If the astonishing penalty decision that went against Darlington on Saturday had been made in similar circumstances against Chelsea, Jose Mourinho would have no doubt told the world his team had actually drawn the game 0-0.

The Portuguese manager adopted such a narrow-minded stance following his team's defeat to Charlton last week, saying Chelsea drew the game as it finished level after extra-time, conveniently forgetting the resulting penalty shoot-out.

So if David Hodgson chose to mimic Mourinho's idiosyncratic management style it would be understandable because on Saturday referee Gary Sutton cost Darlington a deserved point by inexplicably awarding a penalty in the 85th minute when Joey Hutchinson tripped Robbie Foy outside the area.

Having run across the Darlington penalty area towards the corner flag, Hutchinson went shoulder-to-shoulder with Foy resulting in the Wrexham player going to ground.

Seeing the referee award a foul against Quakers was no shock - the pedantic official reckoned Darlington fouled 25 times in all - but his pointing to the spot was greeted by a mixture of stunned gasps and laughter from the home fans. Wrexham could not believe their luck and nobody could believe what they were seeing.

Almost every penalty award is debated these days but the lunacy of this spot-kick award beats anything seen at a Darlington match in recent memory.

Lee McEvilly converted the kick and seconds after the final whistle Sutton showed a red card to Hutchinson for dissent, but by then Sutton had already single-handedly awarded the hosts three points and denied Darlington a draw.

In a sometimes drab game, neither team were at their best but Hodgson, buoyed by an improved display in the second half, remained calm afterwards.

Stunned by what he had just seen, Hodgson said: "I am going to give him a mark of zero out of ten, if he's a professional football referee then the game is in a very bad state.

"The foul for the penalty was three yards outside the box, everyone could see that apart from the ref.

"He was extremely one-sided, even their manager nodded and smiled when I said the same thing to him.

"I am very disappointed with the performance of the match official and I told him so.

"But my own team's performance is always more important than the referee's and in terms of commitment and desire I have no qualms with the second half.

"We were under the cosh in the first half but dealt with it, although I thought we could have played more football when we broke away.

"However, at half-time we were comfortable and we put right in the second half what we didn't do right in the first half.

"If we had performed like that at Bury we would have won, today was unquestionably better than Kidderminster and Bury away."

In hindsight, given what Sutton did, the first 85 minutes of the match are irrelevant - given that if one man decided the outcome there was no need for Wrexham or Darlington to turn up.

But, for the record, right wingback David Duke lasted just 20 minutes of his return from injury after suffering a nasty head wound so he was replaced by Stephen Thomas while Hodgson again opted for new personnel with three changes and a switch to 3-5-2.

There were chances for both sides early on though Wrexham had the better scoring opportunities in the first half during which McEvilly looked dangerous shooting just over; Jon Walters' header hit the post and Foy's shot hit the side-netting.

Neil Wainwright played upfront alongside Akpo Sodje with Simon Johnson in midfield while Ryan Valentine operated as the left wing-back - where he had an excellent game.

After robbing the keeper early on Valentine had a shot cleared off the line and just afterwards Matt Clarke's powerful downward header from a Valentine cross was cleared for a corner.

Johnson is very quick on the ball but has not looked like scoring so midfield could be the way ahead for him.

He did well in the second 45 minutes, setting-up a great chance midway through the second half for Sodje by firing across goal but the Nigerian was too slow to react.

Except for a McEvilly free-kick which went just wide and Russell tipping a McEvilly shot on to the post, the game petered out with little incident - until Hutchinson conceded that 'penalty'.

As there was no logical reason for the late penalty, perhaps Sutton was bored and wanted to liven things up.

If so, he certainly succeeded as both assistant referees (who failed to live up to their new-fangled names as if they were of any real assistance they would have advised Sutton of his error) were required on the pitch to calm down what turned into a four-minute long 'heated debate' following Sutton's decision.

An indistinguishable mass of players pushing, pulling and shoving saw Sam Russell, Clarke and Wrexham's Matt Crowell all booked for dissent while others escaped punishment.

McEvilly blasted the kick straight down the middle although there was still time for Darlington to launch one more attack.

Every player, including Russell, went forward for a free-kick but it came to nothing and after only three minutes injury time - despite the penalty holding up play for four - Sutton brought an end to proceedings after which Hutchinson informed the Lincoln whistle-blower what he thought of him for which he received a red card.

Surely a more worthy recipient of a red card was Wrexham keeper Michael Ingham for his continued goading of the Darlington fans at the final whistle - inciting crowd violence is surely worse than a justifiably angry player voicing his opinion.

Last week, after video evidence was used, the Barnet goalkeeper had his red card received at Old Trafford rescinded and Hutchinson's foul was as far outside the area as the keeper's.

But Darlington can't have a goal rescinded so, no matter what points total Quakers finish on in May, thanks to Sutton they will always be one point worse off than they should be.

If you were not one of the 181 travelling fans at the Racecourse Ground, make sure you see the incident on local television news this evening because even though the saying goes that the camera never lies, supporters will find it hard to believe what they'll see.

Result: Wrexham 1, Darlington 0.

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