Phil Parkinson convinced Wrexham are ‘growing’ into the Championship

Phil Parkinson insisted Wrexham are “growing” into the Sky Bet Championship after a third successive 1-1 draw against Birmingham.

George Dobson nodded the Red Dragons ahead inside 13 minutes, but Patrick Roberts equalised within 25 seconds of the restart to leave honours even in the ‘Hollywood derby’.

The glamour might have been missing at a blustery SToK Cae Ras with Wrexham’s Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac and Birmingham minority owner and NFL legend Tom Brady not in town.

But boss Parkinson was adamant Wrexham continue to make progress, even though they have not won any of their five home league games.

“This is a squad which is growing together and the signings are getting better all the time,” Parkinson said after Wrexham had extended their unbeaten run to five games.

“I’m sure when we wake up tomorrow we’ll be looking at a team which is growing into the division well.

“We’re very confident of the group and just need to start turning these draws in into wins. We’ve just got to keep growing as a team and we will do.”

Wrexham were caught cold at the start of the second half after Lewis O’Brien had failed to accept a golden chance to double the lead before the break.

Roberts tucked away Jay Stansfield’s perfectly-weighted pass and Birmingham edged the contest thereafter, although there were few scoring opportunities.

Parkinson said: “I was frustrated to concede from my kick-off really and I felt it sapped a bit of energy out of us.

“The first half I thought we were good in difficult conditions, but the goal energised Birmingham and we looked a bit flat in the second period.

“It was our third game in six days and we had a tough game (at Leicester) on Tuesday.

“We took a knock straight after the break and we couldn’t quite find that inspiration to go and win the game.”

Birmingham had lost four of their previous six games, but boss Chris Davies felt they were the side pushing to win the game at the end.

Davies said: “I think if anyone was going to win it was going to be us. But if you can’t win don’t lose it and we got something from it.

“My message at half-time was to ensure that we stayed calm. Outside their goal – which I was angry about as it was an awful goal from our point of view – I was calm.

“We just needed to be more proactive and forceful with the ball at times.

“We pushed on after the goal and we were very good. I’m really encouraged by the start we’ve made, we’re a team that has competed well and can hurt teams.”