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This hastily rescheduled fixture saw further signs of improvement from Wrexham and another precious point gained in our battle for survival. For the second consecutive week at the Racecourse we more than matched our opponents who presented us with a difficult challenge, and perhaps should have chalked up another victory.

Brian Little made only one change to last week’s side. Controversial loan signing Drewe Broughton replaced the injured Paul Hall up front. Another new loan striker Rob Duffy was an unused substitute for this game.

Like last week much of the game was played in midfield and few chances were created by either side in the beginning. It took until the 25th minute until any real significant chance was fashioned. Neil Roberts was the provider after excellent work on the right gave him the chance to cross for Broughton. His attempt clipped the bar and very nearly gave us the lead.

Though Gavin Ward was called on to make a few saves in the Wrexham goal, Broughton had the next good opportunity. Stuart Nicholson put in a dangerous cross but Broughton failed to connect with it and the ball ran away from him.

Having had the better chances we finally took the lead through Neil Roberts. His shot was too much for goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to deal with. He got his hands to the ball but in doing so only helped the ball on over his head towards the goal. There were a number of Wrexham forwards racing towards the goal-line to make sure the ball hit the back of the net, but the goal was credited to Roberts.

We went in 1-0 up at half-time but the lead didn’t last long. Within minutes of the re-start Kyle Nix was given too much freedom approaching the Wrexham penalty area. His shot took a deflection off a Wrexham player to leave Ward with little chance for the equaliser.

A few minutes later the Wrexham crowd were enraged by a nasty challenge from Omar Daley. The tricky winger had given Simon Spender a tough afternoon, but perhaps should have seen a red card for leaving Chris Llewellyn grounded. A mini-brawl between both sets of players ensued in front of the Mold Road Stand. Daley only received a yellow card, and Neil Roberts also saw a yellow for his part in the scuffle.

As the game wore on neither side made many clear opportunities, most of Wrexham’s coming from Sonner set-pieces. Jeff Whitley and Mike Proctor were introduced from the bench, Whitley being the much more effective change. He worked well with Sonner at the heart of midfield and made shooting opportunities for himself.

Our best chance to win the game came with quarter of an hour to go. Goalkeeper Ricketts made a hash of a pass played back to him. Llewellyn stole the ball leaving him helpless but took too long working himself up to shoot before Bradford had defenders back to cover the goal. Instead a cheeky backheel from Llewellyn at that moment might have seen us earn the win.

Bradford dominated the rest of the game but pleasingly our defence held firm again and didn’t concede. A fair few Wrexham fans might moan we didn’t take all three points but that just shows us how far Brian Little and his new signings have taken us in the last couple of games.

We have now put in two strong performances which have earned us a deserved, and perhaps unexpected, four points. The crowd are right behind the new-look team, and the new players have undoubtedly improved our chances of survival.

We travel to Morecambe next, our first ever visit there. They are having a good season but if we continue to play the way we have done in the last few games, we should not fear anybody in this league.

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We ended our miserable run of defeats in tremendous style by beating the runaway league leaders convincingly in our first home game of 2008.

Only the most blindly optimistic Wrexham fans could have predicted we’d be able to take anything more than a point from this fixture. The result was akin to a giant-killing given the gulf between the two sides and the performance, our best of the season so far, was just as worthy.

The franchise’s expensively assembled team was a stark contrast to that of Wrexham’s side for this game, almost unrecognisable to the line-up of just a few weeks ago. Only Steve Evans, Hope, Spender, Llewellyn and Roberts remained from the old guard.

New signings Stuart Nicholson and Carl Tremarco had barely any time to get to know their new team-mates, before being pitched straight into action with other recent additions Hall, Sonner, Bolland and Ward.

From the beginning a neutral observer would not have been able to guess this was a top of the table against rock bottom of the league clash. Buoyed by the brilliant atmosphere produced by the home crowd Wrexham got stuck in to the Dons and there was little between the two sides in the first half.

There was just one real scare when Jemal Johnson raced away from Spender giving the ball to Andrews. His lay off to Cameron saw the veteran put the ball wide of the goal after quarter of an hour, as close as either side came to breaking the first half deadlock. Generally we looked solid at the back, the three centre-half’s given plenty of protection by Roberts and Sonner in midfield.

Unfortunately we lost the pace of Paul Hall up front after just over half an hour to an injury that saw him replaced by Mike Procter. We didn’t threaten too often going forward though Llewellyn was in really creative mood and Nicholson’s pace was always a danger.

Privately many home fans might have expected a backlash from the Dons in the second-half, especially as the likes of Sonner looked like tiring, but it didn’t come. Instead we more than held our own again in midfield where most of the battle was played out.

As the game went on it started to stretch and following a spell under pressure we managed to win a corner. Steve Evans’s header was only partially cleared. The ball fell to Neil Roberts hovering outside the area. He calmly took his time to move forward and chip the Dons goalkeeper Willy Gueret, giving their defence no chance. The ball seemed to hang in the air for ages before it dropped into the goal to send the Racecourse faithful wild.

We still had 20 minutes to hang on for an improbable victory and though we inevitably dropped deeper we soaked up the pressure and looked dangerous on the break. Nicholson in particular was a great outlet for running the ball forward and taking the heat off the defence.

In the final few minutes Jeff Whitley was introduced for Nicholson. Jeff got a great reception after apologising to Wrexham fans for going missing last season, and bravely opening up publicly about the full extent of his personal problems earlier this week.

After three anxious, tense minutes of stoppage time the referee blew the final whistle and 4,000 Wrexham fans could celebrate an unlikely victory that gave us a precious three points in our battle for survival.

We may still be bottom of the league but by beating MK Dons in the way that we did, we proved that it is possible for us to beat anybody in this league. The crowd certainly helped give the players confidence and belief, and that showed by the way the players reacted back at the end of the game.

The new signings, Sonner and Tremarco in particular look a cut above in quality, taking the pressure of other players such as Llewellyn, Roberts and Spender so that they could raise their game too.

It’s a struggle to think of any negatives from this game. At the Buckley Reds AGM earlier this week it was clear to those present how hard Brian Little and Martin Foyle are working to turn our situation around. With this performance and result, that hard work looks like it is starting to pay off.

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