Phil Parkinson praised a “colossus effort” from Wrexham after they beat his former club Colchester 2-1 despite playing for more than an hour with only 10 men.
Wrexham had taken a fourth-minute lead through Elliot Lee, who fired home at the second attempt from eight yards, following Ben Tozer’s long throw.
But the hosts’ George Evans was sent off in the 26th minute following a bad challenge on Cameron McGeehan.
However, Wrexham got some breathing space when Zach Mitchell sliced James McClean’s delivery into his own net in the 70th minute.
And although Jayden Fevrier pulled a goal back for Colchester in the 89th minute after goalkeeper Mark Howard had denied McGeehan, Wrexham claimed victory.
Parkinson said: “That’s a colossus effort from the lads and I’m very proud of the performance today.
“We got the early goal and then the sending off. Colchester have got some good technical players and some dangerous players, in and around the box.
“In the first half, from the sending off to half-time, I thought we sat a bit deep and didn’t engage in our own final third or the middle third or get enough passes in.
“We said to the players at half-time that we don’t want to play survival football and just sit back and wait for them to score.
“We’re good enough to make passes in the game and I felt we did that really well in the second period. We pushed our wing-backs on to their full-backs and defended as we would normally defend.
“We showed a nice coolness in possession and it’s a real effort from the lads.”
Colchester have now lost five successive league games and their head coach Matty Etherington was disappointed they did not make more of their one-man advantage.
Etherington said: “I think it was an opportunity missed.
“They obviously went ahead early on but I thought we started the game really good. We didn’t threaten their goal enough in the second half.
“I thought we were the better team in the first half. When they went down to 10 men, we knew that they were going to sit off, 5-3-1, and plug up the gaps so it can be difficult.
“We spoke at half-time about what we need to do to try and affect them and I don’t think we did it well enough to be blatantly honest, and that was disappointing. We got the goal but it was too late.
“We could have carried more of a goal threat potentially but it was just disappointing the manner of the goals that we conceded.
“It’s really hampering us at the minute and making life a lot more difficult when we are playing well.”
Michel delighted with Girona's return to form after injury boosts
Michel puts Girona's rediscovered form down to the energy of the returning players from injury after they thrashed Espanyol in LaLiga on Saturday.
Girona had endured a shaky start to the season but moved up to fifth in the standings on 21 points after a superb home victory featuring a Bojan Miovski brace and goals by Bryan Gil and Ladislav Krejci.
Michel's side have now won their last three LaLiga matches, going on their best such run since between April and May 2024, the last time they recorded three victories on the bounce.
"Today's victory, which is our third [in a row], it's due to the fact we got people back, because we've rested, because we've had a very good week of training and because that energy today was noticeable," Michel told a press conference.
"The only thing I hope is that we continue to recover people, that we continue to have the necessary minutes for everyone and that, as we have very tough games coming up every three days, we need everyone to be at 100%; we'll see if we can achieve this without any problems."
Yaser Asprilla and Krejci, back from injury, combined for the fourth goal, but it was the pairing of Miovski and Gil who made the night with lethal attacks for the second and third goals.
"I am very happy for Miovski, he is a player who gives everything in training," Michel added. "I was worried because he wasn't scoring goals.
"He always tries to do his best for the team, he needs time. I am happy for him.
"Bryan is a very important player for everyone, his best version is yet to come. Right now, the process with him is what we all expect."
Last season's surprise package Girona face Austrian side Sturm Graz in the Champions League on Wednesday and the manager hopes they can repeat Saturday's performance in the European game.
"This is the Girona I want, 100%. We started the game very well, that's the reality," Michel added.
"The first half hour was spectacular, with and without the ball... We had a presence up front. The first half hour is what we want to do this season."
Man United could be without Toone until new year, says Skinner
Marc Skinner revealed that Manchester United could be without midfielder Ella Toone until the new year after she picked up a calf injury in training.
Toone has featured in five games in the Women's Super League this season, but is yet to register a goal or an assist so far this term.
The 25-year-old has missed United's last two games and was not selected in Sarina Wiegman's England squad for their upcoming friendlies against the United States and Switzerland.
She had previously appeared in a staggering 96 straight matches before missing United's WSL showdown with Leicester City last weekend.
But ahead of the Red Devils' meeting with league leaders Chelsea on Sunday, Skinner confirmed they would be without Toone for not only that game, but for the foreseeable future.
"We have three games [after the international break and before Christmas]. There's always the hope, but I think you balance and you go, 'right, if we can get her back, we get her back'," Skinner said.
"But we're just not going to rush her in this moment because it's a calf injury, it's your running mechanism. If we injure the running mechanism, it takes longer.
"So ideally we'd like her back for those games afterwards.
"The projection is she misses this game [Chelsea], she misses the international window, probably misses the first game after that, and then we'll see from there.
"But because it is such a short block of only three games, we'll assess whether it's worth that or actually resetting to come back after Christmas."
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