FA Cup: Wrexham comfortable with ‘underdog’ status against Shrewsbury – Phil Parkinson
The two sides will renew their cross-border rivalry in the third round, with Shrewsbury a division higher than Wrexham in League One.
This will be the first meeting between the sides in almost 16 years, since Town’s 3-0 win in League Two in 2008.
“It’s going to be a great cup tie, there’s a lot of elements that add excitement to the day,” said Parkinson.
“But purely from the football side of it, it is a good test for us and a good benchmark.
“The importance of this game for the supporters of both clubs is out there and the lads will have a clear understanding of that before the game kicks off.
“But it’s also about having a clear game plan of how to get through to the next round.
“This is what the FA Cup is all about, a team from a higher division and a local rival. Our supporters have backed us incredibly well over the Christmas period and it is a game to go and enjoy.”
The mind-games have been in full flow ahead of this first meeting in 16 years, with Shrewsbury defender Tom Flanagan keen to point out the division both teams find themselves in.
“Whether it is a local derby or not, they are a League Two team. Who owns them, what they wear, who they are, has no bearing on the game whatsoever,” Flanagan said.
Wrexham boss Parkinson happily accepted the underdog status for Sunday’s game, but said his side are used to dealing with high expectations.
“He [Flanagan] is only saying that they are League One and we are League Two, and that’s a fact,” said Parkinson.
“Of course, the team mid-table in League One and doing reasonably well are going to be favourites against a team a division below.
“We’ve got to go there with that underdog mentality and understand that to get through we need to reach the levels we did on New Year’s Day [against Barrow] and probably above that.
“We’re a team that is used to playing with expectations on our shoulders, we feel we’ve created a team with the mentality to cope with that and this will be no different.
“The reality is we’re playing a team with established League One players who will have been hoping at the start of the season to push towards the play-off places so we know it is going to be a huge challenge.”
