When Phil Parkinson reaches the notable milestone of 1,000 games as a manager early in the New Year, all manner of memories are likely to stand out. Knocking Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea out of the FA Cup when in charge of League One side Bradford City will no doubt feature, as will the big wins on the way to clinching five career promotions.
One of those victories came at Burton Albion, a semi-final second-leg League Two play-off in May 2013, when his Bradford side overturned a one-goal deficit to book a trip to Wembley.
Saturday’s return to the Pirelli Stadium never came close to matching the seat-of-the-pants entertainment from that 3-1 win 11 years ago, Storm Darragh’s swirling wind and driving rain making life difficult for both teams.
But Elliot Lee, managing to do what even the great Lionel Messi has never managed in his career — an ‘Olimpico goal’, namely scoring direct from a corner — elevated what would have otherwise been a regular 1-0 victory to the pantheon of most memorable moments in Parkinson’s career.
“I thought we handled the difficult conditions very, very well,” said the Wrexham manager. “A really good day and I’m so pleased, especially for Elliot. I can’t remember scoring direct from a corner many times in my career, if at all.”
Jordan Davies did manage the same feat early in Parkinson’s Wrexham reign, his direct goal from a corner securing victory at Dover Athletic in December, 2021. The 57-year-old, though, can be forgiven such an oversight, especially considering his clear sense of satisfaction at the final whistle.
Not only did Lee’s winner take the Welsh club level on 40 points with leaders Wycombe Wanderers at the top of League One, it also gave the team their third away win in the league and a much-needed boost to the tally of points on the road, to 12 from nine outings, the ninth best in the division.
Less impressive is Wrexham’s goal return, with Lee’s ‘Olimpico’ just the seventh time they have found the net away from home in the league this season. Only four of their League One peers — Stevenage (3), Cambridge United (5), Crawley Town (5) and Rotherham United (6) — have scored less.
Perhaps most worrying of all is how such a low tally is considered to be only marginally above par by Opta, who deem Wrexham to have an expected goals (xG) of just 8.13 from those nine fixtures.
Contrast that with leaders Wycombe Wanderers, who have netted an impressive 24 goals (xG 18.2) in 10 games on the road. Birmingham, too, are over-achieving substantially in terms of converting chances away from St Andrews with Saturday’s 2-1 win at Barnsley taking their own tally to 17 goals in nine away games (xG 11.79).
Considering how the xG metric reflects how easy or difficult it is to convert a shot into a goal, Wrexham are clearly lagging behind the teams sitting either side of them in the table when it comes to their quality of goalscoring opportunities.
That has to be a worry, with even last season’s away day troubles — as late as the first week in March, they still had League Two’s joint-lowest tally of away goals with 16 from 18 games — coming amid a glut of chances being created and missed.
The losses at Accrington and Walsall, for instance, saw plenty of opportunities spurned, while even the 5-0 thrashing at Stockport involved Wrexham creating several good opportunities early on before the hosts ran riot.
This time around, the games have been much tighter. Part of this can be put down to better defending in the division, with chances often at a premium against the top sides.
Saturday was a step in the right direction, Opta judging Wrexham’s xG to be 1.61 against Burton. With Lee playing just behind Ollie Palmer in a 3-5-1-1 set-up, Wrexham seemed intent on keeping things tight in the first half when playing into the wind.
Some joy was had down the right flank, particularly when Ollie Rathbone found sufficient space to drill a low cross that just evaded Lee at the back post.
But, really, Wrexham were playing within themselves in the opening 45 minutes. A marked change came after the restart, with Ryan Barnett pushed further forward in his role as right wing-back.
The ploy paid off with the visitors firmly on the front foot after the restart. Lee’s winner may have been unusual in that it went straight in from a corner via the post, but there were plenty of other more regular chances as Steven Fletcher and Paul Mullin were both denied at close range in the final quarter by goalkeeper Max Crocombe.
Tom O’Connor also came within a whisker of netting against his former club with an outrageous wind-assisted 45-yard free-kick that the back-pedalling Crocombe did well to turn behind for a corner.
In all, Wrexham had 16 efforts on goal compared to just five for the hosts, a big improvement on recent away defeats, such as Stockport (xG 0.81) and Stevenage (0.55) when the attack had been largely toothless.
“We could have killed the game off towards the end,” added Parkinson. “But we just couldn’t get that second goal. All in all, though, we can be pleased, especially how we got Barney (Barnett) higher up the pitch at half-time.
“It’s important we got back to our away-from-home resilience, like (in the games at) Charlton and Rotherham. The one blip we’ve had was Stockport. So, it was good to be back to the spirit and determination you need on your travels.”
(Top photo: Jess Hornby/Getty Images)
