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Phil Parkinson urged to drop 62-touch Wrexham ace for rarely-seen player ahead of crunch Birmingham City clash

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Wrexham are back in League One action next Thursday, facing off with Birmingham City in a huge clash.

Wrexham were beaten 2-1 by Shrewsbury Town in their previous meeting and their chances of securing automatic promotion have taken a blow as a result.

Fourth-place Huddersfield Town can now overtake them in the table if they win their games in hand.

Wycombe Wanderers will also go three points clear if they are able to win their extra match.

The side most likely to win promotion to the Championship this term though, is seemingly Birmingham City, who beat Wrexham in the reverse fixture earlier this season.

Shrewsbury Town FC v Wrexham AFC - Sky Bet League One
Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images

Phil Parkison told to drop Eoghan O’Connell for Wrexham vs Birmingham City

Birmingham are already two points clear atop of League One with three games in hand on Wrexham.

Should they lose on Thursday, their chances of catching the Tom Brady-owned club are likely all but over, making it something of a must-win or at least a must-not-lose fixture.

Ahead of the meeting, Wrexham experts Rich Fay and Nathan Salt have picked their teams for what is going to be a huge tie.

And both decided that centre-back Eoghan O’Connell needs to be dropped from the eleven in place of Dan Scarr, who hasn’t featured in the league since November 16th versus Stockport County.

Fay said: “So I’m going Okonkwo in goal, super Max Cleworth, Dan Scarr, I’ll go Lewis Brunt [if available] tough game for him but I’d like to see that.”

Salt added: “I’ll go Okonkwo, I’ll go the same back three as you. O’Connell might just need pulling out of the firing line.

“And Dan Scarr’s a promotion-winning captain at this level so get him in there, and he didn’t actually do a lot wrong to get dropped in the first place I didn’t think.

“So I would go Max, Scar and Brunt if he’s available but again, O’Connor if not.”

Eoghan O’Connell stats vs Shrewsbury Town

It’s easy to see why the centre-back has been left out of both journalist’s teams for the Birmingham clash.

Wrexham fans sent a clear demand to Parkinson after the Shrewsbury defeat, urging him to drop O’Connell for Scarr.

He made two big errors that both led to goals and his stats on the day weren’t great.

Sofascore gave him a 6.5 rating while he had 66 touches, made just one tackle, gave away a penalty, committed two fouls, and gave away possession 18 times.