THE delight of scoring his first goal of the season was lost on Andy Mangan after the Reds surrendered their unbeaten home record.

Wrexham were beaten 2-1 by second placed AFC Wimbledon at The Racecourse despite dominating the contest.

Countless scoring chances were squandered before and after Mangan gave Wrexham the lead in the 27th minute, but Wimbledon scored an equaliser early in the second half, and went on to grab a late winner.

And Mangan, who had not scored in the previous 17 league games and was last on target in the 2-0 win at Grays Athletic on April 10, was disappointed it did not lead to three points.

“I am made up to get off the mark but gutted we did not get the three points because I didn’t think Wimbledon were very good,” said Mangan.

“We have killed ourselves again. We made two mistakes which seems to be killing us all season.

“But I thought we played really well, god knows how many chances we had. We should have won. A draw would have been hard to take, we should have taken three points. They are not very good and they are second in the league.

“But we keep saying this, we have got to do something about it. All of us, from the goalkeeper to the strikers, have got to cut the mistakes out.”

Mangan added: “We should have been 4-0 up at half-time. And the referee has killed us, it was a blatant penalty on Curtis Obeng.

“The referee did not help us today giving silly fouls, but our mistakes have cost us again.”

Although he was among the goals in pre-season, Mangan had failed to find the target in the opening 14 games of the Conference campaign, and with manager Dean Saunders favouring a 4-3-3 formation, Mangan has been less central, But although he has not scored, he has contributed with a number of assists.

Mangan, leading scorer in the Conference in the 2008-09 season while at Forest Green Rovers, was not concerned about his goal drought: “It wasn't worrying me,” he said. “If I end up in the middle of the goal and the ball drops I am more than likely going to put it away more often than not.

“I am playing a different position, working a lot harder and setting people up more than I have ever done before.

“But I have got to get the goals as well. I’ve got a few assists, but I am a goalscorer, I want to score goals.

“But I am happy to do it for the team. We have got belief with the way we are playing so I am really happy we are in a winning team.

“Today we could have been fourth or fifth if we had won that game and they have robbed us.

“We have just got to go away next Saturday at Hayes and Yeading and win.”

Mangan gave Wrexham the lead after converting left-back Neil Ashton’s cross but was unhappy it did not lead to a victory: “I ran inside the box and the ball found its way to me,” he said. “I was going to hit it first time but I took a touch and blasted the ball as hard as I could.

“I think the keeper has saved it and put it in as well but I am made up. It is a monkey off my back but we are gutted not to get three points.”

Mangan rued a succession of missed scoring chances throughout the game but was still pleased with Wrexham’s performance: “I thought Fleetwood did really well on Tuesday, he added. “Against Darlington we stuck in there and we beat Histon and Southport who are down the bottom.

“You always look at the performances first. Performances against Histon and Southport, no matter about the result even though we won.

“The performance against Grimsby, we had chances so you think to yourself that it is going to come good.

“I thought again today, against a team who should no way be second, our performance was very good.

“The gaffer is right about what he said, eventually it is going to come good and we are going to win a lot more games. And someone is going to get a thrashing. I think we had 17 chances, they are going to go in. If you take most of them you are going to be winning games.

“Today I thought we played really well. It is just the result that has killed us.”