Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards revealed he felt he had to make four half-time changes to help find the extra spark required to deliver a positive result at home to Wrexham.
For long periods it looked as if the Red Dragons could hold on to the lead Josh Windass’ deflected seventh-minute strike from distance had delivered.
Despite plenty of pressure, Middlesbrough struggled to find a way back into the game and had to wait until 10 minutes before the end for the goal which earned a 1-1 draw.
Homegrown midfielder Hayden Hackney rose above George Dobson in the penalty area to head Callum Brittain’s deep cross beyond goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo to earn a point.
That preserved Middlesbrough’s unbeaten league record at the Riverside this season, and Edwards believes introducing substitutes Luke Ayling, Sam Silvera, Tommy Conway and Alan Browne at the start of the second half had the desired effect.
“I just think first half we had a lot of the ball without doing too much with it,” said Edwards. “The pattern of the game didn’t change too much, it was just our intensity. That was the main thing that changed.
“In the end it was probably the best we were going to get. You felt something was going to come after the equaliser but it wasn’t to be.
“I have never done that before (made four changes at half-time). I felt like we needed an injection, the whole place. The first half is on me, we lacked something, intensity, a little lethargic, and we were frustrating, slow. I didn’t like it, I felt changes were necessary.
“We have to give Wrexham credit because they played well and we turned the ball over so much in the first half, but we got something.”
Wrexham could easily have added a second after the restart when striker Kieffer Moore headed against the crossbar from Lewis O’Brien’s clipped delivery.
But the visitors could also have suffered defeat after conceding Hackney’s header had Okonkwo not made a flying stop to prevent Luke Ayling from finding the top corner.
Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson said: “I am very pleased with the performance, obviously disappointed not to get three points.
“We have executed exactly what we asked the lads to do. We spoke to the lads before the game not to nullify, we wanted to come here to play.
“Both sides of the game were decent. We got the goal and had another good chance first half. Second half Kieffer has had that amazing chance to kill the game off and it hits the bar.
“The goal they scored, it’s one we should have dealt with better. But I don’t want to talk too much about that because as a group we are growing in belief game by game.
“Middlesbrough had thrown caution to the wind, made four subs at half-time. I felt the game was there to kill off. They have some class players, we know that, but I felt it was there for us to take the game away from them. The lads gave us everything.”
