BARROW’S never-say-die attitude came to the fore for boss Paul Cox as he saw his side claim a 97th-minute draw against Wrexham.

After a match the home manager felt his side had dominated from start to finish – and not without good reason – it looked as though they would end the night with nothing.

Former Bluebird Paul Rutherford pounced on a mistake from AFC keeper Jon Flatt in the 93rd minute to pass the ball into the back of the net and seemingly seal victory for the visitors.

However, Moussa Diarra scored his second key goal in as many games with a lopping header over stranded keeper Chris Dunn even deeper into stoppage time to earn a crucial National League point for AFC.

Cox felt his side should have had all three, but hailed them for sticking it out until the very end to ensure they at least took something.

“You look at the game, it is one we have bossed from start to finish,” said the Barrow manager.

“Wrexham came here to shut up shop, to camp behind the ball.

“We’ve thrown caution to the wind, we’ve chucked big Moussa up there, but there is a horrible mistake and all of a sudden we find ourselves 1-0 down in injury time.

“I’ve got to give credit to the boys, they don’t know when to give up.

“We deserved to win the game, never mind draw it, but sometimes you don’t get what you deserve. We’ll soldier on.

“We’ve had four games now, Dagenham and Redbridge, Tranmere, Wrexham and Eastleigh, and at the beginning of the season, you would have expected all four to be in the play-off places and have aspirations of promotion.

“We’ve won two, drawn one and lost one, and we’re still disappointed with our points haul.

“It’s about keeping yourself level. It’s surprising that we’re still in and around that level. I keep telling people there will be some twists and turns between now and the end of the season – this is a turn.

“We went from playing on a nice, slick surface on Saturday, to playing on something that has dried out and started getting hard and bobbly. That was why we matched them up in the end, and played with a diamond, because the ball was a bit uneven and we weren’t getting a lot of joy out on the wings.

“We’re still in the mix. We shouldn’t self-implode and put too much pressure on ourselves – we want to dust ourselves down, and go to try to win another very important game at Solihull.”

With the score at 0-0 entering the closing stages, Cox brought Inih Effiong and Akil Wright off the bench and pushed Diarra into an attacking role looking to break the deadlock.

However, they were caught out when Flatt was unable to control a hard-hit back-pass from Shaun Beeley, before Diarra popped up with is leveller at the death.

Cox said: “We chucked Moussa up there for the last 15 minutes. We went for it. These are the games where we want to go and try and win it, rather than sit back and accept the draw.

“For Flatty, it’s probably one he will want to forget. Saying that, he’s pulled off an excellent save on Saturday at 2-1. I’m not going to be too hard on him.

“We drew a game, that if you look at possession, domination of the ball, territorial advantage, we should have won. We haven’t, it’s an uncontrollable, we can’t do anything about it, we move on to Saturday and we try and get to that all-important points haul that will see us trying to affect those play-off places.”

He added: “I won’t get too down about tonight. I’m a realist – I understand the game, I’ve been in the game a long time, and we couldn’t have done much more tonight to try and win a game.

“The boys have worked extremely hard. I understand the players’ frustration that things didn’t go for them. The save by their keeper in the second half was outstanding, and if we had gone 1-0 up, I think we would have gone on to win the game comfortably.

“It didn’t happen and we will settle for a draw. But it’s positive, we’re in a good place, and we want to push on now until the end of the season.”