The highly-contentious penalty incident in Darlington's defeat on Saturday amazed players, fans and officials of both clubs with even Wrexham's manager and captain both admitting they should not have been awarded the late spot-kick.

Seemingly everybody in the ground on Saturday, apart from the match officials, could see that Joey Hutchinson's foul on Robbie Foy occurred outside the penalty area, so when referee Gary Sutton pointed to the spot the Wrexham supporters could not believe their luck.

Sutton remained in his dressing room with the match assessor until well after the final whistle so his view remains unknown.

Robins boss, Denis Smith, admitted his side had been fortunate.

He said: "I'll take the points and run.

"It wasn't a classic, but today was a day when we didn't play well, but we got a break and ultimately the three points.

"Sometimes it is a break like this that can turn the season."

Darren Ferguson, captain of Wrexham, was similarly honest, saying: "It was a fortunate penalty because it was never in the box.

"It looked like it was going to be 0-0 but we got a break and it was the little bit of luck that you sometimes need."

The report on the official Wrexham website reads: "This match exploded into life following what looked like a routine foul on Robbie Foy - outside of the area - but referee Gary Sutton pointed at the penalty spot."

Red Passion, a Wrexham website, said: "It was a definite foul but you could imagine the surprise when the referee pointed to the spot, especially as Foy was at least a yard outside the box.

"Buy the referee a drink."

Sent off seconds after the final whistle on Saturday, Hutchinson will be banned for this weekend's trip to Barnsley in the first round of the FA Cup.

Manager David Hodgson said he was disappointed with his player for losing his cool after the game.

Hutchinson was shown the red card for saying something out of turn to Sutton and faces a one-game ban.

Hodgson said: "I am disgusted with Joey for his sending-off.

"He will miss the Barnsley game and he will be punished because I am not going to accept what he said.

"I tried to get on the pitch to stop the players saying anything to the ref but obviously Joey said something before I got there."

* Clyde Wijnhard scored his first league goal for Macclesfield Town on Saturday, the opener in a 2-1 win at home to Bristol Rovers.

Alun Armstrong appeared as a second half sub for Rushden and Diamonds in their defeat at Barnet.

Read more about the Quakers here.