Two points and three places off the play-offs with a rumoured £19m (!!) offer in for Angers striker Sidiki Cherif, is Wrexham’s stay in the Championship going to be as brief as Leagues One and Two? We spoke to the RobRyanRed (@RobRyanRed) podcast and Matt from The Racecourse Ramble (@racecourserambl).

How’s the season gone for Wrexham so far?

Matt: It’s been really interesting, actually. I think it depends on your expectations. My expectations were that we would finish somewhere around mid-table, and I was quite aware of the fact that you could go multiple weeks where you will not pick up points, and then there'll be other spells where you do the opposite, and you string together some wins. So as far as I'm concerned we're ahead of where I thought we'd be. We're two points outside the playoffs and that with the most points dropped from winning positions in the league, so that that in mind and a tricky start to the season I think we’re in good shape. Unless we collapse into some last minute relegation drama I think the vast majority of sensible fans will be really happy.

RRR: Well, in short. Fourth highest scorers in the division and well in touch of the play-offs in mid-January which is what we were hoping for, especially after a start to the season where we were shipping goals left and right. The likes of Nathan Broadhead and Ollie Rathbone have really come into their own as of late and were definitely in the play-off mix. But dropping 20 points - the most in the league - from winning positions is alarming in terms of our game management.

Wrexham in the league so far…
Southampton 2-1 Wrexham Stephens 90, Manning 90 – Windass pen 22
Wrexham 2-3 West Brom O’Brien 42, Smith 90 – Price 20, 81, Wallace 74
Wrexham 2-2 Sheff Wed Moore 15, 31 – Bannan 63, Cadamarteri 81
Millwall 0-2 Wrexham Moore 58, O’Brien 90
Wrexham 1-3 QPR Moore 67 – Coady og 33, Kone 44, Burrell 75
Norwich 2-3 Wrexham Stacey 39, Makama 90 – Windass 47, 59, Longman 54
Wrexham 1-1 Derby O’Brien 59 – Brereton-Diaz 72
Leicester 1-1 Wrexham James 36 – Broadhead 77
Wrexham 1-1 Birmingham Dobson 13 – Roberts 46
Stoke 1-0 Wrexham Thomas 36
Wrexham 1-0 Oxford Broadhead 14
Boro 1-1 Wrexham Hackney 80 – Windass 7
Wrexham 3-2 Coventry Moore, 60, 69, 83 – Mason-Clark 22, Sakamoto 88
Portsmouth 0-0 Wrexham
Wrexham 1-0 Charlton Windass pen 77
Ipswich 0-0 Wrexham
Wrexham 2-0 Bristol City Broadhead 16, Vitek og 74
Wrexham 1-1 Blackburn Cleworth 90 – Gudjohnsen 13
Preston 1-1 Wrexham Armstrong 81 – Moore 4
Hull 2-0 Wrexham Joseph 10, McBurnie 67
Wrexham 2-2 Watford Windass 21, Rathbone 90 – Doumbia 30, Maamma 42
Swansea 2-1 Wrexham Vipotnik 70, Idah 90 – Burgess og 14
Wrexham 5-3 Sheff Utd Bindon og 9, Moore 28, 76, Longman 51, Windass pen 81 – Bamford 7, 15, O’Hare 24
Wrexham 2-1 Preston Broadhead 39, Rathbone 77 – Devine 84
Blackburn 0-2 Wrexham Smith 11, Rathbone 38
Derby 1-2 Wrexham Brereton-Diaz 34 – Smith 25, James 48
Wrexham 1-2 Norwich Smith 24 – Slimane 9, Makama 59
Wrexham 1-1 Leicester O’Brien 63 – Vestergaard 90

A bitty start, which included our win in the first meeting, but you seem to have really got into stride since, was that just acclimatising to the new level or have tactics/team changes been made?

Matt: The start was sticky. We’ve got into a stride since, albeit with a couple of poor results along the way. We’ve settled down. We pulled in some players late in the window who couldn’t start straight away – Dom Hyam has come in at the back and settled things down there, the left back Liberato Cacace has got better as he’s gone along and given us some balance down that side, Issa Kaboréon the right wing has that electric pace that's helping us when we attack. It was also about us learning lessons early on. You know, you get punished in this league way more than any league we've been in in recent times and so we had to settle down, gel as a team, all the cliches. We had a good run up until the last two games where we've wasted two home games really, which is a shame, because the home form has been our big strength.

RRR: Early on Parkinson moved towards a 3-4-2-1 system with two ‘tens’ off Kieffer Moore, but that was abandoned because we were so easy to play against defensively. Since we managed to settle in and start getting results, he’s gone back to that system and it’s best platformed the aforementioned Broadhead and Rathbone. We’ve grown in belief in attack and that’s allowed us to go and knock off the likes of Coventry City, Sheffield United, Millwall and Preston North End.

Phil Parkinson got some quite sniffy reviews in the season previews, how’s his standing now? Or could anyone succeed on this budget?

Matt: Well, amongst Wrexham fans, I don't think well there is a lot of sniffiness. Well, there's a small percentage of people that obviously expect you to win every game and think that if a manager doesn't, given the resources, they should be out. But 97% of people are well behind him. We know what Phil Parkinson is basically. He's not always played the prettiest football, but we've got results. We will grind it out when we have to. But I will say at the end of last season and much of this we have started to play much better football. Even at times this week, when we've dropped points at home, we've had really good spells of playing nice football. Among the vast majority of fans there is no doubt he's the man and the owners only ever talk in glowing terms about him, so he's definitely the man. The only time there's noise is always external. It's always third party sites trying to get click, trying to get views and clicks.

