Phil Parkinson hails Wrexham’s ‘incredible resilience’ as Red Dragons take another step towards Championship play-offs

Wrexham’s strong run of form and success away from home continued in London on Saturday courtesy of an Oliver Rathbone goal. The midfielder, who recently extended his stay at the Racecourse Ground, hit a low effort through a crowd into the bottom right corner of the goal to put the Red Dragons on their way to victory.

The visitors had to remain strong in defence once ahead and were put under immense pressure by Nathan Jones’ side who pressed for an equaliser. Wrexham, who defended well and saw off all the Charlton attacks, were able to rest on their slender lead and earn a precious result on the road.

Rathbone’s goal was impressive, with the midfielder finding the target from the edge of the box. The goal came from a smart piece of work from record signing Nathan Broadhead and Wrexham boss Parkinson was keen to praise his game winners.

“Broadhead did well to skip past the lad marking him and Rathbone has done what he has done so many times for us. He is so calm in those situations. It is a really good finish,” he said, via the Press Association. “We had some gilt-edged chances in the second half and when you don’t take them it creates a bit of pressure. But we saw it through well today. When you put players of the presence of Dan Scarr and Zak Vyner on then it helped the rest of the team.”

The key to victory was in the defence of the 1-0 lead. After the game, Parkinson admitted that the Red Dragons were under huge swathes of pressure, but showed immense character to cling on for victory.

“We showed incredible resilience today to get the win,” he said. “There were some key moments in the game. Brilliant blocks by [Issa] Kabore and [George] Dobson – then a brilliant finish from Ollie.

“Arthur made a save from their first shot on target – but what a save it was. We know Carey is lethal from those situations. He has hit it low and hard, through legs, and Arthur has produced a match-winning save.”

He continued to label the way in which Wrexham defended their goal as “exceptional”, before adding: “We knew, coming here, that it would be about first contacts from set-plays and general play.

“Think of how many times the ball came into the box today and it came back out with a Wrexham head on it or reacting to the second ball.”

Wrexham will be itching to take to the field again and will face the biggest challenge of their fairytale story so far when they take on Chelsea in the FA Cup. The Blues have made a steady start to life under Liam Rosenior and will not want to suffer the shock of being knocked out by a Championship side.

Pedro Neto has expressed his and the Blues’ desire to lift the FA Cup this season, but the Red Dragons will not prove too easy a hurdle to overcome. Parkinson’s team are one of the most in-form sides in the second tier of English football and will look to take advantage of any slip up from the west London club.

The Blues will first have to overcome a Premier League clash with Arsenal, the only side to have beaten the club under Rosenior’s stewardship. The Gunners will be determined to move back to five points clear of Manchester City, who are hot on their heels after winning at Leeds United.