Phil Parkinson causes a stir with his some of his post-match comments after Wrexham’s 2-1 defeat to Southampton on Saturday.
A 20 second clip of the near 7 minute press conference was uploaded onto social media, with @Two_Pradista tweeting: ‘Minnows Wrexham, who are devoid of financial backing, couldn’t stay in the game because of the value of #SaintsFC’s substitutes and not because of fluffing their chances, according to Phil Parkinson. Must’ve been hard when £0 Ryan Manning teed up £0 Jack Stephens for the winner.”
Another user, an Ipswich fan with the username @h__g548, wrote: Just bought their way to an unprecedented 3 promotions and after one game he’s moaning about the disparity 😂😂 genuinely hope they come rock bottom. Fucking mugs”
Their tweets have gone on to get over 6,000 likes each, with the clip on Twitter alone getting over 2.5 million views. Have a watch…
Minnows Wrexham, who are devoid of financial backing, couldn’t stay in the game because of the value of #SaintsFC‘s substitutes and not because of fluffing their chances, according to Phil Parkinson.
Must’ve been hard when £0 Ryan Manning teed up £0 Jack Stephens for the winner pic.twitter.com/f2NiaWgcwM
— J (@Two_Pradista) August 9, 2025
Phil Parkinson said: Yeah, obviously hugely disappointed not to get something from the game. A lot to build on for us though, I thought it was a really strong performance with a lot of new players and a lot of players playing at the level for the first time. Many talking points in the game, we’ve had chances to kill the game off and to be fair to Ryan Hardie, he’s not done a lot wrong, the keeper did make a brilliant save. Lewis O’Brien was clean through, a contentious moment and we probably needed that second goal because at that point they’d run out of ideas and it wasn’t until they threw the two big fellas up top and they went direct, obviously we’d given free kick away which got punished for and the second goal is a frustrating one for us because we’ve got done from a diagonal pass and we needed to deal with that but I think when we reflect, you know, it’s a very proud day for the club playing at this level and there was a lot of positives for us. The new lads came in and equipped themselves really well. But the existing players as well, I thought were really good. Max and Brunt showed what they’re all about. Barnett was great. Dobbo and Matty James. That gives us great heart for the season ahead.
Interviewer: As much as they had some, a lot of ball, there some good chances there, good chances for your side?
Phil Parkinson: Yeah, no definitely, Southampton have put subs on worth probably about 30-40 million today and that is obviously the difference. We’ve lost Kieffer, which obviously was a blow. think, you know, I want to look at the moment again when he’s cleaned through and he gets pushed down for the penalty and I’ve just spoke to the ref and I said, look, my interpretation of that rule is that if it’s an intentional push, it’s a straight red. And we saw that from the touch line. I saw it again on the footage at half time. And I can’t see how he’s not got that right, because that’s a game-changing moment. If they go down to 10 men, I know the ref feels there is a recovering defender. But if you’re just about to strike the ball on goal and the player intensely pushes you to the ground, for me, the ref’s got to make that call right. And just on the Kieffer for one, obviously losing him with his injury was a blow for us because his performance was outstanding, everything we know he brings to us. And we’ve just got to assess that injury as quickly as we can.
Interviewer: What was it, Phil?
Phil Parkinson: It was his ankle ligaments.
Interviewer: So just fingers crossed with him.
Phil Parkinson: I feel we’ve acquitted ourselves well. There’s a lot to work on and a lot of positives to build from as well. We look at that closely as a staff. But it was a very proud moment for everyone connected with the club today. I took a moment when the lads ran out for the warm-up and just reflected because where we’ve come from to be playing on a stage like this today was very special. We had outstanding support and the lads have performed how we need them to do every single week. They changed the shape in the game. They played differently to how we expected, but we adapted to that brilliantly. And it was just really when they went direct and threw caution at the wind that they’d gone back in the game. They’ll be hurting because we haven’t got anything. But equally, they should be very proud of their football club today.
On if he went to the referee, Parky said: I went to see him and it was just a calm chat. I just can’t see how he’s got it right though. He said the covering defender but my view on that is if you’re just about to strike the ball for an attempt on goal, which he clearly was and the defenders just pushed him to the ground, it’s got to be a red card. It’s got to be in terms of where he was on the pitch. Now if he’s 20 yards outside the box and he’s running through and there’s a covering defender, I can see him making that call. But I think where the proximity of the incident is a red card. And that changes the game and I think the ref I’m sure will look at that and realise that we’ve been bit harshly treated there.
Interviewer: Just in terms of the club’s journey, did you share anything with the team or perhaps have a message as a group about just how far you’ve come in strides the club has taken?
Phil Parkinson: Not before the game because we had a good chat yesterday in the meeting and the message is quite simple today in the dressing room. It’s important that we play in a manner throughout this season, which we have done over the last four years and we keep representing the club in the way we’ve done and the honesty and endeavour out there today, I thought was different class.
