Aston Villa 3-1 Cardiff: Revival continues under Steve Bruce

Aston Villa continued their recent revival under Steve Bruce with an impressive 3-1 Sky Bet Championship win over Cardiff at Villa Park.

Jonathan Kodjia headed home for his seventh goal of the season to restore Villa's lead six minutes before half-time after Rickie Lambert had cancelled out Albert Adomah's opener.

Cardiff were reduced to 10 men in the 84th minute when Lee Peltier was sent off, and the hosts made sure of the points in the final minute when substitute Rudy Gestede converted a penalty after Jack Grealish had been brought down.

The result stretched Villa's unbeaten run to six games, and meant they remained the only team in the Championship with an unbeaten home record.

Kodjia looked lively from the start, jinking his way into an opening before firing just wide of the far post.

Grealish took a while to make any real impact against the visitors, who also looked in determined mood after a morale-boosting win over Huddersfield, but the youngster was instrumental in Villa taking the lead in the 24th minute.

He put Jordan Amavi in possession midway in Cardiff's half. The chance appeared to have gone as he hesitated when in position to shoot, but Cardiff failed to close down the defender and he managed to square a low pass across the face of goal for the unmarked Adomah to fire past Ben Amos.

Cardiff, who have not kept a clean sheet since the opening day of the season, were far from discouraged by this setback, though. They immediately hit back with Junior Hoilett setting up the cross which led to Lambert hammering his effort past the helpless Pierluigi Gollini.

With honours again even it continued to be a tense battle. Villa became a little frustrated but that all disappeared when Kodjia, who had previously been closely shackled by Sean Morrison, was on hand to head the home team back into the lead.

Adomah had one shot blocked but, from the rebound, cleverly lobbed the ball back across goal for Kodjia to rise high and head home from close range. 

Villa were pegged back in the second period when their former player Peter Whittingham produced some telling passes to put the home defence under pressure.

Club skipper Tommy Elphick was drafted in for the injured Nathan Baker at the interval and this enforced change appeared to unsettle the home side as they struggled to gain the kind of control they enjoyed in the first period.

Villa were fully stretched at this point and Morrison went close to an equaliser when his header from a free-kick flashed just over the bar.

The response from Villa was to send on Gabby Agbonlahor, who two minutes later picked up a yellow card for dissent in what was a rare raid on the Cardiff defence when Grealish unsuccessfully appealed for a penalty.

Grealish eventually won his spot-kick after being fouled by Whittingham in the 88th minute, however, and the penalty was converted by Gestede.

Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce:

"This is what the Championship is all about. We have seen Cardiff pose a lot of questions. Cardiff are difficult, they are right in your face and if we hadn't shown the resistance we displayed it could have been a difficult afternoon.

"We did enough with the quality we possess, particularly the first goal. You have to be brave facing a side like Cardiff because it was a typical performance from a Neil Warnock side."

Cardiff boss Neil Warnock:

"We need a few new players. I look at Souleymane Bamba and Junior Hoilett and I do not know what we would do without them. We need a couple more players like them to cause problems in other areas.

"In the second half Villa were concerned at 2-1 and the sending-off of Lee Peltier was a blow following a tackle on Jack Grealish. I was disappointed in Grealish shouting at the referee to get players booked. I suppose that is young professionals at the present time."