Cardiff City vs Wrexham; Sky Bet Championship
Cardiff City vs Wrexham. Sky Bet Championship.
Cardiff City Stadium.
Cardiff City 1-1 Wrexham: Rubin Colwill hits stunning 98th-minute free-kick to earn Bluebirds a point on their Championship return
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Cardiff City and Wrexham at the Cardiff City Stadium on Monday night; former Bluebirds striker Kieffer Moore scored after three minutes, before substitute Rubin Colwill scored the most dramatic free-kick to level
Monday 17 August 2026 22:51, UK
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.
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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.
The key moments 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.
Barry-Murphy: I had a feeling we may get one more chance
Cardiff head coach Brian Barry-Murphy speaking on Sky Sports 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."
