Are 'relentless' Wrexham closing in on promotion history?

Are 'relentless' Wrexham closing in on promotion history?

After the promotion and its sequel, Wrexham are working towards making it a trilogy.

No club has ever won three successive promotions in the top five tiers of English football.

And yet, with seven games of the season to go, the north Wales club remain on course to do just that.

Following Saturday's 2-0 win at Exeter, Phil Parkinson's side are still in the automatic promotion spots and building up a head of steam for the Championship, two years on from playing in non-league.

With just three points separating Wrexham from third-placed Wycombe – who have a game in hand and a marginally better goal difference – it is too tight and too early for scripting Hollywood finishes for the club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

But, as the final five weeks approach, Parkinson's side are sticking to the same lines that have served so successfully before.

And it is keeping an unprecedented prospect in sight.

"We're aware of it but it can't be a daunting thing, it has to be something that we rise to, something we are excited by and fuelled by," says midfielder Ollie Rathbone. "We know it could be very, very special."

There have already been special times under Parkinson.

A promotion winner three times before being tempted into the National League and subsequently masterminding Wrexham's journey to the third tier for the first time in 20 years, there has been a glint in the 57-year-old's eye and excitement in his voice in recent weeks as the possibility of another comes into view.

When others might feel pressure, Parkinson simply feels the need to repeat his mantra.

"All we can do is what we've done today," Parkinson said at St James park after a fifth win in six games, acknowledging that it is at the stage of the season where every round of fixtures appears significant.

"It's 'let's get out of here, get back up the road, get rested, and get ready for another game' because we have got to be relentless in our pursuit of being in that top two."

It is a calm voice of experience, of someone who has been there and done it.

Wrexham have plenty of that in the dressing room, including six players with Premier League experience. Jay Rodriguez – who at Exeter scored his second goal since his January window move from Burnley – joined Steven Fletcher and James McClean as players in a squad who have all more than 100 games at Premier League level.

And of course there are those who have not only won promotions before, but have done them in the same dressing room.

"Winning breeds winning and when you come into an environment where people are used to it, it makes a huge difference," says Rathbone, a summer signing from Rotherham ...

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