Wrexham fans pay tribute to Joey Jones at Southampton

Wrexham fans unveiled a large banner in memory of club legend Joey Jones before the Sky Bet Championship match at St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton.

The former Liverpool and Wales defender died at the age of 70.

With Wrexham, Jones won the Welsh Cup and helped the club reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1974.

Jones played 100 times in a trophy-laden three years at Liverpool, winning two European Cups, a UEFA Cup and a league title in three years.

The Llandudno-born left-back earned 72 caps for Wales, starting and ending his career at Wrexham after spells at Anfield, Chelsea and Huddersfield.

The banner unfurled in the away end at St Mary’s Stadium read – ‘Oh Joey Joey, Mr Wrexham’

Chants of ‘Oh Joey Joey’ rang around the Wrexham fans as the club made their return to the second tier of English football for the first time in 43 years.

Ahead of their first game in the Championship, Red Dragons’ boss Phil Parkinson said he was ready to embrace the grind of the league.

Three consecutive promotions have taken Wrexham from the National League to an opening day fixture away to Southampton, just relegated from the Premier League, and a return to a division Parkinson knows well from spells with Bolton, Charlton and Hull.

“I think it’s a great league,” Parkinson said. “Every game feels like a real big match atmosphere.”

While some fans have been dreaming that Wrexham can make it four promotions in a row there is the danger that after such a rapid rise that they find their ceiling – the jump from League One to the Championship is bigger than those they have bridged in the last couple of years.

And the Championship can be an unforgiving place – particularly for managers. Last season 15 were either sacked or left their role by mutual consent during the campaign.

“That’s just the nature of the division and football in general,” Parkinson said. “As a manager you’ve got to accept that and concentrate on doing your best every single day.

“Understand the division – you can get on a good run, but you can very quickly be on a bad run and it can change quickly. Over the years the division is so tight, right to the end of the season. Last season so many teams were in contention for the play-offs.

“It is very tight. If we get beat (sic) in games, which inevitably will happen, let’s make sure we don’t overreact as a staff, regroup and work towards the next one. That’s the mindset we had last year, we had setbacks along the way, people doubting us.

“People think with three promotions we’ve had praise all the time and plaudits, but we’ve had periods where people start questioning me as a manager, questioning the players. You come through these periods and there’s always a bigger picture to look at.”