Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson has admitted that he made his team selection in the EFL Trophy defeat against Peterborough United with ‘the weekend in mind’.
The Red Dragons missed a huge opportunity to set up a Wembley showdown against Birmingham City on Wednesday night when they succumbed to Darren Ferguson’s team on penalties. The nature of the result was a disappointing one for the Welsh-based outfit, who had led 2-0 up until the 72nd minute.
Posh fought back late on though, grabbing one back through Malik Mothersille before Bradley Ihionvien hit an added time equaliser to take the game to spot kicks. Peterborough eventually secured a second successive EFL Trophy final berth with a 4-2 shootout win.
Parkinson Focused On Bolton
Wrexham currently sit third in League One as they continue to target a third successive promotion. They are three points behind second-placed Wycombe Wanderers and will welcome in-form Bolton Wanderers to the STōK Cae Ras tomorrow lunchtime.
The Trotters have enjoyed an upturn in fortunes since the appointment of Steven Schumacher last month. A fourth successive league victory could see them move into the play-off positions whilst also closing the gap on Wrexham to just five points. As a result, Parkinson has admitted that his team selection on Wednesday night was made with this game in mind. Speaking to The Leader, he said:
“We won’t let it knock us (defeat against Peterborough) at all because we know that the focus has got to be on the weekend.
“We had to sit down as a staff on Tuesday and pick the team with the weekend in mind and I think everybody saw that, but it didn’t affect the performance in the first half at all and some of those lads did themselves no harm at all.
“I look at the league in its own entity and we had a brilliant win at Mansfield.
“We’re in a good vein of form, we’ve won three out of the last four games in the league and we go into the Bolton game confident to reproduce the performance we put in against Mansfield.”
Writer’s View
It’s easy to make these comments following a defeat, but there is likely a degree of truth in them. A Wembley visit would have provided an excellent day out but Wrexham’s full focus has always been earning a spot in the Championship. If they’d been asked prior to Wednesday night if they’d prefer to beat Peterborough or Bolton, they’d have chosen the latter.
