Carra Jones’ 12th goal of the season proved a consolation for Wrexham as the Red Dragons ended their first Genero Adran Premier campaign with a heavy defeat at Cardiff City.
The league champions ensured they finished their season in style ahead of lifting the trophy at a rain-soaked Cardiff City Stadium.
Rhianne Oakley, Mikayla Cook and Siobhan Walsh gave the Bluebirds a commanding half-time lead, before Elize Collie and Olivia Basham added to the scoreline after the break. Jones curled in a brilliant long-range strike to pull one back for Wrexham.
Oakley ran onto Molly Kehoe’s through ball on six minutes, rounding Del Morgan and threading in from a tight angle to give Cardiff the lead.
Wrexham responded well after soaking up the early pressure, and Carra Jones found space to chest the ball down and half-volley goalwards on 14 minutes, but the shot flashed wide.
Lili Jones had a low shot saved from the edge of the area on 17 minutes, but Cardiff found another gear to regain control of the game.
Cook fired a warning sign to Wrexham when she cut inside onto her right foot on 29 minutes and unleashed a brilliant shot that clipped the far post and bounced clear.
Eliza Collie then headed wide on 33 minutes, but Cook made no mistake when Brooke Cairns’ foul presented her with a free-kick on the left of the box. Cook whipped the set-piece brilliantly into the top far corner, over Morgan to double Cardiff’s lead in the 37th minute.
Morgan responded well for Wrexham, keeping the score at two with a pair of excellent saves within moments of each other. First, she saved at point-blank range from Kehoe on 42 minutes and then parried Seren Watkins’ long-range shot wide a minute later.
Cardiff did get a third before half-time, however. Watkins whipped a corner in from the right, and Walsh got ahead of her markers to glance a header in across goal off the far post.
The hosts got their fourth on 53 minutes. Collie ran through and was initially tackled by Rebecca Pritchard but the ball hit the onrushing Morgan and fell kindly for Collie to tap into the empty net.
Wrexham’s response was to bring on Amber Lightfoot and Annie Small, with TJ Dickens and Hughes making way.
But the one-way traffic continued, and Morgan saved brilliantly one-on-one with Collie on 61 minutes.
Substitute Basham slid in Cardiff’s fifth from close-range on 68 minutes, but Jones did restore some pride two minutes later.
Receiving the ball in space in the middle, she drove forward and unleashed a long-range shot that curled just inside the post.
She nearly had a second on 76 minutes, when she met Lili Jones’ cross but, could not get enough of her boot around the ball to send it goalwards.
Lili Jones’ long-range free-kick was then saved, and Libby Mackenzie denied from the rebound on 86 minutes.
Carra Jones continued to have chances, playing through the middle, and was denied one-on-one by substitute keeper Anna Phelps on 88 minutes. Moments later she got the ball in the middle again but her long-range shot was saved and held.
Jones had the game’s final chance too, shooting just wide from the edge of the area in stoppage time, but Wrexham could not make further inroads into impressive Cardiff’s lead.
Line-ups
Cardiff: Chamberlain (Phelps 74), Price (Owen 72), Power, Walsh, Oakley (Basham 63), Watkins, Kehoe (Walklett 63), Smith, Cook, Beynon (Adams 72), Collie
Wrexham: Morgan, Davies, Fuller, Allen, Pritchard, L.Jones, Dickens (Small 53), C.Jones, Cairns (Lovett 81), Gibbard (Mackenzie 81), Hughes (Lightfoot 53)
Sub not used: Bolland (G/K)
