The Red Dragons - who are owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac - will play their first second-tier match for 43 years against Southampton on Saturday (09.08.25) and the coach is ready for the challenge the "great league" poses.

Parkinson said: "I think it's a great league. Every game feels like a real big match atmosphere."

The manager has made history by leading Wrexham to three consecutive promotions and says the Championship holds no fears for him, even though 15 coaches in the division lost their jobs last season.

Parkinson said: "That's just the nature of the division and football in general. As a manager you've got to accept that and concentrate on doing your best every single day.

"Understand the division - you can get on a good run, but you can very quickly be on a bad run and it can change quickly. Over the years the division is so tight, right to the end of the season. Last season so many teams were in contention for the play-offs.

"It is very tight. If we get beat in games, which inevitably will happen, let's make sure we don't overreact as a staff, regroup and work towards the next one. That's the mindset we had last year, we had setbacks along the way, people doubting us.

"People think with three promotions we've had praise all the time and plaudits, but we've had periods where people start questioning me as a manager, questioning the players. You come through these periods and there's always a bigger picture to look at."

Parkinson has challenged his players to embrace life in the new division, even though many pundits are expecting the club's run of promotions to come to a halt.

He said: "I don't want us to fear it. I want us to go into every game ready to be positive. We've always been at our best when we've played in a positive way. We're going to go into each game with that mindset and see where that takes us."