After Harvey Vale’s early opener, Callum Doyle’s first Wrexham goal hauled them level early in the second half.

Steve Cook’s 80th-minute goal looked to have secured victory for Rangers, but they were reduced to 10 men when Amadou Mbengue was sent off 10 minutes later – and the visitors then scored twice in the space of a minute.

Josh Windass equalised and fellow substitute Ollie Rathbone netted a dramatic winner in the final moments with a thumping right-footed strike from 30 yards.

Former Chelsea youngster Vale, recently back from injury, opened the scoring in emphatic fashion after six minutes.

Nicolas Madsen intercepted Lewis O’Brien’s pass and cleverly back-heeled to Karamoko Dembele, whose strike hit the bar. After Dembele then battled for the resulting loose ball on the right of the penalty area, Vale turned and smashed a glorious left-footed volley past keeper Arthur Okonkwo.

It was just the start the hosts needed after back-to-back goalless draws, and they continued to have the upper hand, with Paul Smyth firing into the side netting after being teed up by Richard Kone, Vale shooting wide and Dembele’s acrobatic effort landing on the top of the net.

Rangers’ failure to score a second during that period gave Wrexham a chance to stay in the game – and they hit back with an equaliser nine minutes after the interval.

Joe Walsh produced a fine save to keep out George Thomason’s low shot but the R’s were unable to clear their lines and Nathan Broadhead threaded a pass through to Doyle, who fired past Walsh at his near post.

Having been on top in the first half, QPR struggled after being pegged back, and Walsh gathered a shot from Ben Sheaf as the Welsh side threatened again.

At the other end, Madsen intercepted a loose pass – as he did for the first Rangers goal – but this time curled a shot wide of the far corner.

However, Madsen found his target with a perfectly delivered right-wing corner which was headed home near the edge of the six-yard box by veteran defender Cook.

Kone headed against the bar from another Madsen corner, shortly before Mbengue, already on a yellow card, picked up another one for a foul on Thomason and was dismissed.

And the home crowd were then stunned as Windass hooked the ball home after Walsh had palmed out a corner, and Rathbone then clinched the points in style.