O'Brien at home in Wrexham after Forest struggles

Lewis O'Brien has been taken aback by his impressive goal scoring run since joining Wrexham.

But what has not been a surprise to the central midfielder is that the Stok Cae Ras has swiftly felt like home after his struggles with Nottingham Forest.

The 26-year-old was deemed surplus to requirements at The City Ground and made the permanent switch to north Wales in the summer on the back of four loan spells away from Forest.

"I always wanted somewhere to call home. When I spoke to the gaffer [Phil Parkinson] and to the people I knew who were already here, it was definitely a no-brainer to come here," he said.

"Forest made it pretty obvious that it was time for me to leave the club and I'd been on four loans.

"It was one of those where, now you look back on it, you're very happy with the decision.

"It was time to leave and it was nice to know I had the options to lay them out on the table and pick the one that was right for me. So far it looks like this was the best one."

O'Brien attracted plenty of transfer interest during the close season following an impressive loan stint at Swansea City in the latter half of the 2024-25 campaign.

He has wasted no time in making his mark under Phil Parkinson having netted three goals already while also playing every minute of Wrexham's Championship campaign to date.

The midfielder followed up his efforts against West Bromwich Albion and Millwall with the opener in his side's 1-1 draw against Derby County last time out.

It means he is already just one goal shy of his best ever goal output across a season, with O'Brien netting four times while on loan at Bradford City during the 2018-19 campaign.

"Surprisingly with the goals, this is my best return in a while," said O'Brien.

"I like to play as many minutes as I can. The amount of players we have, the competition is really good and it means we're pushing each other every day.

"Anyone can play in the team, but luckily it's been me so far."

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The draw with Derby means Parkinson's side have lost just once in six matches across all competitions.

Wrexham have also seen players including Josh Windass, Nathan Broadhead and George Thomason return from injury of late while the squad was further bolstered by the deadline day additions of Ben Sheaf, Issa Kabore and Dom Hyam.

"It's a fantastic squad. The competition is really good in every single position. We're putting different 11s out in the cup and they're still performing fantastically," added O'Brien.

"You look at the players who have been injured and are coming back, it's just getting stronger."