Phil Parkinson hails Wrexham’s character in eight-goal thriller against Ipswich

Phil Parkinson lavished praise on the character of his Wrexham team after their remarkable 5-3 win over Ipswich but was furious they were not awarded a penalty.

The Welsh side trailed 3-2 early in the second half at the Stok Cae Ras after twice leading in the first period, but responded with three goals in the final 24 minutes to move back into the Sky Bet Championship play-off spots.

Having beaten fourth-placed Ipswich in the FA Cup eight days ago and then drawn with Bristol City in midweek, it has been a demanding period for Parkinson’s men.

He said: “We went to Bristol on Tuesday and Bristol hadn’t had a weekend game. We’ve played Ipswich today, they didn’t have a midweek game and they completely changed the team from the Friday.

“The magnitude of the effort and the commitment the lads have given us today, if ever there was a game our supporters should be proud of the team, it was today.

“I said to the lads at half-time, ‘don’t let the goal affect us’. I thought we were unlucky not to be ahead. And then lo and behold the centre-half smashes one in to make it 3-2.

“I think a lesser group of players could have started letting a bit of fatigue creep into them mentally but we didn’t, we responded brilliantly, and that’s a great effort from the lads.”

Ipswich twice fought back to level in the first half, Anis Mehmeti and Ivan Azon in stoppage time cancelling out efforts from Kieffer Moore and Josh Windass, and Cedric Kipre scored a stunner to put the visitors in front just after the break.

But George Thomason equalised with his first goal for Wrexham in the 66th minute and they produced a grandstand finish thanks to Callum Doyle and Nathan Broadhead.

Shortly before Thomason’s equaliser, Wrexham appealed strongly for a spot-kick after Ipswich goalkeeper Christian Walton punched the head of Doyle instead of the ball from a corner, with referee Leigh Doughty giving a goal-kick.

“I don’t think you’re going to see a more blatant penalty than that,” said Parkinson.

“Doyley’s very lucky that he wasn’t knocked clean out. It was an absolutely reckless challenge. The ref’s got his own interpretation of it, I’ve already had a chat with him, but you can’t believe the linesman and the ref between them haven’t given that penalty.”

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna was left scratching his head at how his side had been opened up on so many occasions.

“I’m really disappointed with the outcome, disappointed with ourselves,” he said.

“We’ve come away from home and scored three really good goals and it should be enough to win you the game, but we’ve conceded some really poor ones today and some clinical finishing from Wrexham.

“It’s really frustrating because it was on the cusp of being a really good day for us with some of the qualities we’ve showed and ultimately the goals we’ve conceded, and mistakes we’ve made as a team and on an individual level have cost us the result we wanted.”