City Women fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Wrexham on Sunday afternoon.
A Lily Billingham strike was cancelled out by Ava Suckley, before Abbie Iddenden grabbed a second, which gave the visitors all three points.
Wrexham had the first chance of the game as Carra Jones was played in-behind. However, Ceryn Chamberlain produced a great save to deny the visitors an early lead. City created their first chance with just over ten minutes played. Billingham cut in from the right and opened space for herself to drive into, before firing an effort goalwards, forcing Liz Craven in the Wrexham goal to save.
The Bluebirds produced a quick counter-attack which was almost finished by Eliza Collie, but her strike went narrowly past the post. Chamberlain was called into action again when Natalie Clark’s header looked to be heading in, but the Cardiff City 'keeper produced a diving save to keep the score level.
City continued to push for the opener and went close when Molly Kehoe’s deflected effort flew just over the bar. The resulting corner looked to be cleared but Billingham smashed an effort through a crowd of bodies into the bottom corner, giving the Bluebirds the lead with 30 minutes played.
Wrexham found themselves level eight minutes later when Suckley broke through and slotted the ball past Chamberlain. It was almost the perfect start to the second half for the Bluebirds. Billingham managed to turn on the edge of the box and fire goalwards, but the ball cannoned off the wrong side of the post.
Moments later, the visitors took the lead. A goalmouth scramble wasn’t cleared and Iddenden managed to poke the ball home, making it 2-1. Substitute Fiona Barry almost drew City level when she had two opportunities. Firstly, she forced Craven into a diving save then put her second effort agonisingly wide of the post, after being played through by Billingham.
City had one final chance when Barry’s effort flew over the bar in stoppage time. Next up for the Bluebirds a clash against The New Saints in the Bute Energy Welsh Cup Semi-Final on March 16th, with a kick-off time of 4:30pm.
FINAL SCORE: CARDIFF CITY 1-2 WREXHAM
Cardiff City: Chamberlain, Long, Bowen (Thomas 76), S. Evans, Jenkins, Walklett, Billingham (Curnock 66’), Kehoe, Collie, Olden (Barry 45’) . Subs Not Used: Olsen, G.Evans.
Wrexham AFC: Craven, Lovett (Pritchard 90’), Sharp, Allen (Davies 74’), Lightfoot, Jones, L.Jones, Clark, C.Jones, Cairns (Gibbard 74’), Suckley (Hughes 82’), Iddenden. Subs Not Used: Morgan.
POST-MATCH | IAIN DARBYSHIRE
After the full-time whistle, head coach Iain Darbyshire said: "I think collectively, we just weren't good enough today. Myself, the staff, the players, we can all be better. We just really weren't at it. I thought Wrexham were very good and they hurt us. They took advantage of our mistakes and credit to them, they produced a good performance. We weren't at the races today and that's as a collective. We all work towards the same objectives; we win together and we lose together.
"We've put too much into this season to let one result define us. We have a good lead at the top of the table and this second phase of the season is about points. We know that if we get enough points, we can win the league. It's in our hands. Today's result is disappointing, but we'll be back on it next week."