Phil Parkinson praises Wrexham’s resilience following remarkable victory over Ipswich.
Phil Parkinson commended the resilience of his Wrexham squad following their impressive 5-3 victory over Ipswich but expressed his anger over a missed penalty decision.
The Welsh team found themselves trailing 3-2 early in the second half at the Stok Cae Ras after having led twice in the first half, yet they rallied with three goals in the last 24 minutes to reclaim a position in the Championship playoff spots.
After defeating fourth-placed Ipswich in the FA Cup just a week prior and drawing with Bristol City midweek, it has been a challenging stretch for Parkinson’s players.
He remarked: “We traveled to Bristol on Tuesday, and they hadn’t played over the weekend. Today, we faced Ipswich, who also had no midweek match and made significant changes to their lineup since Friday.”
“The level of effort and dedication the players displayed today is something our supporters should take pride in.”
“At half-time, I told the players, ‘don’t let the goal affect us.’ I felt we were unfortunate not to be in the lead. Then, unexpectedly, the centre-half scores to make it 3-2.”
“A less resilient group might have allowed fatigue to set in mentally, but we responded exceptionally well, and that’s a commendable effort from the players.”
Ipswich managed to equalize twice in the first half, with Anis Mehmeti and Ivan Azon in stoppage time leveling the score after goals from Kieffer Moore and Josh Windass, while Cedric Kipre netted a spectacular goal to give the visitors the lead shortly after the break.
However, George Thomason brought Wrexham level with his first goal for the club in the 66th minute, and they finished strongly with contributions from Callum Doyle and Nathan Broadhead.
Just before Thomason’s equalizer, Wrexham strongly appealed for a penalty after Ipswich goalkeeper Christian Walton struck Doyle’s head instead of the ball during a corner, but referee Leigh Doughty awarded a goal-kick.
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“I can’t imagine a more obvious penalty than that,” Parkinson stated.
“Doyle is fortunate he wasn’t seriously injured. It was a completely reckless challenge. The referee has his own interpretation, and I’ve already discussed it with him, but it’s hard to believe that neither the linesman nor the referee called that penalty.”
Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna expressed his confusion over how his team was exposed defensively on multiple occasions.
“I’m very disappointed with the result and with ourselves,” he commented.
“We came away from home and scored three excellent goals, which should be enough to secure a win, but we conceded some poor goals and faced clinical finishing from Wrexham.”
“It’s frustrating because it was close to being a very positive day for us given some of the qualities we displayed, but ultimately, the goals we conceded and the mistakes made both as a team and individually cost us the desired result.”
