Steve Evans reacts to Rotherham United's loss at Wrexham

The home side made the breakthrough three minutes into the second half at the Racecourse Ground and saw out the game to take all three points and close in on the second automatic promotion spot in League One.

But Evans, whose side remained in 14th place, reckoned the visitors had fashioned the clearest openings and should have scored through a header from Mallik Wilks before the break and one from Jack Holmes in added time.

"The best team lost," he said. "We've had more than 55 per cent possession. more opportunities in the final third, the two best chances.

"Our performance was good, it was an assured performance. But we got nothing for it."

Poor defending led to Sam Smith's winner. The Millers failed to deal with the danger and the January signing slotted a low shot beyond Dillon Phillips.

"We make a horrible error in the centre of defence for their goal," Evans said. "If you give Wrexham a chance, they'll take it. It's their only chance other than a 30-yard shot (from Matt James) in the first half."

That wasn’t quite right as Smith had an on-target saved following a counter-attack when the score was still 0-0.

Not for the first time this season, the manager thought that Rotherham were given a raw deal by officialdom, and he went on to criticise Lancashire referee Jeremy Simpson.

"Seven or eight 50:50 decisions go in one direction," he said. "The fourth official told me that he had sympathy."

Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson said: "Rotherham make it difficult for you. I've played against Steve Evans teams a lot over the years.

"It was a first-contact, second-ball game. You've got to be ready to deal with that and not get bored of doing the ugly side of things. I thought we stuck to our task brilliantly.

"We had bits of quality. We wanted more moments. We got in some great positions and couldn't quite execute.

"We won so many first contacts in our box."