Wrexham are nearing the January transfer window and Phil Parkinson is likely to be eyeing signings for the second half of the League One season and beyond.
Wrexham fans no doubt feel a little frustrated right now.
Last weekend’s 2-2 draw against Cambridge United was disappointing enough with Wrexham conceding late on to drop two points.
This weekend hasn’t been much better as Wrexham were 1-0 up at Bristol Rovers until very late in the day.
Elliot Lee’s opener from a brilliant Matty James assist appeared to have won the game but Promise Omochere levelled it up late on.
Two draws against bottom six sides won’t have impressed Wrexham fans and a big response is needed against Blackpool on Boxing Day.
Phil Parkinson on ‘strange’ Wrexham situation
Wrexham remain in the hunt for promotion but those two draws will be a major frustration not just for fans but also for boss Phil Parkinson.
Parkinson will hope for a response over the festive period and he will also hope to have Arthur Okonkwo back in action soon enough.
Okonkwo broke his wrist in November and hasn’t played since.
The Wrexham stopper has been sorely missed and Parkinson believes that Okonkwo will be back in action soon.
Parkinson has now told The Athletic that he thinks Wrexham’s goalkeeping situation has been ‘strange’ this season.
Okonkwo suffered his injury, Callum Burton picked up a blow of his own whilst loaned-out Luke McNicholas also suffered an injury on loan at Rochdale.
Parkinson praised recent signing Brad Foster but can’t even remember such a situation where so many goalkeepers pick up an injury at the same time.
“We’re pleased. We expected to get the thumbs up on Wednesday (for a return), but you never know,” said Parkinson.
“It’s been a strange season, not the sort I can remember happening before, with Arthur, Callum and Luke (McNicholas, out on loan at Rochdale in the fifth-tier National League) all getting injured.
“All the goalkeepers who have stepped in have done well. You have to put Brad (Foster) in that equation, too. He’d hardly been with us when we threw him in against Crewe. He handled it really well.
“In general, the structure of the team, the hard work ethic and the organisation have been good. We need to keep working on that, as that’s what has made us tight and hard to score against,” he added.
Wrexham could make January move
Parkinson will be pleased to welcome Okonkwo back into the fold and we would not be surprised to see another goalkeeper arrive.
Mark Howard has been praised by Parkinson but he was supposed to be Wrexham’s experienced third-choice stopper this season.
Burton could now miss the rest of the season with injury and Wrexham may want another stopper to come in and compete with Okonkwo and Howard.
Speaking earlier in December, Parkinson hinted at signing another goalkeeper in January by admitting that he wanted a stop-gap emergency loan addition.
“We’d still like to bring in another keeper – the EFL rules are not very favourable and very complicated,” said Parkinson.
“I don’t agree with them because when you look at it Arthur’s broken his wrist, we’ve got Callum with a torn thigh and Luke McNicholas is injured as well.
“If that’s not exceptional circumstances then I don’t know what it. I think the EFL will have to have a very close look at their rules. But we’ll get on to that tomorrow and try and get a solution to get us through to January,” he added.
Perhaps Parkinson was just referring to January as Okonkwo’s return date but we would not be surprised to see another goalkeeper arrive to sit ahead of Howard and behind Okonkwo in the pecking order.