WREXHAM defender Steve Evans insisted there was no malice intended in his challenge on Hartlepool hat-trick hero Jon Daly that forced the striker off the field for five stitches to be inserted into a head wound.

The Dragons defender was merely cautioned by referee Gary Sutton for the foul, much to the anger of the home fans and their manager Danny Wilson, who later claimed it was a red-card offence.

But Evans said: "It was something and nothing, he just ran into my elbow as we both challenged for the ball and it was an accident."

The centre-half, who was his side's outstanding player at Victoria Park, added: "It was another very disappointing afternoon for us. I thought that for the first 20 minutes we did well, but then we gave a stupid goal away and we can't afford to keep doing that.

"I know you can't compensate for mistakes, but they are costing us dearly at the moment. Despite that, though, we started the second half brightly, but goals win games and, to be fair, we didn't look like scoring today. "Now we have got to regroup, see if we can put things right on the training ground over the next couple of weeks and then start going again after the break."

Wrexham manager Denis Smith claimed the final score flattered the home side to some extent but agreed with Evans that goalscoring was a major problem at the present time.

"I don't think we deserved to lose 3-0 because I thought we were as good as them, and even a little bit better, until a silly mistake cost us a goal and then obviously we were up against it," he said.

"A look at the scoreline suggest

we've been rolled over but I don't think that was the case. We matched them for the majority of the game, but then we cut off with silly mistakes. I'll need to look at the video for their second goal because it looked offside. "If he wasn't offside he should have been because I felt there was no way the lad could have got in there and if he did someone played him on and that's not good enough either.

"At 2-0 we need to get the next goal of the game, but at 3-0 down there was no chance of getting back into the game. In the second half we have come out and had a go but then we gave away another bad goal. I changed the system and tried one or two things but basically we were clutching at straws.

"What the recent games have shown is that we are short on depth in the squad and we are lacking goalscorers so I'll be pleased when Lee McEvilly and Juan Ugarte are back because goals change games as we saw.

"It's very frustrating but it's also easy to criticise. The players worked hard, they tried hard and maybe I was wrong to change my mind just before the game about who was to mark Daly at set pieces. I gave the job to an experienced defender instead of a forward and maybe I was wrong about that.

" Now we have got two weeks to decide what to do and I'll have a couple of players back, but I'll also lose a couple to suspension, so it's swings and roundabouts. I never seem to be able to put out my strongest team and obviously that shows we are short of depth, "People are making elementary mistakes, which we weren't doing earlier in the season and I'll have to get to the bottom of it. But if anyone has got a magic wand to get people to do the right things all the time I'd like to meet them."