Phil Parkinson on the ‘hurt’ and ‘lessons to be learned’ from Southampton thrashing

Phil Parkinson saw his Wrexham side battered at home 5-1 by Southampton.

The defeat dropped them to seventh in the table and was a blow to their hopes of a fourth successive promotion.

The Dragons’ boss said: “We’ve got to use this as a lesson, even at this late stage of the season.

“We knew coming into this game the importance of it, and it hurts a lot that we haven’t put in a competitive performance.

“It shows if your levels drop you can get punished. We got cruelly punished in that first 20 minutes.

“We were nowhere near it in many aspects of the game.

“But there’s still all to play for. I’ll look at it closely and make sure we’re ready for the weekend.”

Meanwhile, Southampton boss Tonda Eckert claimed his team were making his job easy after following up their stunning FA Cup win over Arsenal by thrashing Wrexham.

The cup semi-finalists overpowered the Welsh outfit at Stok Cae Ras on Tuesday to replace the Red Dragons in the Sky Bet Championship play-off places.

Saints are enjoying a resurgence under Eckert having now gone 16 games unbeaten in all competitions.

The German said: “I think the team is so focused at the very moment, there’s not much that I need to say.

“My job is just to make sure that I prepare them in the best way possible for the games coming up.”

Saints, who were 21st in the table when Eckert replaced Will Still in November, have won 10 of their last 13 in the league, drawing the other three.

Kuryu Matsuki, Flynn Downes, Cyle Larin, Ross Stewart and Finn Azaz were all on target in an emphatic display in which the visitors also hit the woodwork three times.

Coming after the international break and their FA Cup heroics, Eckert was pleased with the strong return to league action.

He said: “To kick off Championship football again – it’s been some time since the last game. It feels like forever.

“We just needed to make sure that we kickstarted again and I think the boys did that very well.

“We play Saturday-Tuesday now until the end of the season but I think the rhythm is good.

“Now we need to finish off games quickly, stay humble, and always keep working.”

Wrexham did rally to make the score 2-1 at half-time with a fine strike from Josh Windass but, despite hitting the post twice themselves, were outplayed.