SUNDAY in bible-black chapel-going Wales is not a day for rejoicing, celebration, partying or drunkenness. Not even when you have slain a giant in red that came roaring across Offa's Dyke to eat some natives for tea. Well, you might reasonably expect a bit of a knees-up on the Saturday night; just one teeny bottle of champagne to mark Goliath's fall.

But no. After earth-shattering events at the Racecourse ground on Saturday afternoon, Wrexham displayed little outward sign of jubilation yesterday. The town's team, sixth from bottom of the fourth division and a whisker away last season from ignominious descent into the GM Vauxhall Conference, the football pond for minnows, had scored a 2-1 victory over the Gunners from Highbury, seventh in the first division and last year's League champions.

Ten thousand fervent home supporters erupted in wild delight as first their veteran captain, Mickey Thomas, aged 37, fired in an equalising free kick, and then Steve Watkin, a mere lad of 20, scored the winner two minutes later. Then they all went home, sober and well-behaved, and the police could not find a single outbreak of rowdyism to apprehend.

In the home dressing room, the result was so unexpected that a quick search was initiated for a bottle of bubbly, but none could be found. A litre bottle of whisky was eventually produced and placed on a table in the room; it remained unopened.

The team made do with nothing more than its usual post-match refreshment: a can or two of beer in the players' lounge.

The height of celebration was reached by Watkin, who jumped into the bath in full kit to satisfy the whim of a photographer, and presented his scoring boot to a young apprentice player, who vowed to frame it. Magnanimous in defeat, David Seaman, the Arsenal goalkeeper, presented his ill-fated gloves to Thomas's 11-year-old son. ``It was nice of him; he's a real professional. Or perhaps he doesn't want to wear them again,'' said Thomas, who was in the team when Wrexham last met Arsenal at home unsuccessfully in 1978.

Watkin had an early night, and spent yesterday watching a video recording of the game. ``There was no party for me, but I was so excited I hardly slept a wink all night,'' he said. Nor was there any party for 3,000 Arsenal fans who slunk back to the big city dragging their tails behind them.

The equanimity with which Wrexham received its moment of triumph may in fact be a bad case of tenterhooks. They have to await a replay on January 14 to know whether their fourth-round opponents will be plucky little non-league Farnborough United, who held West Ham to a draw on Saturday, or the heavy brigade itself from Upton Park. Serious partying is on the back burner until then.

WREXHAM (4-3-3): O'Keefe; Thackeray, Carey, Sertori, Hardy; Owen, Phillips, Thomas; Davies, Connolly, Watkin

ARSENAL 4-4-2): Seaman; Dixon, O'Leary, Adams, Winterburn; Carter, Rocastle, Hillier, Merson; Campbell (sub: Groves 79min), Smith.

Goals: Smith (43min) 0-1; Thomas (82min) 1-1; Watkin (84min) 2-1.

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