Phil Parkinson challenged his players to make their own FA Cup history and not just bask in the achievements of club legends and on another special night under the lights in North Wales, Wrexham did just that to reach round five.
Every time the FA Cup rolls back around nostalgia kicks in in these parts to the Mickey Thomas free-kick versus Arsenal in 1992, or the historic wins against Newcastle United or West Ham United.
Having fallen at this round on two previous occasions since Parkinson arrived this was super sweet for the man Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac said has ‘a job for life’ this week.
It was Josh Windass’ first half goal, his ninth of the campaign, that fired Wrexham into the fifth round for the first time since 1997, and for Parkinson it’s crucial that nights like these are not glossed over.
‘Every season is special in football and you’ve got to enjoy nights like this, enjoy the tradition of the FA Cup,’ he said.
‘We set up to get through and we have, and now we’re going to embrace this run of games and go full-on to try and keep our run in the league and the cup going.’
Wrexham are into the FA Cup last 16 for the first time since 1997 after beating Ipswich 1-0
The Welsh club fielded a strong side and were rewarded with a victory on Friday night
Phil Parkinson challenged his men to go and write their own history in the competition
Windass’ winner was a goal that could easily have been scrubbed by anxious officiating.
As Wrexham countered down the left, first Sam Smith thought he was fouled, then team-mate Ollie Rathbone, and even George Thomason by the time he started to scamper free.
Thomason overcooked the initial cross as the referee played advantage, but picked up and recycled by Ryan Longman on the right, he cut inside and saw his shot helped in by a swing of Windass’ right foot.
Ipswich gave it a go but it was hard to escape the frustration at their approach.
Kieran McKenna made 10 changes from the weekend win at Derby County and the one survivor from that side, Cedric Kipre, was withdrawn at half-time.
McKenna even admitted afterwards that continuing this cup run made no sense in their fixture list.
‘For me, you look at the schedule and where we’d fit in an FA Cup run and to be honest it was really hard to see how that wouldn’t be to the detriment of the group,’ he said.
The truth is, the FA can take away replays, try to dress this proud competition up differently, make it more appealing, but ultimately the winner gets £2.1million.
Ipswich are putting all their eggs in the Championship promotion basket, which nets a minimum £100m. No harm in that. To managers up and down the country, it’s a non-contest as to which comes first but it doesn’t make it any less of a shame given the prestige of the cup.
So it was refreshing to see Parkinson’s stronger line-up progress, even if Windass isn’t after a big fish in round five.
‘Hopefully not a big team away because you don’t touch the ball!’ Windass said.