Wrexham have faced their fair share of must-win games over the last few years, but they don’t come much bigger than this one.
After defeat to rivals Shrewsbury last week, Wrexham go into the top of the table clash with Birmingham City five points adrift of the league leaders, who have played two games less than the Red Dragons.
Phil Parkinson slammed his sloppy team for the recent loss, but promised the defensive side of things would improve moving forward.
Perhaps the sternest test of that backline will come on Thursday night, with Wrexham vs Birmingham being billed as the biggest game of the season for these promotion rivals.
Stopping Alfie May and Jay Stansfield is key to stopping Birmingham
Naturally, Wrexham will see this as a must-win game, but Max Cleworth (speaking to BBC Sport Wales) insisted that this should be treated like any other game, especially in light of what happened against Shrewsbury last week.
Cleworth said: “Any game we would be looking for a reaction after [the Shrewsbury defeat] last week, it doesn’t matter that it’s Birmingham at home. If we were playing away or at home, no matter who against, we need a reaction so obviously it falls at a nice time. Hopefully we will have that bit extra on Thursday.”
Birmingham were always going to do well this season, not least of all thanks to the investment they put into signing talented striker Jay Stansfield. His partnership with Alfie May has been identified as a key area for Phil Parkinson’s men to deal with, but Cleworth appeared calm about the incoming threat.
He added: “They are obviously two really good players. They’ve got other strong players in their attack, whether that be starting or coming off the bench, and we’re certainly going to look to do our best against them. We know we’ll have to be at it in order to do that [deal with them].”
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Would defeat be the end of Wrexham’s title hopes?
Mathematically, obviously, Wrexham are still very much in the title race right now. Even if they lost to Birmingham this week, it would still not be impossible to catch the Blues.
However, you look at that gap, which would be eight points if Birmingham did win, and could extend to 14 points if they are successful in their games in hand, too, and surely Wrexham’s dream of the League One title would be all but dead and buried.
Wrexham have Wycombe and Huddersfield to worry about when it comes to securing that other automatic promotion spot, and that is a battle they can realistically win.
However, regardless of the result at the Racecourse Ground tomorrow night, Wrexham have to fix their away form if they are to stand any chance of going up.