Wrexham captain Dominic Hyam insists the club’s FA Cup fifth round showdown with Chelsea is not a diversion from their promotion mission, but an “amazing distraction” that underlines how far the Welsh side have come.

Phil Parkinson’s team have surged into the Championship’s top six with three consecutive league wins, keeping alive the extraordinary prospect of a fourth straight promotion. Yet for one weekend, the focus shifts from the grind of the league to the glamour of hosting the club world champions in front of a packed Racecourse Ground.

“It could be deemed as a distraction, but what an amazing distraction it is,” Hyam said. “You want to play against the best teams and the best players. It’s what you work hard for, playing against Premier League teams in the FA Cup. Hopefully we can be there one day and be a Premier League team playing someone in the FA Cup too.”

Hyam, a summer arrival from Blackburn Rovers, has already written his name into Wrexham’s modern cup story. The defender scored his first goal for the club in the dramatic third-round tie against Nottingham Forest, a 3-3 thriller that Wrexham edged 4-3 on penalties to claim a Premier League scalp.

That victory revived memories of Wrexham’s most storied FA Cup moment, the famous upset of Arsenal in 1992 when the club were in the fourth tier. Parkinson has leaned heavily on that heritage, using it as fuel for a squad eager to add their own chapter.

“Before the Forest game, the gaffer showed us a lot of clips on the history of Wrexham and some of the big games that happened here many years ago,” Hyam explained. “Hopefully we can use that now, having beaten Forest as another example, so it’s another opportunity to create our own history.”

Hyam’s own journey mirrors Wrexham’s climb. A product of Reading’s academy, he learned his trade on loan at Hemel Hempstead, Basingstoke, and Dagenham & Redbridge before helping Coventry City rise from League Two to the Championship.

“I think it’s really important to remember what your past self has done, and what Dom of 10 years ago might be thinking of how Dom is now,” he said. “Every opportunity I get, I put 100% into every game. Not every season and every game is plain sailing, but it’s the belief and the drive you have internally that keeps you going.”