Wrexham boss hurting after his side threw away a chance to beat Peterborough United and get to Wembley
Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson admitted he was hurt by a dramatic defeat in a Vertu Trophy semi—final at the hands of Peterborough United.
Parkinson’s much-changed side looked to be cruising to a comfortable win when leading 2-0 with under 20 minutes to go, but Posh fought back to level before booking a Wembley final spot 4-2 on penalties.
Parkinson told the Wrexham Evening Leader: “It’s a competition which at the start is very low key, but when you get to this stage, you’re so close to getting to Wembley and it has got to hurt, and it does. We’ve thrown away a chance to go to Wembley.
“We made the decision to make changes and we were comfortable in the game, two-nil up and then made a lot more changes, but they were two really poor goals to concede. Particularly the second one. Just head the ball out the box and if you don’t win the first one react and deal with the second one better.
“From a game which looked so comfortable for us to end up not going to Wembley is very difficult to take for us all, but we’ve got no one else to blame but ourselves. Mentality and concentration is absolutely key when you’re winning a game of football. Just make sure you keep playing till the referee blows his whistle at the end and then the job’s done, but instead two moments have proved costly.
"Obviously penalties are a lottery. We put our best penalty takers first and the goalkeeper made two great saves.”