Cardiff City vs Charlton Athletic. Sky Bet Championship.
Cardiff City StadiumAttendance13,980.
Sunday 27 September 2015 15:18, UK
Sean Morrison's header saw Cardiff get their Sky Bet Championship campaign back on track as they came from behind to beat Charlton 2-1.
The visitors had led through substitute Karlan Ahearne-Grant's strike early in the second half.
But the Bluebirds responded through Joe Mason's fourth goal of the season before defender Morrison, who had missed several chances earlier in the game, finally found the target.
Both sides had been seeking to end winless runs. Cardiff had suffered back-to-back defeats, while Charlton were without a victory in four league games.
But it was the hosts who made the brighter start. Mason's clever run was halted by an offside flag, before Anthony Pilkington's curling effort was palmed away by Nick Pope.
The Bluebirds went closer still in the eighth minute. Jordan Cousins brilliantly cleared Morrison's free header off the line from a Peter Whittingham corner, with Kenwyne Jones narrowly failing to convert a follow-up chance at the far post.
Centre-half Morrison wasted yet another clear chance in the 10th minute, this time getting too much on Whittingham's free-kick to nod the ball over the bar.
Charlton were all at sea defensively and the visitors got another let-off when Jones rolled Naby Sarr and squared to Joe Ralls, only for the midfielder to mis-kick with the goal at his mercy.
The Cardiff striker was soon in action at the other end as Charlton finally kept possession long enough to threaten, and Jones needed to clear away Patrick Bauer's header as it arrowed towards the far corner.
Having started so strongly, the hosts were guilty of taking their foot off the gas and they were nearly punished for a poor passage of play eight minutes before the break.
Morrison gave the ball away and Moore had to react quickly to keep out Tony Watt's header from Zakarya Bergdich's cross.
The chance awoke Cardiff from their slumbers and they nearly led in the 40th minute when Pilkington sent Mason scampering into the box.
The striker went to ground after going over the advancing Watt but, instead of being awarded a penalty, he received only a yellow card for diving
Cardiff frustrations increased when Ahearne-Grant, on for Bergdich at the break, calmly rolled home his first league goal from Watt's pass in the 49th minute.
The home side responded just four minutes later, although Charlton were less than happy.
Mason made amends for failing to take his earlier chance as he finished from close range as the Addicks appealed in vain for handball.
There was soon more goalmouth mayhem as Charlton struggled to clear a loose ball, but Mason could not guide the ball into the net on this occasion.
The Addicks responded with a great double chance as Moore saved brilliantly from Watt and Cousins, while Morrison headed a Whittingham free-kick narrowly over at the other end.
But the centre-half made no mistake in the 76th minute as he rose to head home another Whittingham cross to give Cardiff all three points.
Cardiff manager Russell Slade:
"Joe (Mason) has been hard done by. The linesman gave a penalty, he flagged for it, but the referee felt he should have overlooked it. I find it a really odd one to fathom out as if he had given a penalty the keeper would also have been sent off."
"When you lead one-nil away from home you make sure you show the character and organisation to keep the result. If you do that you will have space to counter-attack as the game goes on. But we couldn't though our problem started in the first half as from every set-piece Cardiff won the ball and they had quite a lot of chances to score."
