Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson praised the performance of striker Jay Rodriguez as he helped the Red Dragons to a 2-0 win at Exeter which further boosted their promotion hopes in League One.
Rodriguez won and then scored a second-half penalty to add to Ollie Rathbone’s deflected strike in the opening half as the Welsh side won with ease at St James Park.
“Jay is a very experienced player and in and out of possession, he has real quality,” Parkinson said. “He won and scored the penalty for us and that was important as we haven’t had many pens this season.
“I felt we had two really big games against Wycombe and Stockport and coming here today was not going to be easy against a side that can be difficult to play against, but it was a comfortable victory in the end.
“I am really pleased with how we performed all round. We knew that they were going to be a big threat from set plays coming into the game, they have a lot of height in their team and we worked on it all week and I thought we defended really well.
“We then got into some good positions when we had the ball and the moment came with Ollie’s strike, which took a big deflection off the lad, but it was going in, so I hope he gets the goal.
“And then it is always good to get that second goal. We didn’t do that against Stockport when we had good chances to, but we got it today and that gave us that cushion.”
Defeat ended a six-match unbeaten run for Exeter, and manager Gary Caldwell was frustrated to come out on the wrong end of what he felt was an even game.
“Wrexham do simple things really well, they have a group of men on the pitch that know what it takes to win at this level – and the levels above – with the likes of Rodriguez and (Steven) Fletcher, who I played with when he was at Hibs,” Caldwell said.
“The stats are very even – possession was 50-50, we had eight shots, they had eight shots – but the big difference is the fine margins.
“I can’t fault the effort of the players, but I thought we had moments where we got into good areas, but we didn’t commit, we didn’t go past our men and I need more commitment from my players in those moments.
“I am always disappointed to lose, but I think the way we set the team up was giving them some problems in the first half with the wing-backs high and aggressive.
“But we conceded a really poor deflected goal from our point of view – there was nothing in the game first half – and then a penalty that was never a penalty in the second.”
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