Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson was left frustrated by the amount of stoppage time added by referee Andrew Kitchen after Rubin Colwill's dramatic late free-kick secured Cardiff City a 1-1 draw in the Sky Bet Championship.
Parkinson questions added time
Parkinson felt there should have been no more than four minutes of added time as Wrexham protected the lead given by Kieffer Moore's early strike. However, the referee signalled six minutes, and after George Dobson's foul on Joel Colwill on the edge of the box, another two minutes elapsed before Colwill's powerful effort flew over the wall and past goalkeeper Anthony Patterson.
"I don't know where the referee got six minutes from, to be honest," said Parkinson. "I thought it was more like four. I don't think there was an injury in the second half, and I thought it was job done."
Wrexham's missed chances
Parkinson was also annoyed his side gave away a "cheap" late free-kick, adding: "But we had enough chances to have killed the game off. We should have been out of sight really."
Moore, a former Cardiff striker, fired Wrexham in front in the third minute with his seventh goal against his former club. He also grazed the crossbar with a header, and Callum Doyle's second-half effort hit a post. Wrexham had further chances to seal the match, but Cardiff goalkeeper Nathan Trott denied Doyle, Danny Imray, and Sam Smith.
Parkinson praises performance
"Some of our attacking play was of a very high standard and in many respects I'm pleased with the performance, but obviously when you concede late it hurts," Parkinson said. "Obviously they were putting balls in the box, and deep towards the end we defended that. We knew they were going to commit players forward, but equally on the transition we had some great chances."
He added: "I didn't feel really troubled. I felt very comfortable in a hostile atmosphere. We've come here, the first game in the division, and the place was bouncing. It was an electric atmosphere, but we handled it with calmness and an assuredness of a team which came into the game believing we could win the game. We haven't but when I reflect and go through the individuals in the team, I thought there were some really high-end performances."
Cardiff boss celebrates
Cardiff boss Brian Barry-Murphy marked substitute Colwill's equaliser with a sprint along the touchline, earning a yellow card for leaving his technical area. "Rubin's only trained for two days really, so probably shouldn't have put him on as early as I did," said Barry-Murphy. "But the way the game was going, I felt as if we needed a bit of something different. He's an impeccable professional, loves the game, loves the club, so he's a huge figure for us here, I can't deny that. He just needs to find some rhythm and volume in his training because he hasn't done a lot of training days."
