Phil Parkinson proud as Wrexham mark his 250th game with ‘great win’ at Derby

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said he felt “proud” after his team marked his 250th game in charge with a 2-1 win at Derby.

Parkinson celebrated a fourth victory in a row as the Welsh side moved to within one point of the play-off places.

Wrexham had started like a team in form and could have scored twice before Sam Smith finished clinically from close range in the 25th minute.

Ben Brereton-Diaz levelled from just inside the area eight minutes later but Matty James’ superb strike from outside the box in the 48th minute settled matters.

“To get to 250 at any club, I’m very proud of that because management is hard but I’m really enjoying my time here,” Parkinson said.

“We’ve got great owners and I enjoy every single day. When you reach those milestones, it’s always great if you can celebrate with a victory.

“There’s been a lot of expectation but it’s been an enjoyable journey so far because I’m working with great people, not just the staff but the owners and we are building another dressing room this year.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on getting that dressing room right and we are building another one of real strength and unity.

“It’s a great win for us today. I’m so pleased with how we played. I thought we started the game really well and we had three incredible chances to take the lead and then we got the goal.

“We said we had 45 minutes to finish this little block of games and we needed to go and give it everything to finish on a high, and we were able to do that with a brilliant strike from Matty James.”

For Derby head coach John Eustace, it was a frustrating afternoon after the home triumph over Middlesbrough on New Year’s Day.

“I thought in the second half we would go on and at least not lose the game, but the way we lost was disappointing in the decision-making a couple of times,” he said.

“This group of players will never give up, they’ll keep going to the end, which is all I ask from any group of players, that they show that level of commitment and desire and we certainly got that.

“I think we’ve made fantastic progress from when we came in, to be on this number of points now at this stage is really pleasing and this group of players have been fantastic, they’re learning and developing all the time.

“We are playing against teams who have good squads and we are going toe to toe with them and sometimes that lack of quality might cost us, but that desire and heart will get us a long way.”