A crucial Wes Baynes goal two minutes from the end saw Wrexham home in a scrappy game against a battling Forest Green Rovers.

Dean Saunders made two changes from the side that was so unlucky to lose on Saturday, Lamine Sakho and Mark Jones returned to the starting line up in place of Neil Taylor and the suspended Christian Smith.

On a cold, wet night in North Wales Wrexham kicked off attacking the ERS end of The Racecourse. Forest Green set their stall out early to get men behind the ball and close down the space in midfield and to be honest it worked in what turned out to be a dreadful first half.

Curtis Obeng's long throw ins looked Wrexham's best attacking option and on six minutes Gareth Taylor flicked one on for Westwood to head straight at Terry Burton. The visitors had a good chance on 13 minutes when Powell's cross was half cleared to Jared Hodgkiss who fired over the bar.

Neither side was able to put together a passing move and the game fell into a scrappy stalemate with neither goalkeeper called into action.

Andy Fleming fired wide from a good position with 26 minutes gone before the visitors should have taken advantage of a poor punch from Chris Maxwell, fortunately for the Welsh U21 keeper Danny Powell was unable to score from close in and he got away with it.

The first half was in general devoid of any quality from either side and it was a relief when Mr Bankes blew the half time whistle.

Half Time: Wrexham 0 Forest Green Rovers 0

Saunders made two changes at the interval with Adrian Cieslewicz and Nathan Fairhurst replacing Jones and Sakho, the formation changed to 4-3-1-2 with Marc Williams playing behind the front two.

The visitors went close when Powell fired over the bar before the referee played an excellent advantage on 51 minutes allowing the play to continue after Obeng was fouled and as the ball came into the box Wes Baynes shot wide.

With both sides struggling to create any clear cut chances the game was still very scrappy as Marc Williams put in an effort that was deflected wide.

On 64 minutes Marc Williams almost scored that elusive first goal when Fairhurst's shot came to him in the box and he looped an effort which beat Burton but bounced back off the bar, as Williams followed in the referee gave a free kick for a foul on the Rovers stopper.

Jonathan Smith shot wide at the other end before once again after a decent build up from The Dragons Gareth Taylor headed wide from Cieslewicz's cross.

Wrexham were on top territorially but needed a fine save from Maxwell, diving to his left to keep out a low shot from David Brown, to keep them on level terms.

With two minutes left substitute Matty Wolfenden was hauled over on the edge of the area by Ollie Thorne, the referee had no option but to show a second yellow card to the young centre back and Wes Baynes drilled the free kick from the edge of the area into the net to the relief of players and supporters alike.

This had not been a great performance by Wrexham but the result more important and the three points could just be what was needed to kick start the climb up the table

Wrexham (4-4-2): Chris Maxwell, Curtis Obeng, Frank Sinclair, Ashley Westwood, Mike Williams, Wes Baynes, Mark Jones (Nathan Fairhurst 46), Andy Fleming, Lamine Sakho (Adrian Cieslewicz 46), Marc Williams (Matty Wolfenden 81), Gareth Taylor.
Subs: Sam Russell, Mansour Assoumani.

Forest Green Rovers (4-4-2): Terry Burton, Joe O'Cearuill, Mark Preece, Ollie Thorne, Curtis McDonald, Jared Hodgkiss, Craig Rocastle, Jonathan Smith, Danny Powell, Steve Davies (Paul Stonehouse 62), Tomi Ameobi (David Brown 75).
Subs: Tom Pass, Ben Joyce, David King.

Referee: P Bankes (Liverpool)
Attendance: 1,808
Away: 21

Bookings:
Wrexham: Mark Jones (foul), Andy Fleming (foul)
Forest Green: Curtis McDonald (foul), Craig Rocastle (dissent), Ollie Thorne (foul)

Sent Off -
Forest Green: Ollie Thorne (second yellow)

Wrexham to win 1-0 @ 6/1
Wes Baynes to score the first goal @10/1
Wrexham to be drawing at half time & winning at full time @ 10/3