PHIL PARKINSON explained his decision to name an attack-minded substitutes bench for Saturday's 3-1 win at Grimsby Town.

The Reds' boss has five strikers in his squad-list submitted to the EFL but one has tended to miss out on match-days, with two starting up front and another two lining up among the replacements.

Paul Mullin and Ollie Palmer not the nod up top against the Mariners but Parkinson changed things up by loading up with three strikers - Steven Fletcher, Jack Marriott and Sam Dalby - on the bench.

"We thought long and hard about the bench but Fletch, Dalby and Marriott offer different qualities," he said.

"We just wanted to keep our options open for which strikers we feel we needed depending on how the game was going.

"We will pick the strikers to start and the bench we feel is best to get a result against Mansfield on Friday.

Wrexham scored three times in the first-half, with Mullin getting the final goal and combining well with the hard-working Palmer, and Parkinson praised the duo for the way they defended from the front.

"Mulls has got his sharpness back and got that extra yard of pace," he added.

"His all-round performance was very good and he capped it with a really good finish.

"I was very pleased with those two. Defending starts from the front, it was a hard working display and it had to be because at times due to the conditions, it was a scrappy feel to the game.

"In those games, you have got to make sure that you are prepared to do that side of the game first and foremost; we certainly did and we got the result."