Phil Parkinson has ‘honest chat’ with Wrexham after disappointing Hull display

Simon Peach, Press Association Chief Football Writer

Phil Parkinson is expecting a response from Wrexham after Hull punished an uncharacteristically meek performance and ended their nine-game unbeaten run in the Championship.

The Red Dragons suffered their first league loss since the trip to Stoke on October 18 as Kyle Joseph and returning substitute Oli McBurnie sealed the Tigers a 2-0 win at the MKM Stadium.

Kieffer Moore wasted a glorious chance for Wrexham in the opening period and saw a second-half penalty saved by Ivor Pandur, but few would argue that Hull did not deserve Wednesday’s victory.

Even Parkinson praised the hosts, having watched his side stumble from the stands and play particularly poorly in the first 45 minutes.

“We just weren’t at the levels tonight and I’ve got to look at that – my part in it, all the staff will, and the players themselves,” the Wrexham manager said.

“But we’ll do that together. The lads have given us a lot but tonight we were below the level, and we’ll come out ready for action at the weekend.”

Parkinson let the players know what he thought of the performance in the dressing room after the match, having given them Thursday off to recover from the journey back to north Wales.

“We’ve just had an honest chat with the lads,” the Wrexham manager said. “We just weren’t where we needed to be tonight and we’ve got to be honest about that.

“It’s very rare in my whole time at Wrexham to have a 45 minutes that was so unlike us.

“Tonight the first 45 minutes was certainly one of those performances, but against a good side as well. Give them credit, they were excellent.

“We will look to respond, of course. That’s what football’s all about.

“We’ll be a bit flat tomorrow because we don’t like losing. Nobody does in football, but we’ll work together as a group, and we’ll look to putting up a good performance on the weekend.”

Wrexham will attempt to bounce back at home to Watford on Saturday having lost to a Hull side that came into this match desperate to make amends.

Sergej Jakirovic’s side suffered a humiliating 4-1 home loss Middlesbrough last Friday and got back to winning ways with a triumph that propelled them up to sixth.

“That type of game happens sometimes,” the Hull boss said as he reflected on the Boro battering.

“When you watch the game again, you couldn’t believe it what they’re doing there.

“We gave a lot, a lot, and this is also Boro’s quality to punish your mistakes.

“But also we showed good reaction and this is in football always very, very important. They couldn’t wait for a new game to show that it was a bad day at the office.”