Parkinson ready for anything in Wrexham run-in

Phil Parkinson has urged his Wrexham players not to be too disheartened by their 5-1 loss to Southampton and told them "anything can happen" during the remainder of the run-in.

The Red Dragons dropped out of the Championship play-off places as a result of their emphatic home defeat by the Saints on Tuesday night.

But with five regular season matches still to play, Parkinson was keen to emphasise the progress his side have made in the second tier on the back of securing three successive promotions.

"There's been a review of the performance on Wednesday with the team," Parkinson told BBC Sport Wales.

"I think that was important because, as much as everybody was speaking about how good Southampton were, and they are a strong side, we know we can do a lot better."

The experienced 58-year-old coach added: "It was very important that we sat down with the group and went through areas of the game we needed to get better on.

"But it's about making sure that we don't let it knock us too much. We've come a long way as a club and a team this year.

"There's five games to go and we've got to learn from Tuesday night and take those lessons down to Birmingham on Sunday."

Wrexham return to action against Birmingham City at St Andrew's on Sunday (12:00 BST) knowing that they are still firmly in the mix to earn a top six place.

Parkinson hopes his side - currently two points behind sixth-placed Southampton, who have a game in hand - can show the right attitude in responding to the heavy midweek defeat as they take on a side who were also promoted from League One last season.

"Anything can happen and that's why I'm stressing to everybody, let's not get too low about the defeat because there's big games coming up," added the Wrexham manager.

"There's got to be a bit of honesty and realisation and accountability from myself, because I'm the manager, and players individually.

"But we're not going to let it knock us too much, we're going to come out fighting at the weekend."

In the aftermath of the loss to Southampton, the Red Dragons were able to hold an in-house fixture to get certain players up to speed.

Ben Sheaf edged closer towards a return to action by featuring in the match at Stok Cae Ras on Wednesday.

The midfielder was expected to miss the remainder of the season after sustaining a knee injury during Wrexham's 5-3 victory against Ipswich Town on 21 February.

"The practice game, which we do reasonably often when we get the opportunities, it's important 11v11 practice, preparing players who may not have played on Tuesday to be available for Sunday," added Parkinson.

"Matty James didn't play because he came on on Tuesday and needed to make sure that he was right for training today.

"Ben Sheaf joined in for the majority of it, which was good for him and everybody else who didn't feature played."