Wrexham were humiliated by West Ham. How will Phil Parkinson respond?

In a managerial career spanning more than 1,000 games, a drubbing or two is inevitable.

Last Friday, in a 6-0 rout at West Ham United, Phil Parkinson suffered his heaviest defeat as Wrexham boss and the joint-worst loss of his 23-year managerial career.

For the 58-year-old, the result at the London Stadium is down there with the time his Bolton Wanderers side were also hit for six at Hull City on New Year’s Day 2019 and a home defeat by that same score for Bradford City against Bristol City a little under four years earlier.

Both those previous hammerings came out of the blue, just as Wrexham’s humbling in front of the live TV cameras happened off the back of conceding just one goal in their first three Championship away games this season.

Parkinson cut a forlorn figure on the touchline, and admitted afterwards that any inquest into what had gone wrong would start with analysis of his own actions.

Parkinson is the Championship’s longest-serving manager — only Mikel Arteta (Arsenal), Nigel Clough (Mansfield Town) and Andy Woodman (Bromley) have been in post longer than his five years and four months at Wrexham across the top four divisions of the English game — and, according to those who have worked with him over the years, he has always been honest and self-critical when faced with this kind of adversity.

“Phil is very honest,” says Mark Lawn, co-chairman at Bradford during Parkinson’s five-year reign from 2011 to 2016. “Right from our first meeting to discuss Phil possibly becoming manager, he was upfront in all his dealings with me and Julian (Rhodes, the other co-chairman).

“We’d regularly meet up and discuss every aspect of the club. He always took on board anything we pointed out, while also admitting anything he felt he’d got wrong.

“What I know will be happening now is Phil working even harder to put Friday right. That’s how he was with us at Bradford. I’d put money on him having watched videos of the match all weekend, analysing his own decisions.”

Parkinson looking for anything and everything he could have done better should not be taken as a free pass for others in the away dressing room that night.

Not one Wrexham player emerged with credit from a truly wretched performance, apart perhaps from goalkeeper Anthony Patterson, who prevented the margin of defeat being even larger with excellent saves to deny Jarrod Bowen and Manor Solomon.

Otherwise, the defence failed to defend, the midfield got overrun and the attack was so insipid that Wrexham managed just one shot on target — George Dobson’s 35th-minute effort that Konstantinos Mavropanos blocked just in front of the goal line.

The price for such an abject display is likely to have already been paid by the players. Parkinson’s standard response to a heavy loss is initially to work his squad extra-hard in training before then drawing a line under the game concerned to focus on the next challenge.

“There will definitely have been a meeting on Monday with the players,” says Lee Butler, who spent nine years working as goalkeeping coach under Parkinson at four different clubs, including Wrexham.

“Before that, there will have been a staff meeting. He’ll have asked Steve (Parkin, his senior assistant) what he’s seen when watching the game back, then everyone else in the room.

“Pick the bones out of it, and then speak to the players. I’d imagine training will have been a bit subdued (on Monday) and then it’s over. By Tuesday, West Ham will have been put to bed. The inquest will be over and it’s all about Southampton: a new game, a fresh start.”

Wrexham’s task now is to respond in their next match on Saturday, but doing so won’t be easy, with Southampton having won 5-1 at the Racecourse Ground as recently as April.

Tonda Eckert’s side are also unbeaten in six league games since an opening-weekend loss to Watford and occupy the Championship’s final play-off place despite starting the season on minus-four points following their guilty plea in last May’s ‘spygate’ scandal.

“By the weekend, Phil, Steve and the rest of the staff will have built the lads up again,” adds Butler. “The Championship is a tough league and you’re going to have knocks. We learned that very quickly at Bolton (following promotion from League One in 2017). It’s how you respond to those knocks that matters.”

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Parkinson has won six promotions as a manager and enjoyed some famous cup escapades, but he has known his fair share of adversity too. Even at Wrexham, the club where he has now been in charge of more games than any other, there have been lows to rival the West Ham debacle.

Each time, though, he has inspired a response, including last season, when a home defeat to Cardiff City, then of League One, in an all-Welsh Carabao Cup tie, which left fans hugely disappointed, was followed three days later by a thrilling 3-2 victory over eventual EFL champions Coventry City.

“Phil is great in those situations when your back is against the wall,” says former Bradford co-chair Lawn. “Everyone remembers the season (2012-13) when we reached the League Cup final and won promotion (from League Two).

“Brilliant memories (as fourth-tier Bradford beat Premier League trio Arsenal, Aston Villa and Wigan Athletic en route to Wembley) but it was far from plain-sailing all the way.

“We lost badly (4-1) at Exeter City not long after the final. I was sure we’d blown the play-offs (that result meant Bradford were 11 points adrift of the top six, in 12th place, with nine games to play) as I joined the team on the bus home afterwards.

“The drive home was a long one, and very quiet.

“Everyone was down when Phil got everyone together, just as we were arriving back into Bradford. At first, he told the players they needed to have a look at themselves.

“He said, ‘If anyone is happy with their performance tonight, they need to come and see me in my office tomorrow morning’. He wanted them to explain. Phil then switched, and started to remind everyone what they’d achieved by getting to Wembley and how they could still win promotion.

“I looked around and saw how his words were hitting home. The mood had totally shifted by the time everyone got off the coach. It showed that there’s a carrot to go with the stick with Phil.

“Don’t get me wrong, Phil can shout and swear with the best of them, but he also offers incentives as well. A very fair-minded manager with his players, in my experience. And that usually brings a response.”

Bradford did, indeed, go on to win promotion that season, gatecrashing the play-offs with five wins and three draws from those final nine matches.

There was also a strong reaction after the first 6-0 defeat of Parkinson’s managerial career a couple of years later, Bristol City running riot at Valley Parade to clinch promotion from League One in April 2015.

Up until that heavy loss to the eventual champions, Bradford had harboured hopes of finishing in the top six. They put aside that disappointment, however, to draw 1-1 at play-offs-bound Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United four days later before ending their season with back-to-back wins to secure seventh place, the club’s highest finish since being relegated from the Championship 11 years earlier.

“We did have credit in the bank when Bristol City happened,” says Butler. “We’d had the FA Cup run that year (beating title-bound Chelsea and fellow Premier League side Sunderland en route to the quarter-finals) and the fans stayed right behind us, a bit like the Coventry fans did at the weekend (after losing 5-0 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion, their fourth top-flight defeat out of four since promotion). It was still a tough night, 6-0 at home.

“Same with the 6-0 with Bolton at Hull (in 2019). They were a different level to us, totally ripped us apart. Phil had a few things to say afterwards. A few uncomfortable home truths for the players. But then it was back to work. Knowing Phil and Steve, and how they work, the weekend will have been a busy one. They’ll have then been ready to put it right.”

Lawn agrees, it having been at Valley Parade that Parkinson and Parkin first worked together.

“Phil and Steve are a good partnership,” he says. “They’ll be hurting after a defeat like West Ham. But they are good at getting a reaction. We saw it at Bradford, and I’m sure Wrexham will see the same.

“This is not Phil’s first rodeo. He’s lost 6-0 before and sorted it out. Just look at what happened with us after Bristol City, going to Bramall Lane to get a very good point and then finishing strongly.

“Wrexham will be there or thereabouts this season, I’m sure of it.”