Phil Parkinson frustrated by late Leicester leveller as Wrexham denied victory

Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson was left hurting after watching Jannik Vestergaard snatch a point for Leicester in their 1-1 draw but felt there were positives to take from a battling performance in horrible conditions.

The Dragons were on top for much of a wet and windy night in north Wales, taking the lead through Lewis O’Brien’s 63rd-minute strike as they contained a disappointing Leicester for most of the second half.

After falling behind, the Foxes did not register a single attempt at goal until they won a late free-kick and Caleb Okoli flicked on Jordan Ayew’s chipped ball forward for Vestergaard to sweep home.

Wrexham certainly looked much better than in Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Norwich, but could not hold out for a win that would have put them level on points with sixth-placed Preston.

Parkinson said: “Another hour down the line I’ll probably be looking at more of the positives, but when you concede so late in a nothing moment, of course it hurts.”

“If you take away the moment at the end, which of course we’ll discuss, I’d be saying to everybody that was a really gritty, hard-working performance and a great response from the weekend.

“But obviously the gloss is taken off it because we haven’t dealt with one ball into the box which is held up in the wind, it’s kind of swirled.

“If we head that out, we’ve won the game. They react quicker, it’s almost a slow-motion moment.

“So we’re frustrated because apart from one counter-attacking moment in the second half we weren’t troubled the whole night.”

Instead of moving level with Preston, who suffered a 3-0 home loss to Hull, Wrexham had to be content with ninth place.

Marti Cifuentes’ inconsistent Leicester side offered desperately little for so much of the night but capitalised after Wrexham failed to find a killer second.

The Spaniard admitted his side had struggled to adapt to the conditions, but praised the way they kept fighting to earn late reward.

“The second half was not a good one,” he said.

“Obviously when they took the lead emotionally that affected us a lot, a lot of frustration, a lot of situations that were difficult to understand but at the same time credit the players, they fought to the end and it’s a point.

“I think that doesn’t change the fact we’re disappointed. Always we want three points, We don’t care if we’re away, if we’re playing a team that’s doing well.

“Always we want three points. One point is better than zero but it’s not what we wanted.”

Asked about his side’s failure to create chances, Cifuentes added: “We have do do much better.

“Actually you could see the emotions after the goal and in the last three or four minutes we were perhaps the more aggressive to try to get a second goal.”