Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Cardiff City and Bristol City at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday | Perry Ng and Rubin Colwill seal a Severnside derby win for the Bluebirds.
Saturday 28 October 2023 18:38, UK
Perry Ng continued his scoring run as Cardiff beat Bristol City 2-0 in the Severnside derby and moved in to the top five of the Sky Bet Championship.
Ng has scored only 12 goals in a league career spanning eight years, but three of them have come in the last six games.
The full-back's first-half header put Cardiff in front and substitute Rubin Colwill sealed matters in stoppage time with a thumping shot into the roof of the net.
Darren England took charge of his first match since he was at fault for wrongly disallowing Luis Diaz's goal for offside when working as Video Assistant Referee during Liverpool's defeat at Tottenham last month.
Thankfully, for England's sake, the contest passed without controversy. At least, until the closing stages.
Cardiff were convinced they should have been awarded a free-kick when goalkeeper Max O'Leary picked the ball up after Mark Sykes touched Ollie Tanner's cross to him.
But England ruled that it was not a deliberate back pass - a decision that sent the Cardiff bench into meltdown - and then ignored calls for a Bristol City penalty after substitute Ephraim Yeboah went to ground.
The Robins were heavily depleted with several regulars missing and had only eight substitutes on the bench, including two goalkeepers and four players who have never played a minute of league football. Joseph James made his first senior start at the age of 17.
But the visitors started brightly with Harry Cornick's deflected effort just curling wide of a post and Rob Dickie off target after Andreas Weimann burst through.
Cardiff's extra power soon began to tell, however, and Ng tested O'Leary before Karlan Grant forced another stop from the Robins goalkeeper.
Yakou Meite flashed a wicked cross into the six-yard box but, much to the forward's disgust, no team-mate had gambled on the ball arriving there.
Sykes was relieved not to put the ball into his own net from another Meite cross, but Cardiff struck from the resulting corner after 33 minutes.
Joe Ralls swung it over into a congested area and Ng rose highest to celebrate again after his spectacular midweek free-kick at Huddersfield.
Meite sent a header straight at O'Leary and Callum Robinson had a stinging shot blocked as Cardiff tried to put the contest to bed.
Bristol City rallied as Ahmed Mehmeti's 25-yard effort was pushed out by Jak Alnwick and the stretching Weimann hooked over a difficult chance.
The visitors continued to press and Weimann met Taylor Gardner-Hickman's floated free-kick only to send his header over the crossbar.
But Colwill added gloss in the first minute of stoppage time, cutting between two defenders and rifling home a ferocious shot as Cardiff extended their unbeaten home run to six games - their best for nearly four years.
Cardiff's Erol Bulut:
"I was clear what I wanted from those two players [Robinson and Colwill]. Offensively they are good. We saw again from Colwill a great goal, last game Robinson scored and also worked a lot here. Defensively they are doing much better than before. I am expecting this because we are 11 on the field and I need 11 players, not 10. They understand what I want. I am honest with my players. I don't tell them anything else. I tell them exactly what I want. The good thing is that they try to give me back what I went from them. This makes me happy."
"It was not an easy game. After the last game where we won 4-0 against Huddersfield, I said to my team 'we cannot celebrate, we have to continue to work'. We did and this is a good result for my team. I am glad to see this performance from the players."
Bristol City's Nigel Pearson:
"I can't get injured players back and unfortunately, we've got a small squad anyway. There wasn't much in the game. We conceded two goals from our own possession but we didn't create much.
"Cardiff might be doing OK, but I wouldn't put them up with the best sides at all. It was a game with a team in a good seam that capitalised on our mistakes. They didn't outplay us."
