Cardiff City 2-1 Derby County: Callum Robinson scores again as Bluebirds see off struggling Rams

Callum Robinson made it six goals in his last six Sky Bet Championship games as he spearheaded Cardiff's 2-1 win over Derby in the Welsh capital.

The Republic of Ireland striker finally broke the deadlock in a dour relegation battle in the 62nd minute as he beat Jacob Widell Zetterstrom in the Derby goal with his second touch after the keeper had saved his first flick on from Joe Ralls' cross.

A minute later Robinson turned provider after Cian Ashford had raced up the right flank and sent the ball into his feet on the edge of the box. He then pushed the ball into the path of Anwar El Ghazi who stroked home the second goal.

Derby arrived having dropped into the relegation zone, while Cardiff, despite being unbeaten in their previous seven games, were only a point ahead of them.

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A week earlier Omer Riza's Bluebirds had played arch-rivals Swansea off the park in a 3-0 win, but there was little of the pride, passion and urgency in their lacklustre first-half performance. Instead, it was Derby who bossed proceedings.

Jerry Yates forced Jak Alnick into the first of a host of saves as early as the second minute, while skipper Ralls fired in a 25-yard special that meant Zetterstrom had to leap high to tip his shot over the bar.

Paul Warne made five changes to his starting XI in the wake of Tuesday night's 1-0 defeat to Sunderland. The aim was to bring to an end a six-game losing streak in all competitions.

Yates thought he had broken the deadlock in the 11th minute when he hammered home a flicked header from Craig Forsyth at a free-kick, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

The game was still goalless at the break and in need of some inspiration. Robinson forced Zetterstrom into a good low save at his right-hand post and then El Ghazi entered the fray in the 55th minute.

It was his break up the left wing that helped to create the position for Robinson's first goal and then the Dutch international added the second. Derby may have been down, but they were not out.

In the 70th minute a swift break out of defence led to Yates crossing from the right and Lars-Jorgen Salvesen headed home to give the Rams some hope.

A second header from the Norwegian striker brought out a good save from Alnwick, but it was Zetterstrom who had to perform the late heroics to save the visitors further punishment.

He got a boot to a shot from Ashford to push his goalbound effort just wide of the post, somehow kept out another El Ghazi shot from close range and finally denied Yousef Salech again with his feet in the fifth minute of added time.

The managers

Cardiff's Omer Riza:

"It was a really important game. Swansea's a really big game, Millwall was a tough game but this one was what we really needed.

"We've faltered when we've needed to take those points and climb with a bit of space between us and the teams around us. We did that today and that's a really important step.

"It's extra pleasing because we need it. There are still elements there I feel we could do better because we could make life easier for ourselves.

"We've got to a point now where we're winning our battles against the opposition, first and second balls, but we weren't doing that in the first half. They won first balls, they won second balls and it didn't allow us to play with any flow.

"It was important [at half-time] we showed them clips of the very few occasions we did play three or four passes and actually opened them up. So, in the second half we came out with a bit more composure on the ball, we played through them and we got our rewards.

"This unbeaten run is really important because it's come after we didn't win in nine. There was always an element of competitiveness in those games but we weren't doing what we're doing now."

Derby's Paul Warne:

"I might be a bit biased, but I thought the goal we scored in the first half was onside, but we didn't make the most of our chances. I also thought we should have had a penalty in the second half.

"It's not that we have been playing badly, and we came here feeling really confident. There wasn't much between the two sides, and they got booed off at the end of the first half.

"We had to come out in the second half and stay in the fight, but those two goals in quick succession took the game away from us. Games like these come down to small margins and today we were on the wrong side of them."

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