Why Iain Darbyshire says there’s work for Cardiff City to do after win against Wrexham | OneFootball

CARDIFF, WALES – 04 JANUARY 2026: Cardiff City Womens celebrating winning the 2025/2026 Genero Adran Premier league fixture between Cardiff City Women FC & Wrexham AFC Women at Cardiff Athletics Stadium, Cardiff, Wales (Pic by John Smith/FAW)

Cardiff City head coach Iain Darbyshire was grateful that his side managed to pull an important win out of the bag against Wrexham in the Genero Adran Premier.

The Bluebirds snatched a 2-1 win thanks to a goal in second-half added time from substitute Fiona Barry.

But Darbyshire was quick to remind his players that there’s still plenty to do if they want to retain their league title.

“Being critical, we should have been three or four up at half-time,” he told Sgorio after the game. “We had so many big chances, I think we hit the bar twice, post twice. We came in at half-time happy with the performance, but we knew that we’d let ourselves down a little bit in terms of being clinical.

“Second half I thought it was a great contest, end to end, both teams really went for it. When Wrexham scored, both teams were going for the win, and we’re just thankful that one fell for us at the end.”

Iain Darbyshire: We have to back this up

Cardiff City have three games left of Phase One before the league splits and the top four play off for the championship. They currently sit second in the table, two points behind Wrexham with a game in hand – meaning that they simply need to keep winning if they are to defend the title.

“For us, even if we hadn’t come away with the three points today, it was in our hands,” acknowledged Darbyshire. “We knew that we had to play Wrexham twice again [in Phase Two]. We also know there are some really good teams that are going to be up against us in Phase 2.

“You can’t look that far ahead because we’ve got some difficult games coming up. Briton Ferry away is not going to be an easy game. Aberystwyth away is not going to be an easy game.

“We know that we’ve now got to back this up . We can’t just rest on this and think it’s all going to go our way. If we slip up again in the next few weeks we’ll find ourselves chasing again. So it’s all up to us now to make sure we make this count.”