WREXHAM Women’s boss Steven Dale felt his side were ‘outstanding’ as they made their bow in the Genero Adran Premier.

The Reds drew 3-3 with Swansea City in an end-to-end encounter at the Rock in front of 606 fans in attendance.

Rebecca Pritchard put the Reds ahead midway through the first half and last season’s top scorer Rosie Hughes notched her first of the campaign just before the hour mark.

The Swans did hit back and goals from Robyn Pinder and Chloe Chivers levelled proceedings with six minutes remaining.

Summer signing Hannah Keryakoplis’ 88th minute goal looked to have won all three points for Dale’s side, but Swans captain Katy Horsford’s deflected effort in stoppage time meant the points were shared.

The Reds boss admitted there was disappointment amongst the group not to get all three points but couldn’t fault the effort of his players.

“There is disappointment amongst the staff and the players at the end but that shows how far we’ve performed against a very good side who will be right up there this year,” he said.

“If you’d have said at the start of the game that we’d have drawn I’d have snapped your hand off.

“I thought we were outstanding today, we put a lot of effort into the game and we couldn’t quite hold on at the end, but it’s something to build on and we’re looking forward to building on that performance.

“We had the aspiration to be in this division and to be playing against these teams so we knew it would be a tough challenge but like we said, we’ve shown we can compete against a very good side.

 “We’ve just got make sure that as a group of players that’s got to give us the belief that we can do well this year.”

It was an entertaining start to life in the Genero Adran Premier for Wrexham, who were making their debut in the division after securing the North title last season.

Dale gave debuts to three summer signings, with newly appointed Keren Allen coming into the side at centre half, while Mari Gibbard and Louisha Doran were also handed their first starts.

The Leader: Steven Dale.Steven Dale. (Image: Nik Mesney/FAW)

Swansea did have the best of the early chances with Stacey John-Davis having a header cleared off the line by Doran early on, before striking the bar with a clever effort after 18 minutes.

However, it was Wrexham who struck first after Pritchard, who scored the winning goal in the play-off final against Briton Ferry Llansawel, slotted Gibbard’s through ball past Skinner into the bottom corner.

The Swans had chances to equalise either side of the break, with Pinder missing a guilt-edged opportunity from six-yards out and Chivers rattling the bar from a free kick 35 yards out.

However, the visitors were once again ruing their missed chances as Hughes doubled Wrexham’s lead on 56 minutes after brilliant work from Lili Jones.

On the 71st minute mark, Doran repeated the trick as she managed to flick Jess Williams’ headed effort over the bar from on her own line.

But four minutes later and Swansea did have a goal after Del Morgan could only parry the ball to Pinder inside the box and she slotted home into an empty net.

Chivers then drew her side level with a brilliant volley from the edge of the area with six minutes remaining.

Keryakoplis looked like she’d secured the win for Wrexham in the 88th minute, but despite being down to ten after Ellie Lake was shown a straight red card by referee Aaron Jones for kicking out at Pritchard, Swansea hit back again.

Captain Horsford’s long range effort deflected past substitute keeper Charlotte Bolland in the 94th minute to rescue a point for her side.

Wrexham (4-4-2): Morgan (Bolland 79); Davies, Doran, Allen, Lovett; Dickens, Jones, Lightfoot (Jones 64), Pritchard; Hughes, Gibbard (Keryakoplis 74). Subs not used: Sharp.

Swansea (4-3-3): Skinner; Lake, Powe, Williams, Finch (Turner 70); Brisland-Hancocks,(Legall 70) Jenkins (Wynne 59), Bull; Hosford, John-Davis (Pinder 33), Chivers. Subs not used: Herbert.

Attendance: 606.