Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson hasn’t spoken all that positively about his side’s performance against Sydney FC on Tuesday, and understandably so, after what was a rather weak outing.
Pre-season friendlies are of course about gaining fitness and minutes and so on. But against opposition who are so much weaker, and who played a weakened side as well, Wrexham should’ve done so much more.
On Tuesday, Wrexham lost 2-1 against Sydney FC, in a game that did very little to fill Dragons fans with confidence ahead of the new season starting in August.
An own goal gave Wrexham the lead, but Sydney scored either side of half-time to eventually claim a deserved 2-1 win, coming after Wrexham beat Melbourne Victory 3-0 in their pre-season opener last week.
On the 19th, Wrexham play Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand before returning to Wales.
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Phil Parkinson’s worrying verdict after Wrexham lose against Sydney FC
Speaking to the club after the game, Phil Parkinson didn’t hide the fact that his side weren’t good enough. And in a rather worrying claim, he said there was only one moment of quality in the entire 90 minutes, which came from youngster Joseph Lacey who curled home the winner in the 74th minute.
Parkinson said: “First half I thought we were more or less in control of the game. Got the goal and then conceded for from a set-play ourselves, or we didn’t react when it came back off Dan [Ward], and I think the second period we had enough good periods of play, but the quality of the final ball wasn’t where it needed to be.
“We got punished by the one real moment of class in the second half and it was from one of their youngsters.”
Yet more bad news for Wrexham after Sydney FC defeat
Even at this early stage of pre-season, to see so little quality in the performance, albeit from a Wrexham XI missing some key players, is certainly worrying, especially with Wrexham set to play an undoubtedly rampant Southampton side in their season opener in less than a month now.
To make matters worse, Parkinson revealed some Wrexham injury concerns after the game, and they’re all concentrated in attack: Sam Smith, Mo Faal, and Ryan Hardie all missed the game through injury, and Smith for one looks like he may not feature on this pre-season tour whatsoever.
During the game, Ollie Rathbone came off injured and went straight to hospital for an x-ray, whilst Jay Rodriguez picked up a knock against Sydney FC too.
Wrexham fans are calling for more signings to be made after that performance, and now with injuries piled on too, the need for new players just got very pressing indeed.