On Manning’s goal command: Give free kicks away in the final third, you’re more likely to be punished at this level from where we’ve come from. think that goes without saying and it was an outstanding goal. Credit him for that. So all areas of the game have got to be better and that bit of composure in middle of the pitch, don’t give a free kick away. Then the crowd start getting frustrated. But I think we’ve got to reflect on the moments we had to go and kill the game off as well. think that’s key because if that goal goes in for Ryan or Lewis’s one, the the ground starts emptying and there’s a completely different atmosphere inside here.
He continued to say: Just adapting to the level. I think we did that last year. We’ve come a long way quickly and we evolved as a team as we went on. We changed things throughout the season and we adapted really well and we’ll do that again as we get a feel for the group and how they can handle the different tactical changes through the game. But I thought we did that so well today. They changed to a four and we then dropped, went into 5-4-1 to block the sides off and the lads in the main did it so well and it’s just you know we should be sat here talking about a fantastic point at the very least.
Southampton cheekily taunt Wrexham after producing stunning late turnaround to win opener
Twitter users reacted as Phil Parkinson causes a stir with his post-match comments after Wrexham’s defeat to Southampton…
@Michael_Carr1: Wrexham moaning about the financial clout seems a bit rich when they’ve been bankrolled through the leagues. Just a different level in the Championship and they’re clearly offering good wages to the likes of Conor Coady etc.
@Two_Pradista: Yes but youre forgetting that it would be good TV if they got promoted again so its basically illegal for us to beat them
@Benno1uk: No Phil, the difference was that when you were still 1-0 up on 85 mins you put James McClean on you muppet.
@WillHodgetts: He’s wrong though… he’s quoted the price of Matty’s left foot, he alone is worth a lot more than Parkinson is suggesting 😂
@MainyJ10: Oddly he never said any of these things when Wrexham were getting promoted with a much larger budget than most of the other teams in each division. As much as they like their Cinderella story they have spent quite a lot compared to most Championship teams.
@JacobHorsfall_: Zero self awareness from Parkinson here. Nothing wrong with what Wrexham have done but how exactly have they stormed up the leagues? Financial backing.
@PrentonParkAndy: What a fucking wanker. Just bought their way to 3 promotions and the first sign of it getting tough he blames the ” financial ” gap. The Championship you have one job. Relegate these cunts.
@RobRyanRed:
Hope this helps…
SAINTS SUBS
Downs – £7m
Fernandes – £15m
Stewart – £12m
Archer – £15m
Manning – Free
Total: £49m
WREXHAM SUBS
McClean – £250,000
Hardie – £700,000
Smith – £2m
Longman – £500,000
Total: £3.45m
Funniest thing about this is:
– opposition fans don’t like straight facts
– call those facts “crying about it”
– are the ones in our DMs with complete headloss 24 hours on
😂😂😂
@FanHubHatter: I wonder how national league sides felt starting against Paul Mullin that they’d paid mega money in wages to get him from league 1. 😂😂
@gazthevanman: I cannot abide this bloke. I would have got Wrexham to the Championship with the players he had, one loss and it’s the refs fault and he can’t compete. Parkinson football is old hat and won’t work at this level.
@MRankin8_: A club who has bought their way from the 5th tier to the 2nd tier, complaining about a side spending loads of money, when our goalscorers were both free transfers, is honestly hilarious. #SaintsFC
@_AsWeJourneyOn: He pulled the same card when we beat them 3-1 last season.
@GtfcRiley: The thing is your not allowed to beat Wrexham as it won’t look good in your documentary. They don’t like it but fully deserved to lose today.
@spurs_wombat: Wrexham complaining about other teams budgets… Has to be satire surely 🤣
@muckled: Wasn’t complaining about cost of subs while they were buying their way up the leagues.
@damnberry: Aww poor little Wrexham don’t have the money to compete – when they’ve mugged off the rest of the EFL for years
@MDudz2: I love how other clubs are chiming in hating Wrexham 😂
@shauntippins: Obviously forgot all the NL players they shelved to sign players from L1 & L2 on more money to get them promoted out of the NL to start with? Wrexham should be a L1/L2 level club, they have peaked…. Hopefully a humbling season ahead!
@JoePavett00: Phil Parkinson bitching about expensive players and clubs with money after the last 5 years of signing expensive players and being a club with money. Hope they come straight back down.
Was he moaning though? He gave multiple interviews talking about not taking our chances. Coady also blamed not putting game to bed with our one v one opportunities.
Just seems like he calmly pointed out the gulf when Saints subs made the big difference tbh
— RobRyanRed – Wrexham AFC Podcast (@RobRyanRed) August 10, 2025
