Wrexham director Shaun Harvey has already stated the 2025-26 season will be viewed as a success for the club – regardless of whether or not they gain promotion to the Premier League.
And Parkinson feels his side, who have already achieved their highest-ever league finish, can take huge pride from finishing above clubs such as Leicester City, Birmingham City and Watford in the second tier this season.
“When we look back, the integration of new players, players adapting to a new division, all those things, we’ve left a lot of very good clubs behind us this season,” he said.
“There’s teams like Leicester that are falling out of the division who could easily have been a top six team.
“There’s Watford, there’s Birmingham and lots of clubs who by right would expect to be where we are, so we’re very proud of that but equally, and I can’t stress this enough, we’re not letting that detract from how hungry we are to go that next step on Saturday.”
Wrexham have been no strangers to high-pressure situations since Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac took control of the club in February 2021.
Having suffered an agonising 5-4 National League play-off semi-final loss to Grimsby Town at the end of their first full season at the club, Wrexham have gone on to achieve three successive promotions under Parkinson.
The experienced manager says overcoming the initial hurdle of getting the club back into the Football League was comfortably the most pressure he has felt during his tenure as manager of the club so far.
“It’s surprising really because I think the most pressured game period I’ve had here was the National League year,” he said.
“The club been stuck in that division for so long and I think these lads who lived through that with us coming to the final stages of that season, that was intense.
“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.”
