'Excellent' - Wrexham boss sends message to Callum O'Hare ahead of Sheffield United return
Callum O’Hare will return to Bramall Lane on Friday night when Sheffield United host Wrexham in the Championship.
Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson has urged Callum O’Hare to try to avoid becoming ‘frustrated’ ahead of his return to Sheffield United on Friday evening.
Following his deadline day move to the Red Dragons, O’Hare, who spent just over two years at Bramall Lane, has struggled to hit the ground running at his new club, failing to score or register an assist in his first eight appearances.
Determined to add an extra layer of creativity to their attacking options ahead of the summer transfer window closing, Wrexham swooped for the 28-year-old in the closing stages of the window, signing him for a fee in the region of £7million. He was the third high-profile player to leave Bramall Lane during the summer, following in the footsteps of Andre Brooks and Gustavo Hamer.
The former Coventry City man has quickly established himself as a regular starter at the Racecourse Ground, starting seven of his first eight appearances for the Red Dragons. However, he is yet to impose himself in the same way he so often did for the Blades last season.
Nevertheless, Parkinson, who is under increasing pressure from some Wrexham supporters following a slow start to the season, has urged the attacking midfielder to remain focused, insisting that his all-round contribution to the team has been encouraging.
“Generally, his performances have been good, the Preston one in particular; the moment will come for him,” Parkinson told Wrexham’s club website. “He’s just got to focus on his all-round performance and not get frustrated.
“The goal that we won the game against Southampton with was practically his; his general play has been really good, and his work for the team has been excellent.”
Just three wins from their first 12 matches this season mean that Wrexham will travel to S2 with the ambition of sparking their campaign into life. They were beaten 2-0 by Blackburn Rovers last weekend, just one week after thrashing rock-bottom Preston North End 4-1.
With that in mind, Parkinson is determined to see his side show some consistency.
He added: “We’ve had some better individual performances this season, Southampton at home and Millwall away especially. But we’re still striving for a consistent level of performance, and we haven’t quite got the team where we want them at this stage.
“Part of that is out of our control, we still have work to do with the group. We’ve shown on our day we can beat the top teams. The division can be up and down like that, we just have to edge the ups over the downs and I’m confident we can do that.
“I think across the board the standard of the teams is better this season. It’s a challenge we found last year, but we adapted and there’s a lot of improvement left in us as a team.”