A PENALTY shoot-out in which Chris Llewellyn saw his kick saved by goalkeeper Matt Gilks cost Wrexham a place in the second round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at the Racecourse last night.

But the home side will claim they were robbed long before the 90 minutes were up by an errant official, who failed to spot the ball crossing the line after the Rochdale keeper had dropped a Matty Done cross in the 57th minute.

Trailing to a Chris Dagnall goal – his third at the Racecourse in the space of three weeks – the Dragons fought back to level the match through Matt Crowell to force the sudden death finale.

Both sides paraded different line-ups from the weekend with the Dragons welcoming loan signing Craig Morgan from MK Dons and Ryan Valentine and Danny Williams back from suspension, with winger Josh Johnson also starting.

The visitors, who drew 0-0 with Chester City on Saturday, showed three changes, John Boardman, Clive Moyo-Modise and John Doolan replacing Ernie Cooksey, Morike Sako and Nathan Stanton.

It was no surprise the opening exchanges were spent in sizing each other up after their recent league meeting, but it soon became clear that Wrexham’s gameplan put the accent on getting the ball wide to the Trinidad winger and, on the opposite flank, Matty Done.

Johnson posed the first threat with a good early cross into the penalty area that almost caught defender John Boardman unawares in the 12th minute, but he adjusted in time to thwart Chris Llewellyn.

The Wrexham winger, though, still has plenty to learn about the defensive side of the game and Lee Crooks exploited the space he left to set up Chris Dagnall, whose first-time shot from the edge of the area flew high over Mike Ingham’s goal.

The cut and thrust of the game, which was allowed to flow by referee Mark Haywood, saw Llewellyn twice given room to shoot without success and Ingham had to go down to hold a Gary Jones shot after Morgan was beaten in the air by lanky Rochdale striker Clive Moyo-Modise.

And the Wrexham keeper then reacted smartly to block with his legs when John Doolan’s clever pass put Moyo-Modise through in the penalty area 10 minutes before the break.

It was an example of joined-up football that the home side were able to emulate only in their approach play, but too often they resorted to the long ball forward where Llewellyn was battling in vain to get the better of James Sharpe.

And two minutes before the break, the visitors went ahead when Keith Barker’s pass was taken in his stride by Dagnall, whose shot took a wicked deflection off the unfortunate Morgan to completely wrong-foot Ingham.

Wrexham could hardly complain at the encouragement they received from the sparse crowd when they re-started the game and Rochdale’s menacing confidence was tested when Danny Williams met a Johnson cross with a diving header.

But, typical of their luck at the moment, the goalbound ball struck Done on the back and, though the teenager tried to stab the ball in at the far post, goalkeeper Matt Gilks smothered it safely.

And to rub salt into the Dragons’ wounds, they were denied a 57th-minute equaliser when the Rochdale keeper dropped a Done cross under his crossbar.

The ball bounced well behind the line before Gilks grabbed it, but the linesman, who appeared to have anticipated the catch, was already moving upfield and kept his flag by his side.

With little choice but to push forward in numbers, Wrexham left themselves vulnerable to a break and in the 62nd minute Doolan sent Dagnall clear. He rounded Ingham but Valentine covered a huge amount of ground and threw himself at the ball to divert it over the bar.

Still the home side threw caution to the winds and the visitors’ defence came under increasing pressure, but they managed to put bodies in the way of efforts from Johnson and Danny Williams while Gilks comfortably held shots from Mark Jones and the Trinidadian.

Dagnall had a 73rd minute to make the game safe, but completely mis-kicked when Evans failed to cut out a Moyo-Modise centre, although the incident gave his team-mates some breathing space.

And another Wrexham half-chance went begging in the 78th minute when a superb piece of skill by Llewellyn took him past Simon Ramsden before passing inside to Done, who got the ball caught under his foot and scuffed his shot at the keeper.

But their efforts were finally rewarded two minutes later when Mark Jones broke into the penalty area before looking up to pick out Matt Crowell on the edge of the penalty area. And in a carbon copy of the visitors’ goal, the midfielder’s shot struck Gary Jones and spun into the net.

Man of the match: Chris Llewellyn – continually stretched the visitors’ defence.