Wrexham’s automatic promotion hopes suffered a blow on Tuesday night as Phil Parkinson’s side lost 2-0 at Reading.
Phil Parkinson is a Reading hero from his playing days but certainly didn’t enjoy his return to Berkshire on Tuesday night.
Wrexham beat Rotherham United 1-0 on Saturday afternoon and were looking to back that up with a positive result at Reading too.
This ended up being a torrid night for Wrexham though as Parkinson slipped to a 2-0 defeat against the Royals.
Harvey Knibbs scored from the penalty spot before Lewis Wing added number two with Reading cutting through the Wrexham back line.
Michael Strickland’s red card gave Wrexham hope but that’s all it was as Parkinson’s men failed to find the net.
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Reading boss reacts to beating Wrexham
This was never going to be an easy trip.
Wrexham have been in great form on the road of late but Reading entered the game on an eight-game unbeaten run.
Noel Hunt’s side were always going to pose a threat and Wrexham just couldn’t cope on the night.
Reading’s slick passing play caused problems all night whereas Wrexham were pretty toothless before gaining some momentum with Strickland’s red card.
Hunt has now spoken to the Reading Chronicle about the game, admitting that the ‘magnitude’ of the Wrexham team on the pitch means this was one of Reading’s best performances of the campaign.
Hunt felt that Reading showed character and personality to play through Wrexham, leaving the Royals boss ‘really pleased’.
“Yeah, one of them [best performances of season]. We’ve had a few here but the magnitude of the team we were playing so to go and put in a performance like that and show the character and personality, I’m really pleased,” said Hunt.
“We felt on Saturday we rushed too much and could have played more, especially in the second half. We spoke to the boys about having the character and personality to believe that we have the quality to pass and move, really pleasing,” he added.
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Saturday may have just become must-win for Wrexham
Hunt clearly respected the players Wrexham called upon but it was a poor performance on the night.
Wrexham have though made a habit of hitting back well after defeat.
Wrexham lost to Peterborough United in the EFL Trophy and hit back with seven points from three games.
Parkinson will need to call on that resilience again this weekend though as Wrexham head to Wycombe Wanderers.
This is the big one in the battle for second place with the two sides level on points heading into a huge clash.
Tuesday’s game at Reading handed Wrexham a chance to leapfrog the Chairboys and head into Saturday with a lead.
Instead, Wycombe now have a game in hand on Wrexham and defeat for Parkinson this weekend would leave Mike Dodds’ side in the box seat.
Dodds is ‘confident’ head of facing Wrexham and this game may have now become ‘must win’ for Parkinson and co with so few games to play.