Jones' 'circus' dig 'lacked respect' - Parkinson

Wrexham have won 25 of their 44 League One matches so far this season

Phil Parkinson says Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones' comments about Wrexham being a "circus" showed a "lack of understanding" of the Welsh club's history.

Before the meeting between the sides at the Stok Cae Ras on Saturday (17:30 BST), Jones told Sky Sports: "It's a bumper game, we have to go to the circus and see what we can get."

He later played down the comment, telling BBC Radio London: "I didn't mean the club or players or anything there because they are a very well run, excellent club.

"What I meant was what follows Wrexham around is a lot of pomp, a lot of ceremony, a lot of cameras, a lot of coverage, a lot of scrutiny."

But Parkinson felt Welshman Jones' comments were disrespectful towards his club.

"The comments lacked respect, I don't think we can hide away from that," said Parkinson.

"Not just for our current owners, players, staff and supporters, but the lack of understanding of the history of this great football club.

"This club has been here for many years, have got a great history and a proud tradition.

"I think it was a bit of a lack of understanding of that really."

Parkinson's men sit two points above Wycombe Wanderers, and four above Charlton, with just two matches of the regular season left to play.

It means they will clinch a third successive promotion should they beat the Addicks and Wycombe fail to win against Leyton Orient in the 12:30 BST kick-off on Saturday.

But Parkinson has urged his players to adopt a mentality of expecting Wycombe to emerge victorious against Orient and focus on dealing with their own business.

"It's (Wycombe's contest with Leyton Orient) long enough before our game that everybody's going to be watching it, we can't hide away from that," added the Wrexham boss.

"I just said to the lads today, 'go into tomorrow morning, when you get up, think Wycombe are going to win'.

"If they don't (Wycombe win), it's a bonus for us, if they do, we know what we've got to do anyway.

"They lost on Monday against Charlton and I always feel at this stage of the season, the top teams win because that's why they're at the top.

"We know what we've got to do, we've got two games to do it and we'll be going all out to try and achieve that."