Huge setback: fans stunned as Wrexham A.F.C. Phil Parkinson just announced resignation and departure

Viewers will have to wait until Monday for the latest episode, when Wrexham head to Birmingham City, the

“St Andrew’s has probably a near 30,000 crowd. These are the games we’ve worked so hard to be involved in. And we’re very excited about the game and preparation is going well for it. It’s just another three points at stake.

“But equally, yeah, it’s a fantastic stage to go and play. And we’re really looking forward to the challenge which Birmingham presents.”

Wrexham are the new kids on the block, but in Birmingham they come up against a relative behemoth of English football.

League Cup winners as recently as 2011, Blues have been on the slide over the past decade, but they are also hoping to climb up the pyramid with the help of rich American owners.

They have star power to match Wrexham too with Tom Brady among the ownership group. Never before has a League One match drawn so much attention – at least not this early in a season.

“I was at the Walsall game [at St Andrew’s] the other night, just to get a feel for the place and have a look at the team and there was a lot of talk about the Wrexham game already,” says Parkinson.

“We’ve had a lot of exposure ever since I’ve been here in terms of the spotlight being on us, home and away, and the lads have got used to dealing with that, but this is another level,” he adds.

“The size of the club, the size of Birmingham City and the expected crowd.

“I mean, American owners and so many things come into it to make this an attractive game. But for us, it will be enjoying the build-up and that’s important.

“We do that by training well, but making sure that we’ve got a clear game plan that we’ll need to implement.”

Going toe-to-toe with Birmingham for promotion is the perfect next chapter in Wrexham’s story.

There have been brief encounters with bigger fish in glitzy pre-season spectacles, and the rare cup meeting with a Championship side, but no sustained challenge so daunting.

Surprisingly to some, Wrexham have hit the ground running in League One and talk of a third consecutive promotion is now growing, perhaps prematurely.