Wrexham slumped to defeat at Stevenage on Tuesday night as Phil Parkinson is left with questions to answer about attacking form.
This is a busy week for Wrexham and Tuesday brought another lengthy journey after drawing 0-0 at Leyton Orient on Saturday.
Wrexham headed to Stevenage on Tuesday and after a pitch inspection, the game went ahead on a damp evening in Hertfordshire.
This just wasn’t Wrexham’s day at all and Louis Thompson scored the only goal of the game, arrowing a long-range strike beyond Arthur Okonkwo in the first half.
Wrexham huffed and puffed but there was just noting happening in the final third – and that presents questions for Phil Parkinson.
Wrexham attacking concerns
That is now two blanks in a row on the road for Wrexham and this performance had shades of some of last season’s midweek travels.
Wrexham mustered just one shot on target against Stevenage and it wasn’t much better at Leyton Orient on Saturday.
Wrexham managed two shots on target in that game, meaning it’s just three across the last two games.
That isn’t good enough at all and Wrexham looked pretty toothless against Stevenage.
Parkinson tinkered with the formation, threw on Elliot Lee, Paul Mullin and Ollie Palmer, but it was to no avail.
Since Wrexham’s 3-0 home win over Shrewsbury Town in September, the open play threat has been almost non-existent.
In fact, Wrexham’s three goals in the last four games have all come from set pieces; Jack Marriott at Birmingham City and then both Elliot Lee and Max Cleworth against Crawley Town.
The last four games have not exactly been vintage Wrexham and Parkinson will be looking for a solution to these attacking concerns ahead of facing Northampton Town at the STōK Cae Ras before the international break.
No time for panic just yet
Tuesday night was a bad one; Wrexham had plenty of the ball but no spark to make things happen in front of goal.
We saw games like that last season and Wrexham still got the job done and secured promotion.
Wrexham have now moved up a level and there will absolutely be frustrating nights where it just doesn’t happen in front of goal.
Stringing those games together is a concern but there should be no major panic around Wrexham right now.
A blistering start maybe raised expectation levels but Wrexham are still sitting second in League One, something nobody could have had in mind five years ago.
There are things for Wrexham to work on right now, which was always going to be the case in League One, and fans will certainly back Parkinson to find the answers.