Let’s rewind back to the start of League One. Buzzing with their second consecutive promotion, Wrexham AFC kicked off their season on quite an impressive note, maintaining a five-game unbeaten streak. Enter Birmingham City on Matchday 6, who managed to send the Red Dragons back to square one as they handed them a crushing 3-1 defeat. While many would see it merely as a temporary setback, for Phil Parkinson and Co., it almost felt like the Blues ‘knocked‘ them down pretty hard.

Of course, they must have felt that way. More than just a typical League One fixture, it was a rivalry that the Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney-backed club was looking to prevail against part-owned Tom Brady’s side. But despite the stakes being high, Wrexham failed in their quest and made it seem like a one-sided match for the opposition team. 

Fast forward to today, Phil Parkinson has stepped in to share how it deeply affected the team. Speaking on the latest episode of the Men in Blazers podcast, the English manager said, “Going back to that Birmingham game which of course, was a high-profile game with both ownerships of the clubs, I felt it knocked us a bit too much.”

Then again, victory and defeat are a part of the game, and both Parkinson as well as the players don’t understand this. “We are going to lose and we’ve got to pick ourselves up quickly, something we’ve been speaking about with the lads,” added the 56-year-old, underscoring his side’s ability to get back on their feet.

It’s not like things didn’t improve for the Red Dragons after their first loss of the 2024-25 season; they are currently sitting in third place in League One with a tally of 28 points, having secured a total of 8 wins, 4 draws, and 3 losses (including the Birmingham one) in over 15 matches so far. Then again, their rivals are doing a couple of steps ahead of them, who sit in second place with 30 points, two points deficit from leaders Wycombe.

Perhaps it’s because of the upper hand they had in the summer transfer window over Wrexham, which had also somehow marred the Welsh club’s plans.

Why couldn’t Wrexham compete with Birmingham City in the summer transfer window?

This summer, Wrexham focused on fresh prospects and clearing out old wood, avoiding flashy signings. In contrast, their arch-rivals Birmingham City, backed by Tom Brady, spent $16.7 million, disrupting Wrexham’s transfer ambitions. “Going back to the summer, in the transfer market that was really chaotic because Birmingham set the bar so high,” began Parkinson.

“They gave the market an unrealistic look in terms of the money they were paying, wages-wise and with transfer fees. We knew we couldn’t compete with that,” he added, which explains why the Welsh-based club opted to bring in promising talents like goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo, forward Mo Faal, center-back Lewis Brunt, and left-back Sebastian Revan.

Phil Parkinson also shared that, after the arrival of their new chief executive, Michael Williamson, they decided to lower the age profile of the squad—a move he expressed satisfaction with. “It’s very difficult to compete with [the likes of] Bolton and Birmingham but we’ve got to have a different strategy now. I was pleased with the way we operated in the summer,” added the Wrexham boss.

Good thing that Wrexham knows how to pick itself up as it remains to be seen how it manages to compete with the riches of Birmingham City.