Parkinson ready for anything in Wrexham run-in
Wrexham have secured 17 wins in their 41 Championship matches this season.
Manager Phil Parkinson has encouraged his Wrexham squad not to be overly discouraged by their 5-1 defeat to Southampton, emphasizing that "anything can happen" during the remaining fixtures of the season.
The Red Dragons slipped out of the Championship play-off positions following their comprehensive home loss to Southampton on Tuesday evening.
With five regular season games left, Parkinson highlighted the significant progress the team has made in the second tier after achieving three consecutive promotions.
"There's been a review of the performance on Wednesday with the team," Parkinson said.
"I think that was important because, as much as everybody was speaking about how good Southampton were, and they are a strong side, we know we can do a lot better."
The 58-year-old manager added:
"It was very important that we sat down with the group and went through areas of the game we needed to get better on.
"But it's about making sure that we don't let it knock us too much. We've come a long way as a club and a team this year.
"There's five games to go and we've got to learn from Tuesday night and take those lessons down to Birmingham on Sunday."
Wrexham's James to battle through pain barrier
Wrexham will face Birmingham City at St Andrew's on Sunday (12:00 BST), remaining firmly in contention for a top-six finish.
Parkinson hopes his team, currently two points behind sixth-placed Southampton who have a game in hand, will demonstrate the right mindset in response to their heavy midweek defeat as they prepare to face another side promoted from League One last season.
"Anything can happen and that's why I'm stressing to everybody, let's not get too low about the defeat because there's big games coming up," Parkinson added.
"There's got to be a bit of honesty and realisation and accountability from myself, because I'm the manager, and players individually.
"But we're not going to let it knock us too much, we're going to come out fighting at the weekend."
Training game proves beneficial
Following the Southampton defeat, Wrexham conducted an internal match to help certain players regain match fitness.
Ben Sheaf moved closer to returning to action by participating in the fixture at Stok Cae Ras on Wednesday.
The midfielder had been expected to miss the rest of the season after sustaining a knee injury during Wrexham's 5-3 victory over Ipswich Town on 21 February.
"The practice game, which we do reasonably often when we get the opportunities, it's important 11v11 practice, preparing players who may not have played on Tuesday to be available for Sunday," Parkinson explained.
"Matty James didn't play because he came on on Tuesday and needed to make sure that he was right for training today.
"Ben Sheaf joined in for the majority of it, which was good for him and everybody else who didn't feature played."
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