Wrexham conclude their pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand on Saturday, with a game against A-League outfit Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand.
Wrexham play the final of three games of their Wrexham Down Under tour on Saturday, and Phil Parkinson’s side will be looking to build some consistency after defeat in their last outing.
Earlier in the week, Wrexham were beaten 2-1 by Sydney FC in what was an overall disappointing game, albeit not a hugely important one with players still getting up to speed.
Parkinson rued the lack of quality in the game and rightly so: Wrexham were beaten by a very makeshift, and very young Sydney FC side on the day, despite Parkinson fielding a fairly strong Wrexham side.
In the Dragons’ defence, there are a few injury concerns in the squad right now, with Ollie Rathbone forced off with injury before the break too, and now looking set for a spell on the sidelines.
Wellington Phoenix chief reveals the game plan for Wrexham
Speaking to NewstalkZB, Wellington Phoenix’s general manager David Dome was discussing the Wrexham game and how Phoenix will line up in either half. Given it’s a pre-season game for both teams, we may expect to see both sides make wholesale changes at the break, with plenty of youngsters set to be on show from Phoenix too.
Dome said when asked if his side think they can beat Wrexham: “Yep. Course we do. Sydney played them Tuesday night, beat them 2-1. They had a very young team on in the second half. I know for a fact that our academy is 100x better than Sydney’s: we’ve got better players, got better coaches, got better staff in our academy.
“I know for a fact that we’ll put out a very good team on the ground in the second half.”
Wellington Phoenix set to play the youngsters against Wrexham
Wrexham are planning two more friendlies when they get back to Wales, to go before they kick off their Championship campaign against Southampton on August 9th.
Those friendlies will be against tougher opposition than what they’re facing Down Under, with Wellington set to follow in Sydney’s footsteps and field a very young side.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s game, Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano revealed: “We’ll have a younger team playing in the first half and the second half will essentially be the academy playing. I’m buzzing for both groups. It’s a great opportunity to showcase what the squad can do.”
For Parkinson, the result is not the most important thing on Saturday. But another defeat against another youth side surely won’t do much for the players’ confidence, nor for the confidence of the fans.
But another comfortable win, like the one in Melbourne, would quickly put that defeat against Sydney in the past, and give fans a bit more to be excited about ahead of the new Championship season starting in a few weeks.