STEVE PARKIN hailed the never-day-attitude in the Wrexham ranks but he doesn’t want to keep relying on late goals to secure victory.

Leading scorer Elliot Lee came off the bench and scored with a stunning 20-year strike one minute from time as the Reds beat Sutton United 2-1 at The STóK Cae Ras in League Two on Tuesday night.

Wrexham took an early lead through Paul Mullin but Phil Parkinson’s men failed to build on that brilliant start, and bottom of the table Sutton came out fired up in the second half with the equaliser arriving on the hour mark.

It was a below-par performance but Wrexham finished strongly and playmaker Lee’s last-gasp goal - his ninth of the season - clinched three points.

Assistant manager Parkin admits his side should have done better after going ahead and was just relieved to win.

“We got the early goal which we needed but never really capitalised on that,” said Parkin.

“We had some good, patient play without creating the chances that we wanted to.

“Sutton went up a notch second half to be fair to them and got the all important equaliser which made the evening difficult for us.

“To come up with such a quality goal at the end to get the points for us was a big relief.”

There have been no shortage of late goals and comebacks this season and although Parkin praised his players for their ability to keep going to the final whistle in a bid to get something out of games, he accepts it can’t keep happening.

“I think the crowd got frustrated which led to the lads wanting to do their best but forcing things with their football which they didn’t really need to do,” said Parkin.

“We just needed to stay patient, and we go right to the very end,

“They are a great set of lads, they work hard and they never know when they are beat, and that little bit of quality did them in the end.

“They really believe in the dressing room, as we do of course, that they go right to whatever it may be; 100th minute if necessary.

“But the key thing is we don’t want to be relying on that all the time and we have already relied on it quite a bit this season.

“At the end of the day, there’s loads of different ways to get three points and we will take it.”

On Lee’s 89th minute goal, which extended the unbeaten run to seven games in all competitions and took Wrexham up to third in the table, five points off top spot, Parkin added: “It was as pure as it gets.

“Elliot has put a few over the bar this season from a similar kind of area but his concentration was 100 per cent and you won’t see a purer strike.”

Mullin’s goal was also one to savour, with the striker finding the net from 25 yards out.

“It was a nice quick throw from Ryan Barnett, Paul managed to turn and it was one of his special strikes which got us off and running, said Parkin.

“It was a great goal.”