On This Day – 4th January
4th January 1992 and last season’s First Division champions are playing Wrexham of the Fourth Division. The Welsh side had finished bottom of the Fourth Division the season before so the odds were well against them.
A couple of minutes before half time, Arsenal’s David Hillier lobbed the ball forward for Paul Merson to chase.
Merson ran down the left wing, cut inside and evaded a last-ditch tackle from Wrexham’s defender Mark Sertori.
The Arsenal winger took a couple of touches before flicking the ball back for striker Alan Smith to poke home from six yards out.
Arsenal stayed in front until the 82nd minute when Wrexham won a free-kick just outside the Arsenal box.
Veteran Mickey Thomas took a sizable run up before hitting the free kick hard and high past the wall and into the top corner of the net. The Fourth Division side were level and amazingly things were about to get even better for them.
Less than two minutes later, Wrexham had the ball in the net for a second time! A long clearance upfield was controlled by Gordon Davies, who then side-footed the ball on to striker Steve Watkin.
Watkin and Arsenal skipper Tony Adams both slid in for the ball but the Wrexham man got in ahead of Adams. His soft shot went across goalkeeper David Seaman into the far corner of the net and the majority of the 13,343 fans in the Racecourse Ground went mad.
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