead but he will be looking for better this weekend.
Wrexham are back at the STōK Cae Ras this weekend and will host Crawley Town in the latest League One fixture.
Wrexham hammered Crawley 4-1 at the STōK Cae Ras back in April and would no doubt love a repeat performance.
That won’t be easy but Wrexham have a superb home record and really need to use this return home to hit back after losing to Birmingham.
The better team won on Monday night; there is no shame in that, especially after Birmingham’s ‘crazy’ summer spending.
Wrexham just have to move on and come back stronger as this result won’t define the whole season and Parkinson has already shown that Wrexham can really compete at this level.
