PHIL Parkinson says he would like nothing more than to see Colchester United stay in the Football League after leading his Wrexham side to an important victory at his former club.
Parkinson, who guided the U's to promotion to the Championship in the 2005-06 season, saw his promotion-chasing Reds side win 2-1 at the JobServe Community Stadium to boost their hopes of going up from League Two while at the same time, increasing the hosts' relegation fears.
Colchester had gone ahead through John Akinde's strike but that was cancelled out by second-half goals from Paul Mullin and Max Cleworth.
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Parkinson said: "They've done a lot of draws but other teams around them have won and because of the pitch, they've had games called off so they've ended up in the bottom two when they don't deserve to be.
"They've got some good players and they shouldn't be down there and I'm sure they're going to have a real fight.
"Colchester has a proud tradition and I said to the lads there's 10,000 people in the stadium today which is nearly treble their average gate, which I think is a great tribute to what Wrexham Football Club have brought to this division.
"That's like three home games in one for Colchester today but they're obviously fighting for their lives and have a lot of pride in what they do and I'm sure Danny (Cowley) will do his best to keep them up.
"Nothing would I like more now than for Colchester United to stay up but today was all about Wrexham.
"I didn't make a big thing of the pitch dimensions in the press leading up to the game because I didn't want the opposition to think that we were worried about it but it is a difficult game.
"It was always going to be a difficult game.
"The conditions kind of suited what they wanted to achieve today and it was all about sticking at it.
"When we got control of the game after that first goal, they couldn't get out of their own half.
"We got into some great positions and we deserved the win, in the end.
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"Colchester had their drainage problems and brought the pitch in and made it really tight and the game does have a different feel to it.
"We prepared for it but it is difficult and it took us a while to adapt.
“But it's all about character today.
“We’ve gone a goal down and we’ve responded brilliantly.
“Colchester drew at Mansfield, they drew last week (at Tranmere) and beat Newport here – their results are a lot better than their league position suggests.
“Once again, we’ve had to dig deep and show that Wrexham resilience, which we’re renowned for."
Mullin scored his 100th goal for Wrexham to cancel out Akinde's opener for Colchester.
Cleworth then scored his first-ever league goal, heading home from George Evans' long throw into the area.
“Barney (Ryan Barnett) has produced a bit of magic with a fantastic pinpoint cross for Mulls (Paul Mullin), who was there where you want him," added Parkinson.
“A 100th goal for him is a great achievement and I’m so pleased for Max (Cleworth).
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“I’ve just said to the lads in there, at this stage of the season it’s about producing moments of inspiration and somebody stepping up to the plate and Max has done that today and there were 2,000 Wrexham fans singing his name.
“That’s what it’s all about – it’s about can I be the man that produces that moment which really gives us a lift and Max did that.”
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