Phil Parkinson has arranged live updates of key games on Saturday to be fed to him as Wrexham’s bid for a Sky Bet Championship playoff place goes down to the wire.
Wrexham are in a three-way tussle with Hull and Derby for the final playoff spot and hold the smallest of advantages going into the final day of the 46-game regular season.
The Red Dragons are level on 70 points with Hull and boast a superior goal difference by just one.
Hull currently have the edge on goals scored (68 to 67) and beat Wrexham home and away to hold the head-to-head advantage — the next two deciding factors should points and goal difference be equal.
Eighth-placed Derby, one point back on 69, are not out of the race and their superior goal difference — by five over Wrexham and six better than Hull — could prove a decisive element.
All three finish with home games with Wrexham arguably having the toughest test against fourth-placed Middlesbrough, who are still chasing automatic promotion. Hull play in-form Norwich, who are ninth, and Derby entertain 15th-placed Sheffield United.
Wrexham boss Parkinson said: “We will be aware of the other results because they do impact on what we may need to do or change out on the pitch. I think that’s key.
“We’ll designate someone in particular on the bench to check on the results.
“As much as the crowd can give you an indication, I’ll always have someone alongside me who’s monitoring the situation and making sure we’ve got the information we need.”
In the past clubs have sent employees to rivals’ final-day matches to relay back updates, but Parkinson said: “I wouldn’t want to send a member of staff away from this game on the weekend because everybody wants to be part of it.
“It’s history for us to go into the last game with a chance for the first time to get into the top six in this division.”
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Having eclipsed the club’s highest ever league position of 15th in the old Second Division in the 1978-79 season, Wrexham are still in the hunt for a fourth consecutive promotion.
The riches of the Premier League might be within grasp but Parkinson says the pressure does not compare to winning promotion from the National League in 2023 after Hollywood owners Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds had taken over the Welsh club two years earlier.
Parkinson said: “The most pressured game or period I had here was the National League, with the club being stuck in that division for so long.
“That was intense because everybody knew for the club going forward — the next documentary series, the progression, the new stand and everything — we had to get out of that division.
“In the subsequent years, the owners have been brilliant with myself and the staff.
“They were happy to build slowly, so there’s never been any pressure from Rob and Ryan to say ‘you have to do this, so you can’t do that’.”
