Wrexham boss FUMES at referee after devastating 98th-minute Cardiff equaliser

Parkinson openly complained about the amount of added time played during his side's dramatic 1-1 Championship draw with Welsh rivals Cardiff City. The Red Dragons looked absolutely destined for a famous opening-day victory until the chaotic final moments of the match.

Parkinson insisted that no more than four minutes of stoppage time should have been allocated by referee Andrew Kitchen. Instead, a minimum of six minutes were shown on the board, leaving the frustrated Wrexham boss completely baffled on the touchline.

Following a late George Dobson foul on the edge of the penalty area, another two minutes passed before Rubin Colwill finally stepped up. The Cardiff substitute fired a ferocious free-kick over the Wrexham wall and past goalkeeper Anthony Patterson to snatch a point.

The stunning late equaliser was a bitter pill to swallow for Wrexham, who had defended resolutely and comfortably for almost the entire contest. Speaking after the final whistle, Parkinson made his furious feelings regarding the stoppage time clearly known.

"I don't know where the referee got six minutes from, to be honest," Parkinson said, as quoted by ESPN. "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.

"But we had enough chances to have killed the game off. We should have been out of sight really. 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. Obviously they were putting balls in the box, and deep towards the end we defended that."

For Cardiff, the late equaliser felt just like a massive victory in front of a bouncing and hostile home crowd. Manager Brian Barry-Murphy celebrated Colwill's sensational strike with a passionate touchline dash, which subsequently earned him a yellow card.

"Rubin's only trained for two days really, so probably shouldn't have put him on as early as I did," Barry-Murphy explained. "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."

Wrexham will now look to quickly bounce back from this disappointing conclusion as they navigate their second season in the Championship. The frustrating opening result follows their recent Carabao Cup first-round exit at the hands of Middlesbrough. Parkinson's team will next host Watford at the Racecourse Ground in a Championship match on Saturday.