WREXHAM manager Brian Little all but conceded relegation is now a real possibility following a performance at Griffin Park on Saturday that quite simply was not fit for purpose.

Describing himself as irritated by the result, the Racecourse boss demonstrated a flair for under-statement that a Foreign Office diplomat would die for after seeing the workmanlike home side bank a comfortable three points simply because they made fewer mistakes than the Dragons.

And Little admitted a golden chance had been lost to close the gap at the bottom on Macclesfield, who had lost on Friday.

“In an ideal world we’d have got up this morning, seen ourselves six points behind Macclesfield with four games in hand and it was not too bad,” he said after the game.

“But we needed to win to put them under pressure. While it’s okay having four games in hand you have really got to feel you can win them. At the moment performances like that won’t win us anything.”

With a line-up showing three changes from the team that beat Bury 2-1 the previous weekend, it could be argued that Little had bolstered his midfield with the return of Neil Roberts and Danny Sonner in place of the injured Neil Taylor and Paul Hall – who was relegated to the bench – while defender Mike Williams filled in for the absent Carl Tremarco.

For all their experience, neither Roberts nor Sonner could claim to have made a significant contribution on a day when the weather conditions made it extremely difficult to get the ball down and play.

And the pair too often found themselves overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers as the opposition’s midfield men lived up to their club nickname, buzzing around like angry bees defending their hive.

Wrexham’s cause was not helped either by indifferent – even insignificant – displays from wide men Chris Llewellyn and Sam Aiston, who simply did not do enough to get into the game and signally failed to provide the width that might have stretched the home defence.

Brentford’s back line were able to pick off and isolate strikers Drewe Broughton and Michael Proctor who, like the watching manager, endured a frustrating game.

Little’s annoyance was understandable because both Brentford’s goals were the product of little more than persistence and a determination to turn every bad bounce or slip to their advantage.

And home boss Andy Scott was in no doubt afterwards that his players had come out on top in that particular battle.

“It was a scrappy game,” he said. “When everyone heard the weather forecast, turned up and saw the conditions we knew it was going to be difficult. But that’s League Two football sometimes, even when the weather is not like that.

“You have to be physically and mentally tough to get through games like this and, although we had a few hairy moments, I think it was well deserved in the end.”

Few could argue with Scott, even though Wrexham hung in to give themselves a shout of earning something from the game until nine minutes from the end when a second goal of the afternoon from Ricky Shakes settled the issue.

On another day the visitors might have forced at least a draw had they shown the same level of conviction as their opponents in the box.

There was little to choose between the teams as both sets of players battled to cope with a wind gusting strongly enough to blow the ball off its mark at set pieces, but Wrexham failed to take advantage in the opening 45 minutes, despite being loudly urged on by several hundred faithful fans.

It was Brentford who adapted quickest, moving the ball unceremoniously forward, and their willingness to go for goal was evident as first Glen Poole and then Shakes both struck ambitious efforts that failed to worry goalkeeper Gavin Ward.

It was not until past the midway point of the half that the Dragons at last bared their teeth when Mike Williams threaded the ball through to Proctor, who turned well but was unable to keep his shot on target.

And the visitors found themselves down after 31 minutes when the lively Alan Connell forced Ward into his first save of the afternoon. The keeper could do little more than parry the shot and, with his defenders dithering, it was Shakes who followed up strongly to head the ball into the net.

The Dragons responded with what turned out to be their best spell of the game. They were only the width of the crossbar away from a 36th-minute equaliser when Simon Spender’s free kick bounced in the penalty area and rebounded from the woodwork to spark off a scramble in which both Llewellyn and Roberts tried to force the ball into the net before it was gathered by keeper Simon Brown.

Three minutes later another set piece saw brought yet another missed opportunity, Phil Bolland heading Sonner’s free kick onto the roof of the net, and the visitors were foiled again before the break by good defensive work from skipper Karleigh Osborne to thwart Roberts.

But the turning point of the contest came in the 50th minute when Brentford survived a goal-line judgement call by a linesman who ruled Brown had just managed to gather the ball as it headed towards the net from a deflected Roberts’ header.

The incident summed up Wrexham’s nearly-but-not-quite afternoon and when Sonner and Roberts were withdrawn on 66 minutes, replacements Hall and Matty Done found it difficult to get up to speed.

With so little margin for error, the outcome was still in the balance and Connell and Nathan Elder spurned decent chances to settle the home side’s nerves before Brentford’s luck held again.

Brown failed to gather a Done cross to spark another penalty area scramble, but when Proctor managed to get in a shot the keeper had recovered his ground to save.

The Dragons were then punished for more defensive uncertainty nine minutes from time when Connell’s onward header was met by Shakes for an emphatic finish.