'We were way off it!' - Phil Parkinson accuses Wrexham players of lacking 'fight' in shock Stevenage loss as Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney's hopes of third successive promotion suffer major blow

Stevenage ran out 3-2 winners at the Stok Cae Ras on Tuesday and inflicted a first home league defeat of the season on Wrexham. The Red Dragons have now gone three games without a win in League One to slip down to third place in the table. Parkinson's side are currently eight points behind leaders Birmingham, who have two games in hand.

Wrexham's recent run of form has hit Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's hopes of achieving a third successive promotion and a place in the Championship for next season. Parkinson was not happy with his side's performance and outlined where it had all gone wrong after the loss.

He told reporters: "Those two goals in the first half were just too easy. We have to get back to doing the very basics on the football pitch well. You still give yourself a platform by fighting and competing all over the pitch, by blocking shots, and we were way off it out there tonight. If you look at the third goal, we have lost challenges, and we have not shown enough desire in the final moment to block the shot. We will use the defeat as motivation. I will look closely at myself and take full responsibility for that. I pride myself and my coaching staff on preparing teams to play well, and the majority of the time, we have done that and competed and been strong. Tonight we were too loose out of possession and obviously weren’t good enough in possession first half. When you are not playing well as a team, you have to stand strong as a team and win headers and there wasn’t enough fight barring two or three players out there tonight.”

Wrexham need to get back to winning ways quickly if they are to stay in the promotion fight. Next up for Parkinson's side is a trip to relegation-threatened Crawley Town on Saturday.