Phil Parkinson admits Wrexham had to dig deep for win at Swindon

Phil Parkinson admitted his 10-man Wrexham side had to dig deep to get the three points with a 1-0 win over Swindon.

James McClean’s early goal gave the visitors their first win at the County Ground since 1985.

Parkinson said: “I am so pleased with the win. We should have been out of sight as we had some really good chances to extend the lead and their ‘keeper made some good saves.

“The sending-off made it edgier than it needed to be.

“We had to show so many different qualities over the 90 minutes to get the three points and it is a really important win for us.

“When the fixtures came out everyone took a second look at it, I don’t think the EFL have done us any favours with Swindon away on Boxing Day.

“We had a lot of disruption this week and we had to rejig the team and the lads have responded in really good fashion with an important win.”

McClean gave Wrexham an early lead as he capitalised on a loose ball on the edge of the box, got away from a defender and turned beyond Lewis Ward.

Ward had to be at his very best to keep the game in the balance after 59 minutes as Anthony Forde picked out Sam Dalby with a cross, his bullet header looked destined for the bottom corner before the goalkeeper got down to push the ball to safety.

James Jones got his marching after 75 minutes for a pair of yellow cards, the second coming after he brought down Tyrese Shade as he looked to burst into the area on the left.

Jake Young and Saidou Khan both had glorious chances to find a leveller for Swindon as they forced Wrexham back, but neither could find the target with their finishes from inside the penalty area.

Michael Flynn said that he felt his Swindon side had been much the better team after the break and were worthy of getting something from the game.

He said: “It was a poor goal for us to give away after I felt that we had started the game brightly and then we went a little bit flat after that.

“But in the second half I think we had a right go and they stuck together and with better finishing we would have won the game.

“I would say the red card helped later on in the game but we were already on top at that point.

“They had a bit of a period in the second half when Lewis Ward had to make a good save, but as long as it was 1-0 we were still in the game.

“With that little bit of quality in the final third we would have got the points.”