WREXHAM manager Denis Smith and his Rochdale counterpart, Paul Simpson, clearly saw their own separate versions of the 5-2 home defeat inflicted on the Red Dragons.

Smith, although clearly disappointed by his side's inability to defend against set-pieces, described it as a freak result while Simpson, who helped himself to a hat-trick during the game, effectively dismissed that assessment as sour grapes.

The Racecourse boss, who saw his side's unbeaten run come to an unhappy end, said afterwards: "Generally I thought we were the better team and these things happen. The only thing they are good at is freekicks and set-plays.

"Their second goal was a fluke and the penalty wasn't a penalty, so we were chasing the game from a position where we should have been winning.

"There's not much you can do about it. You have to forget about it.

"We know we are better, we know we can play and Rochdale are not going to score five goals every week playing like that, but we might."

Referee Paul Rejer was at the centre of a storm in the first half, awarding a controversial penalty to the visitors just after Andy Morrell's goal had brought Wrexham back to 3-2 down.

Smith added: "I think generally it was disappointing to lose two penalties and, according to the lads, the first was at least a couple of yards outside the box.

"That makes life a little bit difficult but the second, which I thought was justified, came when we were chasing the game.

"We hit the woodwork three times so I think it was a freak result. If we continue to play like that I expect us to do well.

"I don't like losing but I'm possibly happier now than when I was after the draw with Boston United. People will look at the result and we'll get the doubters starting off again. But I've got to live with that and then ram it back down their throats."

Simpson, clutching the match ball, not surprisingly disagreed with Smith's verdict. "We'll take the result, a freak or not," he said. "I don't really care what other people think because we've taken the three points."

And he said Rochdale had nothing to apologise for by scoring all their goals from setpieces.

"It's an effective way to get goals if you have the lads who know what they have to do. There's no embarrassment in scoring from set-pieces because no-one cares how they go in," he said.

And on the controversial penalty, which he converted, Simpson added: "To tell you the truth,

I thought it was a foul but I'm not really bothered whether it was a penalty or not. On Saturday we had a definite penalty which was not given and that's the way it goes.

"If we get penalties like that in every game I won't have any problems."

He said Rochdale knew it might be dangerous to try to protect their 4-2 lead in the second half. "If you start sitting back you just invite pressure and we knew Wrexham can play going forward.

"People can moan all they like about freak results and 'didn't play' and all that rubbish but the result at the end tells the story.

"It's a fantastic place to come and play because the surface is so good but you know the Welsh people don't like us so it's great to come here and win."