THE benefit of playing reserve team games shone through at the New Lawn this afternoon, as deadball specialist Wes Baynes followed up his double against Rochdale on Wednesday, with another duble salvo to down the luckless Rovers.
It was here last season that manager Dean Saunders began his Wrexham reign and thistime aroud he was not afraid to ring the changes following the midweek defeat at Tamworth. All five substitutes on the night come in frm the start to join the previously injured Hedi Taboubi.
Frank Sinclair made his debut for the Reds, after a 90 minute run out with the reserves on Wednesday and two-goal hero Wes Baynes was played alongside the returning Marc Williams in a 3-5-2 formation.
Wrexham seemed to struggle early on with their new formation and a couple of wayward passes along the back line were putting the team under pressure, when they could easily have been played away through other channels.
Then on eight minutes, Rovers keeper Terry Burton raced toward his left hand corner flag to stop a ball going out of play, but only then realised that he was being marked by two red shirts. He was fortunate that his attempted clearance only came back off an attacker and played Marc Williams offside when the goal was begging!
Rovers won a free kick on the right side of the Wrexham box on 14 minutes, the cross was headed away by Mani, but only as far as Jon Challinor some 20-yards out, who fired in a dipping shot that wasn't far over Chris Maxwell's cross bar.
Shortly aftweards a Wrexham corner was played short before being worked to Frank Sinclair and from the edge of the Rovers box his shot had Burton scrambling away to his left to push the ball away from danger.
More good work by Paul Stonehouse on the home left flank set up a cross for Challinor, but once again, his effort from outside the area failed to hit its intended target.
A late flag for a foul against the Dragons infuriated the visiting players and Taboubi had his named taken for kicking the ball away. The free kick was delivered into the middle of the goal and it took three attempts to finally get the ball hacked down field.
Wrexham did have the ball in the net on 25 minutes, when Marc Williams volleyed home a great sweeping cross from Baynes, but all in vain as the assistant's flag was raised for offside.
The breakthrough came on 29 minutes, when a 25-yard free kick to Wrexham was struck home as Wes Baynes hammered home one of his trademark long-distance efforts.
This followed up his two spectacular strikes against Rochdale Reserves in midweek, and once again the keeper was struggling to get across his goal to stop the effort from finding the back of the net.
The striker followed up this goal with another just three minutes later, this time from open play as Mark Jones passed through to Marc Williams and then onto the speeding Wes Baynes, who took the ball in his stride before firing a low effort under the advancing Burton.
Jones took a knock for his troubles and had to leave the field for further attention before returning.
With their tails up, Baynes tried his luck from another set piece, this time out wide on the touchline, his looping strike had pace and only passed Burton's back post by a narrow margin.
Rovers were at sixes and sevens, and Baynes was only inches away from a back pass that he anticipated, which would have left him with the goal at his mercy.
The half time whistle will have come as sweet relief for the home side, yet it could have been all so different had luck been on their side!
Ht 0-2
The confidence was high for the visitors at the start of the second half, as shown by Curtis Obeng, who raced from the half way line, outpaced his marker into the box, but was unlucky to be closed down just as he tried to slide in a pass for the Marc Williams running through the middle.
Twice in a minute Wrexham got the ball into the Rovers net, but twice their efforts were ruled out.
The first was when Taboubi split the defence to find Marc Williams, but the offside flag went up. Then from a free kick, Williams once again forced the ball over the line, this time in a melee, but the referee ruled it had hit the hand of Assoumani in the build-up.
With Forest Green having to stretch themselves in an attempt to get a foothold back into the match, Williams and Baynes were constantly looking ot take advantage.
Then Rovers wasted a great chance to do just that, when a cross field ball picked out the unmarked Curtis McDonald, but the winger was unable to direct his chance on target and instead was left holding his head in his hands.
Williams once again broke away on the right, Baynes finding him, but the Wales U21 seemed to be caught in two minds when coming in on goal at an angle, only firing straight at Burton.
Conal Platt's attempt to replicate Baynes' first half free kick was not a successful on 72 minutes, as Maxwell organised his wall well and pluck the effort out from under his crossbar.
Marc Williams did well on the left, created space from himself before trying to curl an effort inside the far post, but it strayed a yard wide instead.
After the home side had made two changes, Saunders sent on Adrian Cieslewicz for Marc Williams on 74 minutes, with Christian Smith going him for Taboubi two minutes later..
Baynes was so unlucky not to claim his hat-trick on 85 minutes, when his shot was blocked in the six-yard area, the ball ran out to Cieslewicz, whose goal bound effort was actually blocked by Mark Jones - amazingly enough the referee awarded a corner, with Jones left writhing on the ground at the power of the Pole's shot!
It was Baynes who took the corner and although Mani rose to meet the cross, the ball flicked off his head and carried on for a goal kick.
Rovers kept plugging away, but even when they got into a decent position the final ball rarely threatened Maxwell. Until deep into injury when the young keeper produced a fanatastic diving save to maintain his cleansheet.
Against a side with five staright defeats to their 'credit' this season, this was seen as a must win game for the Dragons and they did exactly that. It could havebeen different, but the visitors made their own luck and deserved the points.
Forest Green: Terry Burton, Lee Ayres, Paul Stonehouse, Mark Preece, Ross Stearn (Conal Platt 61), Mark Ellis, Steve Adams (Paul Lloyd 68), Jon Challinor, Curtis McDonald, David Brown (Steve Davies 75), Sean Rigg.
Sub: Paul Lloyd, Ben Pugh.
Wrexham: Chris Maxwell, Curtis Obeng, Ashley Westwood, Mani, Frank Sinclair, Frank Sinclair, Mark Jones, Nathan Fairhurst, Hedi Taboubi (Christian Smith 76), Marc Williams (Adrian Cieslewicz 74), Wes Baynes.
Subs: Mike Williams, Gareth Taylor, Silvio Spann.
Referee: K Johnson (Somerset)
Attendance: 1,021
Away: 285
Booking -
Forest Green: Ellis (83, foul)
Wrexham: Taboubi (24, delaying a free kick)
