Football Sep 01, 2026

Cardiff City 1-1 Wrexham: Rubin Colwill hits stunning 98th-minute free-kick to earn Bluebirds a point on their Championship return

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By Admin
Sports Journalist
Cardiff City 1-1 Wrexham: Rubin Colwill hits stunning 98th-minute free-kick to earn Bluebirds a point on their Championship return

Cardiff earned the most dramatic point on their return to the Sky Bet Championship as Rubin Colwill's stunning 98th-minute free-kick earned a 1-1 draw against Wrexham.

Former Bluebirds striker Kieffer Moore had given the visitors the lead with a cracking strike after just two minutes and 26 seconds at the Cardiff City Stadium, in the first meeting between the two Welsh sides in 24 years.

It was his seventh goal against Cardiff - against no side has he scored more in his career.

That looked to be enough to secure a winning start for the Red Dragons, who missed out on a place in the play-offs last season - and thus a chance at a fourth straight promotion - by a margin of just two points.

Cardiff had looked bright in spells, but found clear-cut openings hard to come by - and when Wrexham captain Dom Hyam headed a cross onto his own crossbar, it looked as though their final chance had come and gone.

But after George Dobson brought down Joel Colwill inches outside the penalty area, his older brother fired a beauty into the top-left corner to spark opening-night jubilation in South Wales.

3: GOAL! Danny Imray's ball over the top finds Kieffer Moore all too easily; he waits for it to bounce a couple of times, before catching it perfectly and firing a cracker across Nathan Trott.

6: CHANCE! Wrexham crowd the box, and when a Callum Doyle header is looped in from inside the six-yard box, Nathan Trott has to be alert to tip it over.

22: SAVE! Wrexham debutant Anthony Patterson comes from his line to beat Yousef Salech to a slack pass back to the goalkeeper.

36: OFF THE BAR! Moore rises to meet a corner from the right and sends a header skidding off the top of the bar.

58: OFF THE POST! Wrexham's Callum Doyle opts to go alone instead of finding one of the many team-mates to his right in the box, then crashes a shot off the left-hand upright.

90+5: SO CLOSE! Dom Hyam gets up to defend a looping ball in from the right and crashes a header onto the crossbar and away.

90+6: LATE, LATE DRAMA! George Dobson brings down Joel Colwill inches outside the area and wins a free-kick.

90+8: GOAL! The roof comes off the stadium as Rubin Colwill fires an absolutely beautiful free-kick high into the top-left corner to earn a point for Cardiff.

Cardiff head coach Brian Barry-Murphy speaking on Your Site Football:

"It was a difficult night. A very enjoyable night in the end. The game, naturally, didn't go the way we wanted from the start because Wrexham started really well, scored a great goal and that took the wind out of our sails for a while.

"We started to show our quality throughout the course of the game and I just had the feeling at the end we may get one more chance. But, if I'm being honest, I thought it was probably done.

"We had a few games here last year where we found it difficult to break teams down when they were winning and sat deep, so I just tried to find a different solution and tried to get all of our goalscorers on the pitch.

"We got one or two late chances and Rubin provided the defining moment."

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson speaking on Your Site Football:

"We've had enough chances to have killed the game off. We felt really comfortable in the game. Of course they're going to come onto us towards the end, but could we have kept the ball better in the corner? We gave a cheap free-kick away and a quality player has stuck it in the top corner.

"In terms of the performance, it was good. I thought there were a lot of good performances out there; we had a real cutting-edge to our attacking play. We should've taken the game out of sight.

"In many respects, I can't ask for much more, but as always, there are areas we can improve on."

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