Wrexham suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at Harrogate Town in the FA Cup first round on Sunday, and head coach Phil Parkinson has issued a blunt message in return
Wrexham suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at Harrogate Town in the FA Cup first round on Sunday, and head coach Phil Parkinson has issued a blunt message in return Wrexham suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at Harrogate Town in the FA Cup first round on Sunday, and head coach Phil Parkinson has issued a blunt message in return
Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson has sent out a warning not to get carried away with promotion chatter following their unexpected FA Cup first-round defeat.
The Red Dragons were stunned 1-0 by League Two side Harrogate Town, who are 38 rungs below them in the football ladder, thanks to a Jack Muldoon header in the first half. Despite having top scorers Paul Mullin and Ollie Palmer on the pitch, Wrexham couldn’t convert their opportunities.
This setback comes amidst an otherwise upbeat period for the club, which saw Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney become new US investors and take over the town’s Wrexham Lager brewery. Sitting third in League One with 25 points from 13 games, Parkinson insists there’s still much work to be done for a third consecutive promotion.
After the televised match, he told ITV: “It’s so early in the season to start talking about promotion. We’re a quarter of the way into the season, and there’s a lot of football to play. We’ve got a lot of improving to do, and this is a reality check for us. We’ll get back in training, ready to work again for next week against Mansfield.”
Wrexham’s boss Phil Parkinson was left ruing missed opportunities as his side failed to capitalise on their dominance, with summer signing Mo Faal’s late header being disallowed for offside. Reflecting on the match, Parkinson admitted, “I thought we dominated the game for the first 25 minutes. There was probably not enough conviction in our crossing and our finishing, and then we gave a team who are good at hanging in there in games the opportunity to do that in the second half.
“We pinned them in for practically the whole game and we’ve had about 30 crosses over the course of the game into the box. We couldn’t find that moment, and when we did, the linesman ruled it offside, which looks a very, very marginal call to me. A lot of our approach play was good, but football’s about doing things in and around the penalty box, being clinical and having that ruthless edge. We didn’t show that enough today.”
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Despite the disappointment, new signing Jon Dadi Bodvarsson made his debut and nearly scored, drawing praise from Parkinson after forcing a save from Harrogate’s keeper James Belshaw. Post-match, Bodvarsson expressed his happiness at joining Wrexham to the club’s official media team.
He said: “It’s massive for me. It’s been a while since I’ve been in competitive football as I’ve been a free agent for a while. I’ve been keeping fit in Iceland with my local club that I grew up with. Football wise, I’m not too far off it, it’s just that you get the best fitness by getting minutes like today. I have a point to prove myself as well and I just want to start well for the club.”
Mirror – Sport
