Wrexham 1 Torquay 0

IT was scratchy, nervous and less than convincing, but Wrexham eventually kept their Football League survival battle on course with a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Torquay United at the Racecourse on Saturday.

Club captain Neil Roberts came off the bench to secure the vital three points with his first league goal since last October, which in itself highlights exactly why the Dragons find themselves struggling at the wrong end of the League Two table.

The winner was a long time coming against a side that were playing for nothing but pride after being relegated a week earlier, and for ages it seemed that visiting goalkeeper Simon Rayner was not going to be beaten.

Time and again he thwarted the home side and every save he made increased the tension, both on the field and on the sidelines, to such an extent that Wrexham boss Brian Carey will probably welcome the prospect of away games at Shrewsbury Town tomorrow and Walsall on Saturday.

This was, after all, only the Dragons’ fourth win since he took over from former manager Denis Smith in January, three of which have come on opposition soil, and more significantly it was the first on home turf since December 23 last year.

The crowd, another welcome 6,000-plus, did not help it has to be said, largely picking up as they did on a hesitant and below-par performance from players who must feel they are on trial every time they run out at home.

The thick and thin loyalists who will be at Gay Meadow and the Bescot Stadium in the next week tend to suffer in silence when things aren’t going so well, but they also do their best to encourage rather than condemn.

And that implicit faith, which was never more evident than at Lincoln City last weekend, will undoubtedly be repeated in the critical week ahead in a bid to avoid what might otherwise be a final-day decider against Boston United on May 5.

But there’s no escaping the truth that only Torquay have scored fewer goals than Wrexham this season, with no-one in the squad yet reaching double figures for the campaign.

The Dragons went into Saturday’s game with a record of just five goals in their last 10 home matches – a statistic that tell its own story – and they again squandered a host of excellent opportunities to have settled the game long before the end, notwithstanding Rayner’s excellent display.

The fact is their recent upturn in fortunes has coincided with the signing on loan of goalkeeper Anthony Williams, who has conceded just three goals in six matches that have brought the Dragons 10 points from a possible 18.

And it might have been one point more as the former Wales under-21 international jokingly pointed out after the match.

“I’ve kept four clean sheets and it would have been five except for Simon Spender’s own goal against Notts County,” he said.

The young full-back, to be fair, has since then more than atoned for the error by having a hand in all three goals at Sincil Bank last week and then providing the cross for Roberts to sink United, but Carey admitted his side had once again failed to live up to expectations in front of their own supporters.

“There was a sense of relief at the end because the whole crowd felt worried,” he said.

“It’s understandable there was a lot of tension about, given the situation, but you are always hoping for a goal and we got it today.

“As long as the game is going on you always think you have a chance of scoring a goal and I’m sure everyone was beginning to feel it wouldn’t happen, but we did and we have won two games on the trot for the first time in a while.”

What Wrexham needed most of all was an early goal to settle their nerves, and Chris Llewellyn went close after eight minutes, cutting in from the right flank to unleash a powerful effort which flew just past the far post.

And the visitors, who had begun their 500-mile round trip at 7am, clearly had not got the journey out of their legs before another excellent opportunity went begging, Llewellyn knocking back a Matty Done cross to Danny Williams, who blazed over from eight yards.

It was one-way traffic and when the teenage winger picked out Michael Proctor, the on-loan striker forfeited his chance to break the deadlock, instead feeding Lee McEvilly who was foiled at point-blank range by Rayner.

Having survived the initial onslaught, United showed some neat touches on the ball and the Dragons keeper turned Steve Cooke’s 28th-minute drive for a corner before another fine passage of play saw Matt Hockley ruin the build-up with a powder-puff shot.

But Rayner continued to be the busier of the two keepers, blocking Proctor’s 36th-minute shot following more enterprising play by Done and then covering his near post to fumble away a Llewellyn header for a corner from which McEvilly headed wide of the target.

It was not only the finishing that lacked conviction, Wrexham too often conceding possession cheaply, but Carey resisted the temptation to make any changes until an hour had passed when Proctor, despite a lively performance, made way for Roberts.

The disgruntled crowd voiced their disapproval, particularly since both Llewellyn and McEvilly had struggled to build on their initial impact, but the Dragons captain was quickly into his stride, creating another opportunity for McEvilly, who fired straight at Rayner.

Two minutes later, the woodwork denied Jeff Whitley from long range and the visitors began to sniff the possibility of a rare away win, but Lee Thorpe failed to capitalise on a poor clearance from Steve Evans and when David Graham set up Cooke, the midfielder steered a header over the bar.

With the crowd becoming ever more impatient and frustration on the field threatening to boil over, Wrexham finally made the breakthrough 11 minutes from the end.

Spender overlapped on the right flank and whipped in a low cross that was met at the near post by Roberts to beat Rayner, who nevertheless managed to get a hand on the ball, which ricocheted into the net off the foot of the post.

The relief was tangible and the visitors were clearly deflated, but their coach Keith Curle left it until the final five minutes to send on any substitutes.

And conspiracy theorists can make of it what they will, but United’s travelling directors were later heard to complain that too many of Torquay’s better players had never made it any further than the bench.