PHIL PARKINSON hailed Kieffer Moore's influence after the striker played a key role in Wrexham's much needed 2-1 win against Southampton at The Racecourse.
Moore opened the scoring in the opening period with a fantastic header from Ben Whiteman's corner, with the 34-year-old bagging his third goal of the season.
Although the Saints equalised early in the second half, an 89th minute own goal handed the Reds a first home win of the campaign.
Moore was a threat throughout and Parkinson hailed the Welsh international's all-round performance, insisting his side are proving they can mix quality football with a more direct approach when required.
"Kieffer was brilliant for us. He's had some really good games so far this season," said the Reds' boss.
"That's his third goal and he's got assists as well thrown in there.
"We spoke to the lads prior to the game about how we've got good footballers in the team but equally, we've got that element of direct play when it's on and that's the set play delivery and the ability to hit a diagonal onto Kieffer and make sure that we're impacting the opposition back four.
"We don't want to be a team who is good between both boxes, we want to be good where it matters most.
"And the moment where we got the goal, the delivery from Ben and Kieffer's header. I was very pleased with the goals we got."
Wrexham bounced back from the 6-0 thrashing at West Ham eight days earlier by beating in-form Southampton.
It was a hard-fought victory and Parkinson was delighted with the reaction in the last game before the international break.
"It's just an example of how hard it is to win in this division, but I think you probably get that in all the divisions we've been in," he said.
"You've got to fight tooth and nail, you've got to block things, you've got to stop crosses, defend your box properly, midfield players getting up to the ball when it matters most and I felt we had all that back in place against a really good side.
"They're up there with West Ham in terms of the players they've got.
Read more
Who stood out? Wrexham player ratings from Southampton win
Parkinson praises Wrexham's ‘great dignity’ over Spygate scandal
Phil Parkinson delighted by backing of Wrexham fans in win against Southampton
"If they had got in the play-offs last year, they'd have won it. I'm sure of that because they've got real quality so very pleased with a lot of the performance."
Parkinson added: "If you put a couple of things in perspective, we went to West Ham, the fourth game in 10 days, in front of 60,000.
"I made changes and I actually stand by all of those on reflection because they're all based on where we felt players were.
"But then the next game is Southampton at home and they beat us heavily here last year.
"We haven't taken a point off them so from the outside, people were saying, 'let's watch Wrexham with interest today', but that's about the response and it was magnificent."
Share