WREXHAM manager Denis Smith blamed an enforced fortnight's break for a jaded performance that saw his team hanging on for a point against a struggling Walsall side.

Smith said the postponing of Wrexham's clash with Peterborough United combined with injuries to Brian Carey and Jim Whitley inside 15 minutes left his team carrying a handicap they couldn't overcome.

But, despite this, Wrexham took the lead in the Racecourse contest through a Dennis Lawrence header on 18 minutes after Carey was forced off with a knee problem and Whitley made way nursing his hip.

And for the first half-hour the Red Dragons appeared unruffled by the absence of their two defenders as Walsall showed few signs of ending a record which has seen them fail to win away this season.

But, after defender Julian Bennett equalised with 16 minutes left, the Midlands' side wasted five chances to claim their first away win.

Smith admitted his team were lucky to emerge with a point after Walsall's late surge saw them create so many match-winning opportunities.

"We looked like a team that had not played for a couple of weeks. We looked as though we had run out of energy.

"It makes it difficult when you get two players coming off in the first 15 minutes - that throws you a little bit and it makes it difficult to change things around.

"I think we were very fortunate in the end to get a point, which is not the way it was looking at half-time."

Walsall player-manager Paul Merson last visited the Racecourse with the Arsenal team that lost to Wrexham in the FA Cup third round in 1992 in one of the competition's biggest-ever upsets.

He emerged from Saturday's game only marginally happier, but refused to criticise his players for the chances they spurned.

"At least they're getting themselves in the positions. I don't have a go at players for missing chances and I never will because they don't miss on purpose.

"When I was a centre-forward at Arsenal I worried when I came off the pitch if I had never looked like scoring."

For the opening goal Trinidadian centre-back Lawrence nodded a Darren Ferguson free-kick into the bottom corner after midfielder Mark Wright was adjudged to have fouled Chris Llewellyn.

Two minutes before Bennett headed in Wright's cross Llewellyn might have taken the wind out of Walsall's sails when he saw a header tipped over by goalkeeper Joe Murphy.