South East Wales

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Captain Dom Hyam says Wrexham's focus is to reach the Premier League - but facing top-flight Chelsea in the FA Cup is an "amazing" distraction from their season aim.

Hyam led Phil Parkinson's side as they beat Charlton last weekend, a result that added to the belief that a potential fourth straight promotion is possible.

With 11 games of the Championship season remaining, Wrexham sit sixth in the table and have two home games against Hull City and Swansea City to come following the Chelsea game.

But Hyam says facing Liam Rosenior's side in Saturday's fifth round tie at the Stok Cae Ras (17:45 GMT) will be a nice distraction from the league as Wrexham push for a play-off finish and a chance of reaching the top-flight for the first time in the club's history.

"It could be deemed as a distraction but what an amazing distraction it is," said Hyam. "You want to play against the best teams and the best players - it's what you work hard for, to play 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 knows just how tough Saturday's FA Cup fifth round game will be, Chelsea having impressed in a midweek 4-1 win over Aston Villa.

This will be first meeting between between the sides since 1982 and Hyam is excited about testing himself against some of the best players in the world.

"They've got a lot of strengths being in the division above but like any sort of traditional match day we'll come together and talk about game plans and how we can beat them," said Hyam

"Every player wants to play against the best players in the best leagues, so hopefully we can put in a good account of ourselves."

Since joining Wrexham from Blackburn Rovers in September 2025 the defender's form for the Dragons has given him a chance of catching the eye of Scotland manager Steve Clarke before this summer's World Cup.

Hyam's only cap so far was in 2023 against Norway and the 30-year-old is hoping his performances will be rewarded with an international return.

"I've got to do what I can control, and that's my performances with Wrexham," said Hyam, who was most recently in the Scotland squad for the game with Belarus in September.

"I'll give myself the best opportunity to do that, hopefully stay in the team and hopefully be fit and healthy. At the end of the day, that's all I can do, and then hopefully I can get the call."

If this were next season, both these sides would still fancy getting in the Championship play-offs with the EFL announcing this week that six teams will qualify from next season, from third down to eighth place.

As it is, this is a meeting of 16th against 14th, who are respectively 10 and 11 points short of the top six.

• Swansea City have kept a clean sheet in their past two home league games against Stoke (W1 D1), having lost 3-1 in the previous two at the Liberty Stadium

• Stoke are looking for their first league double over Swansea since the 2021-22 campaign under Michael O'Neill.

• Swansea have picked up 23 points in their past nine home Championship matches (W7 D2), conceding just four goals. In their previous nine home games, the Swans won nine points and conceded 15 times.

• The Potters have lost six of their past 10 away Championship matches (W2 D2), scoring just six goals in total and failing to find the net in five of them.

• Since the start of the 2021-22 season, only Gustavo Hamer (38) has more Championship assists than Sorba Thomas (37), who has created a goal in his past two appearances for Stoke.