Cardiff draw 'hurts' - O'Brien

[Getty Images] Lewis O'Brien says Wrexham's 1-1 draw with Cardiff City "hurts" as his side failed to see out victory in the Welsh capital. Phil Parkinson's side appeared destined to kick-start their 2026-27 Championship campaign with a win over the Bluebirds after Kieffer Moore's third-minute strike. But substitute Rubin Colwill struck a free-kick beyond debutant Anthony Patterson in the eighth minute of added time to earn Brian Barry-Murphy's men a share of the spoils at Cardiff City Stadium. "It hurts to put that much effort into a game and draw like that. It's a really tough one to take," said O'Brien. "I think we started well, we started fast. Obviously got the goal early. I think we played some good stuff. "They had a lot of pressure on us in the second half and the momentum was building. "If they didn't get out in the corner and we don't give the free-kick away in the last kick of the game, you'll probably come away and say we've got a good resilient result and we take three points, but it's a really hard one to take." Moore, Danny Imray, Callum Doyle and Sam Smith all had chances to add to Wrexham's lead prior to Colwill's last-gasp equaliser in south Wales. "I think we could have put them away, we could have had three or four and we were quite good on the counter-attack. We were just missing that clinical edge," added O'Brien. The draw means Wrexham are winless in their opening two games of the season having lost 1-0 to Middlesbrough in the first round of the EFL Cup 10 days prior to the contest with Cardiff. But they will play at the Racecourse Ground for the first time this season on Saturday (15:00 BST) as they welcome Watford to north Wales, and O'Brien is relishing the chance to play in front of the club's own supporters again. "It's been a strange run, having the cup before the start of the league, but it'll be nice to see all the fans back at home," added O'Brien.