Wrexham AFC: No-one should be pressing panic buttons

Leader Live

3 hours ago

No-one said it would be easy and Wrexham suffered a second defeat in a row when West Brom won 3-2 at The Racecourse on Saturday.
The game was decided in both penalty areas as the Baggies capitalised on poor defending while the Reds weren't ruthless enough in front of goal.
Having suffered a 2-1 defeat to Southampton on the opening day, it has been a reality check for Phil Parkinson's side but no-one should be pressing panic buttons at this stage.
It has been as tough as everyone expected with Wrexham facing a Saints side relegated from the Premier League last season and a West Brom outfit who have also been in the fop-flight recently and regularly challenge for the play-offs at this level.
But in both games, Wrexham have had chances to win it.
The Reds, when leading 1-0 at St Mary's, came so close to getting that vital second goal before Southampton's late show.
When it was level at 1-1 on Saturday for the club's first home game in the second tier for 43 years, Wrexham had better opportunities than West Brom and looked more likely to get that important next goal.
But they just weren't clinical enough and the sloppy defending in their own area proved costly as they didn't even have a point to show for their efforts.
Both performances have had their positives.
The first-half display in each game was decent and that carried on at the start of the second period in both outings before the opposition managed to come out on both.
But in each match, the outcome could have been different if Wrexham had taken their chances and the defending was better.
Parkinson has spent big to make Wrexham competitive and they definitely have been.
It is fine margins at this level when, let's be honest, every game is difficult, but Wrexham can't afford to leak goals like they did on Saturday.
"We can take a lot of heart from the game," said Parkinson.
"It wasn't like we were a team who's been sat off the ball for 90 minutes and not got a kick.
"We had good control at times with the ball.
"We'd spoken about that last week how Southampton in that period towards the end, they dominated it and we need to make sure we get hold of the ball and get a breather with the football at times.
"I thought we did that really well even in the first half with some good passages of play for us.
"We switched it and got our wing backs in some great positions but when we all look back on Monday, which we will do as a group, at the goals, we will say 'wow, that's too easy'.
"If teams beat us and score against us, they've got to really have earned it and I don't think they had to really earn that enough today."
Wrexham have earned their place in the Championship after securing a record-breaking three successive promotions.
No doubt, there will be more defeats to chew over in the coming months than Reds have been used to during the meteoric rise up the pyramid but it's all about learning from those off-days.