Chris Llewellyn’s 24th minute goal handed ten-man Wrexham a valuable 1-0 win against play-off rivals Barnsley at the Racecourse Ground.
Llewellyn’s strike put the Red Dragons on the same points as Barnsley, but they were left to hang on for the win after Dennis Lawrence was sent off with 25 minutes to go for a professional foul.
Indeed, Barnsley new boy Michael Boulding from Grimsby got the chance to make himself a late hero - and fluffed it! He was completely unmarked at the far post in the 84th minute when Mark Stallard's shot hit the post and came back to him. However he completely mis-kicked - and chances Barnsley had of a point had gone.
It then took a brilliant save at the other end by Marlon Beresford to stop Wrexham adding to the misery.
Manager Gudjon Thordarson was angry at the final whistle and, as his team held their own inquest on the pitch as to what had gone wrong, the manager made it clear what he thought.
He said: "I was very disappointed to lose. It was one of the worst defeats I have seen with the chances we missed.
“There go was unbelievably bad defending. The player was allowed to run from his own half 60 metres without a challenge. It was bad defending and is unacceptable." Barnsley with a three-man strikeforce, obviously came to the Racecourse Ground to win and it took a brave save by Lawrence in the 17th minute to stop a Daniel Nardiello shot from putting the Tykes into an early lead.
Although Barnsley took a bit of a battering, Peter Handyside forced Andy Dibble to make a brilliant save just before half-time.
Barnsley did show some good enterprise in the second period, though Chris Armstrong missed chances of ending any Barnsley fight-back.
After the sending off of Lawrence, Barnsley not surprisingly took the game to the home side and then came that 84th minute golden opportunity which first Stallard wasted and then Boulding held his head in shame after failing to get what would have been a tap-in.