But it came in front of Darlington's lowest crowd of the season with just 2,727 bothering to turn up.
The stay-away fans missed seeing Rowson brilliantly crash home a low drive from 25 yards on 70 minutes as Wycombe's play-off hopes were given a massive dent.
Wanderers are without a win in nine games, but that sorry sequence looked set to end when Matt Bloomfield gave them an 11th-minute lead.
Veteran Tommy Mooney showed all his experience with a defence splitting pass which enabled Bloomfield to fire into the corner of the net.
However Neil Wainwright took over for Darlington. He sprinted on to Rory Prendergast's pass on 27 minutes to score with ease, then moments later sent a rising drive narrowly over the bar.
However, within two minutes of the start of the second half, Wainwright struck again, scoring with a low shot after a breathtaking run.
But sloppy defending allowed Jermaine Easter to equalise almost immediately when he scored from close-range after more good work from Mooney.
But they had no answer once Rowson put the home side back in front. And Darlington could have won by more goals, substitute Gaetano Giallanza fired wide from close-range in injury time, in his first game after a six-month lay-off.
By then the game was won, though Darlington had missed good chances when the scores were level. Skipper Michael Cummins failed to convert Julian Joachim's pin-point cross and Rowson, set up by Alun Armstrong, dallied when he should have got a shot in on goal.
But he learned his lesson to net the winner giving Darlington their first win in six games.
But in truth neither side are good enough to win promotion because neither can defend properly.
Mooney and Wainwright stood out with their class and vision but both sides have too many ordinary players and will be looking to strengthen their squads in the summer.