STEVE DALE was keen to stress the positives as Wrexham lost out to league leaders Cardiff City in their latest Adran Premier contest.

The Bluebirds strengthened their position at the head of the standings with a 3-0 success at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Reflecting on the contest, Reds’ boss Dale told S4C’s Sgorio: “We’ve got to take a few positives out of it.

“I don’t think we matched them as much as we probably should have in this game.

“I think coming into it, we were looking at the positives from the last cup game.

“I think we got punished for mistakes.

“You know, we’ve give three soft goals away, really, today and, ultimately, when you’re playing against the best teams, they’re going to take those chances and punish you.”

Eliza Collie impressed with her first half double and a late Tija Richardson strike put the gloss on things as Cardiff maintained their unbeaten record this season.

Wrexham were able to welcome Phoebe Davies back into the line-up, with the full-back available again after suspension.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Bolland returned in goal as Delyth Morgan was unavailable.

Libby Mackenzie dropped to the bench, while Rosie Hughes was back in the match-day squad for the first time since suffering injury before Christmas.

Hughes did get a run out for half-an-hour as a replacement for Rebecca Pritchard.

Wrexham started the contest with three at the back once more - as Davies joined Keren Allen and Katie Sharp in the backline - however Dale says the Reds’ shape didn’t have a bearing on the outcome.

“I don’t think it was the shape,” he added.

“We did it for a purpose. We did it for a reason, because I think when we’ve set up in our normal shape, they’ve took advantage of us.

“We decided that we needed to match them up, because there was a lot of positives in doing so.

“It’s just, obviously, when you’re playing against good teams, it was difficult to sort of get a grip on the game and they’re ruthless when they’ve got the ball.

“They take the game away from you by keeping the ball for long periods.”

Cardiff boss Iain Darbyshire added: “It’s all positives.

“I thought we did really well throughout the 90 minutes.

“I think in possession, we could have been a little bit better, but out of possession I thought we dominated the whole game and I can’t really remember a big chance they had in the game and it just shows the players were all together.

“They’re all playing as a unit.

“They’re all fighting for the badge and that’s all you can speak about.”

There’s a swift turnaround as Wrexham return to action on Wednesday evening.

The Reds pay a visit to Park Hall to tackle The New Saints.

A seventh win of the season for the Reds would move them to within one point of making sure of their top-four berth for phase two of the league campaign.