Wrexham brought down to earth by champions

GENERO ADRAN PREMIER

Wrexham 0
Cardiff City 3 (Kehoe 35 & 48, Price 76)

An ill-advised pre-match boast from the Red Dragons camp that champions Cardiff City should be worried about visiting Wrexham ended up backfiring badly.

Instead of being phased by any fear factor, the Bluebirds produced a composed and clinical display which emphatically halted the North Wales side’s unbeaten start to the Genero Adran Premier campaign.

After scoring all five goals in the previous weekend’s 5-1 triumph at Barry, Wrexham striker Rosie Hughes confidently claimed Cardiff should be worried about travelling to The Rock for Sunday’s televised battle of two unbeaten sides in the top flight.

However, what actually happened was City gave the Reds an early warning that not every opponent will roll over when faced by last season’s Genero Adran North champions.

With 97 goals in just 43 appearances for Wrexham, including seven in her first three Adran Premier games, Hughes has every right to make a bold prediction or two.

But after a fairy tale ride over the past 12 months or so, with the women’s team sharing in the glories of the men’s Hollywood-backed rise to fame, Sunday was perhaps a timely reminder that not everything in the garden will always be rosy.

Unbeaten in the league since March 2022, and champions last term by a 13-point margin, Cardiff produced an altogether different challenge than rivals Swansea City managed at The Rock in a 3-3 draw on the opening day of the season.

Cardiff passed the ball a lot better than the Swans did that day and most certainly were not as guilty of as many errors witnessed in that six-goal cracker.

Yet it was Wrexham who made the better start, Rebecca Pritchard going close to breaking the deadlock.

Iain Darbyshire’s side grew into the match slowly and eventually took the lead in the 35th minute.

Molly Kehoe left home skipper Keren Allen stranded on the left, ran unopposed into the box and hit a shot which Delyth Morgan could only parry back to the Cayman Islands international who thumped the ball into the net.

Lili Jones was not far away with an effort for the hosts, but come the interval the Bluebirds were 1-0 up.

Three minutes into the second half, the visitors struck again.

Kehoe burst forward rapidly from midfield, avoided a wild lunge from Morgan who had come racing out of her goal, and ran on to lash into an empty net.

To their credit, Wrexham battled to get back into the game, but it was not Hughes’ day in front of goal and Allen’s header from a TJ Dickens cross sailed just wide.

In the 75th minute the points were in the bag. A free kick into the box was punched weakly by Morgan against Price, who had the easiest of tasks to blast in the third.

Definitely a few positives for Wrexham to take out of the game, but also a stark warning that at this level you cannot get away with gifting goals to the opposition.