Season finale a 'celebration' for Wrexham & Stockport - Parkinson

Paul Mullin battles for the ball with Stockport County's Fraser HorsfallImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Stockport beat Wrexham 5-0 at Edgeley Park earlier in the season

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Manager Phil Parkinson has described Wrexham’s final game of the season against Stockport County on Saturday as a "celebration".

Stockport, already crowned League Two champions, have secured automatic promotion along with Wrexham.

"We're ecstatic to win promotion but we are going to go all out to play as well as we can and try and finish the season well," Parkinson said.

"It's always good to finish at home with a good performance.

"Of course that's what we are aiming to do. We're up against an excellent side - we know that and credit to [Stockport boss] Dave Challinor and his staff for what they've achieved.

"We're looking forward to the weekend but excited to go toe-to-toe with them again next year in terms of both going into a new division.

“When the fixtures came out I think everybody looked at this fixture and could it be a season-defining game?

“Fortunately both teams have got the business done early and it’s great for us to meet in what is a celebration game.

“Equally, we’re looking forward to a cracking atmosphere here at the Racecourse.

“It’s great, a finale of our League Two campaign and we can then look ahead to the summer and League One next year.”

Although planning for next season had already started, Parkinson added they would begin in earnest after Saturday’s final game of the season.

The Wrexham manager has held discussions with club director Shaun Harvey and executive director Humphrey Ker.

“There’s a lot going on as you can imagine,” Parkinson told BBC Sport Wales.

“But we’re focused on this weekend first and then we take stock of the situation and move into the summer with a clear plan of what we need to do.

“Humphrey’s been over here as well and I’ve had a good chat with him this week and obviously budgets are still being finalised for us to go forward.

“But we’ve got a clear understanding of what we need to be competitive next year.

“There’s a situation of having a limit of numbers and we’ve already got a lot of players signed up to contracts.

“So it’s about sitting down, like we’ve done this week, having chats and making the decisions which we feel are fair but that will benefit the club going forward in what is going to be an exciting season.”