Wrexham are looking to secure promotion to the Championship in the 2024/25 season and remain in with a decent chance of doing so.
Wrexham beat Peterborough United this past weekend thanks to another late goal from super-sub, Steven Fletcher.
It was a crucial three points for the Red Dragons in their hunt for automatic promotion given what happened elsewhere in League One.
Wycombe Wanderers were held to a 1-1 draw by Blackpool on Saturday, meaning they are now level on points with Wrexham.
Second-place Wycombe and fourth-place Huddersfield Town will now clash in a League One fixture on Tuesday evening, meaning at least one of them is going to drop points.
This is great news for Wrexham but there’s still a long way to go in the 2024/25 campaign and still very little separating the top four teams in the third tier.
| Team | Points | Games played |
| Birmingham City | 53 | 23 |
| Wycombe | 51 | 24 |
| Wrexham | 51 | 25 |
| Huddersfield | 44 | 23 |
Phil Parkinson has to recall Sam Dalby in January
While Wrexham are largely keeping pace with the current top two at present, they are much weaker than Wycombe and Birmingham in one area.
The Welsh side have scored 37 times in 2024/25 – 13 less than Wycombe and four less than Birmingham despite playing more matches.
In turn, it would make sense for the Red Dragons to recall Sam Dalby, who is now the top scorer in the Scottish Premier League after being loaned to Dundee United.
However, Phil Parkinson spoke about Dalby recently and hinted he will stay in Scotland for the rest of 2024/25.
He said: “Sam is there for the season, there is the opportunity to call him back and we’re just going to weigh everything up.
“Be fair to Dundee United because they have been great for him and be fair to Sam as well. He’s a player we rate but we just felt it was time for him to go and be someone’s number nine.”
Though not official, it does seem to suggest the striker won’t be returning to Wrexham this month, which is a big mistake.
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Sam Dalby is better than every Wrexham striker this season
The likes of Paul Mullin and Ollie Palmer have greatly underperformed for Wrexham in 2024/25.
This has forced midfielders and defenders like Max Cleworth and Elliot Lee to step up on the goal front.
Their contributions are unlikely to be enough to compete with the firepower of Wycombe and Birmingham across an entire campaign, however, with it obvious fresh legs are needed up top.
Dalby is the clear solution to this problem but it doesn’t look as though he will be heading back to Wales anytime soon.
| Stats | Sam Dalby | Paul Mullin | Ollie Palmer | Steven Fletcher | Jack Marriott | Modou Faal |
| Appearances | 18 | 23 | 25 | 19 | 10 | 6 |
| Goals | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Assists | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wrexham have been linked with strikers in the last week or so, but the options named have hardly played or are well out of form.
So, if one of them is brought in and Dalby doesn’t return, it’s likely the Welsh outfit will continue struggling on the goal front, which could prove detrimental to their promotion hopes come May.