Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson says his side will not fear the Championship when they return to the second tier for the first time in 43 years on Saturday.
The Hollywood story since actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds took over in 2020 has seen the club promoted from the National League to the Championship in just three years.
The club begin their campaign away at Southampton – who were in the Premier League last season.
“I don’t want us to fear it,” Parkinson said of the Championship.
“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.”
Parkinson knows the second tier well from spells with Bolton, Charlton and Hull.
Wrexham have signed well-known names such as Conor Coady, Kieffer Moore and Josh Windass this summer as their revolution continues apace.
“I think it’s a great league,” Parkinson said. “Every game feels like a real big match atmosphere.
“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, 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.”