Could anyone succeed on this budget? He’s not the only man that could have brought us success given the tools that he's had his disposal but how often do we see teams and clubs have money and do the opposite? (No comment – ed). I think the choice of Phil Parkinson in the first place was quite interesting, because I thought with the documentary and the razzmatazz around the club I thought it would be some hipster manager, young up and coming that they would look at. Actually they did the opposite, and went for the old, wiley, experienced manager. And I think they would probably tell you now that was a very wise choice.

RRR: Wrexham fans have long accepted that Parkinson, externally at least, will never get the credit he deserves for making history. The way some people talk you’d think Wrexham are the first club to come into money. Three successive promotions and now in the mix for a fourth is truly outstanding management and more people need to come to terms with that.

January business done so far and rumours to come?

Matt: We've not done anything inwards so far. We’re trying to move fringe players out and get them game time. James McClean left the club this week to go home to Derry. We’ve got some players coming back off loan like Paul Mullin so we’ll see what happens with him and a few others. I think we’re desperately trying to shift fringe players and our business will come later on.

It feels like we’re linked with everybody. If you put Wrexham’s name in an article it gets clicks. The sort of strongest rumours are that we're looking at a fallback, maybe an attacking midfielder, there may be a striker, and there's all sorts of speculation. I've seen the likes of Gus Hamer, Davis Keillor-Dunn being linked with us. Striker wise, there's all sorts of speculation that we're going to do something from a continental from Europe, to bring in a striker to support Kiefer. Nothing confirmed yet.

The best bit of business we did was extend young Max Cleworth’s contract. He’s a young centre aft has been with us since Phil Parkinson's very first game. He was in it at the age of about 18/19, and has risen through the leagues with us, and he's a starting centre back. So I guess maybe I’d class that as a bit of January business done in the fact that we announced that extension.

RRR: Zero moves and, truth be told, zero credible rumours, much to the chagrin of fans. We brought in 13 new players in the summer so the plan has always been for January to be a relatively quiet window. James McClean has gone out and Elliot Lee is set to depart on loan. I also expect Ryan Hardie to leave so a couple of additions are the expectation. One wing back and one forward is what’s mooted. Davis Keillor-Dunn at Barnsley is a name that won’t go away.

Summer Ins >>> Nathan Broadhead, 27, AM, Ipswich, £8m >>> Ben Sheaf, 27, CM, Coventry, £6m >>> Callum Doyle, 21, CB, Man City, £5m >>> Lewis O’Brien, 26, CM, Forest, £3m >>> Dominic Hyam, 29, CB, Blackburn, £3m >>> Liberato Cacace, 24, LB, Empoli, £2m >>> Kieffer Moore, 32, CF, Sheff Utd, £2m >>> Conor Coady, 32, CB, Leicester, £2m >>> George Thomason, 24, CM, Bolton, £1m >>> Ryan Hardie, 28, CF, Plymouth, £800k >>> Josh Windass, 31, AM, Sheff Wed, Free >>> Danny Ward, 32, GK, Leicester, Free >>> Issa Kabore, 24, RB, Man City, Loan

Winter Outs >>> James McClean, 36, LW, Derry City, Free >>> Alex Moore, 19, CM, Colwyn Bay, Loan >>> Max Purvis, 18, CB, Flint Town, Loan >>> Tom Kelly, 18, DF, Bootle, Loan

Where is the team strong and weak?

Matt: I think it's really strong in central midfield where we’ve got lots of quality options that Parky can choose from depending how he wants to set the team up. He’s got plenty of good bodies in the sitting midfield roles or we’ve got the options to go a bit more attacking from there. So, that’s a strength.

The weakness is at wing back. We’re obviously very reliant on the two we’ve got and when and when the starting two of Kabore and Cacace can’t play then we get a drop off. One of the areas we may look at in January is upgrading those full back areas and adding depth.

RRR: I’d say our two main Player of the Season candidates right now are both in central midfield in Matty James and George Dobson. Add in to that mix Ben Sheaf and we’ve got some great technicians in that area. Wing back remains an area of some concern, largely because of fitness issues and the precipitous drop off after Issa Kabore and Liberato Cacace. QPR got a lot of joy in wide areas through the likes of Burrell. If we’re off it again out wide it will be a similar result at Loftus Road.

Revised expectations for the season?

Matt: I said we'd finish 15th at the start of the season, and when I made that prediction, I think we'd hardly spent a penny in terms of money. We certainly hadn’t spent the £30m+ that we subsequently ended up spending. So, if I'm allowed to revise, I would say rather than simple midtable we may push on towards the play-offs. I don’t think we’ll be getting anywhere near the automatics but we’re only two points off the top six so there’s a chance we could sneak in. We still look a bit naïve at times, and make some silly mistakes, but this team will gel more as it plays together.

RRR: I think a lot of fans were hoping for a top ten finish and I think that’s still the target. A play-off push come the final games is going to depend on a striking reinforcement in January, in my opinion. Our inability to kill games off is going to bite us eventually if we can’t win games 2-0/3-0.

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