Cardiff City were made to pay for a slack first-half showing as they went down to a 2-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.
The hosts took the lead through Andri Gudjohnsen's opener, with the striker taking advantage of some slack Cardiff defending to lash home, before Todd Cantwell added a second. Callum Robinson marked his return to the starting line-up with a goal early in the second half to get his team back in it, but City couldn't find an all-important equaliser as they slumped to their fourth defeat of the season.
Slack first half proves costly
The Bluebirds had been looking to move up the table after a 3-1 win over Charlton in their last match, which was a first victory of the season for Brian Barry-Murphy's side. But the Cardiff boss won't have been happy with what he saw in the first half here, with Cardiff producing a dour performance in the opening 45 minutes.
It proved costly, and Cardiff now head into the midweek clash with Watford out of the relegation zone purely on goal difference.
Chances were initially hard to come by in the opening 45 minutes, but there can be no question Blackburn were the better side. Ryan Alebiosu saw an early shot blocked, before Gudjohnsen then had a freekick deflected wide a few minutes later.
Gudjohnsen and Cantwell strike
The Icelandic striker wasn't to be denied, however, and soon fired his team into the lead by gobbling up Joel Bagan's half-clearance to fire home on 28 minutes. Despite having more shots on target than any other team in the Championship before this clash, it took just over half an hour for Cardiff to muster up their first shot on goal here, with Ollie Tanner curling an effort narrow wide inside the Rovers box.
Then, 10 minutes after breaking the deadlock, Rovers doubled their lead. Ryoya Morishita tore a hole in the left-hand side of the Cardiff defence before finding Cantwell with a low cross, and he applied the finish, with Nathan Trott powerless to prevent it trickling in despite getting a hand to the shot.
Oladapo Afolayan drilled a low shot narrowly wide from distance just before the break, and Cardiff looked to be up against it.
Robinson pulls one back
Hayden Carter flashed a header wide following a corner early in the second half as Blackburn continued to ask questions, but Cardiff hauled themselves back in the game eight minutes after the restart. Jack Moylan, the only real bright spot from this performance, was first to the second ball after Robinson was outmuscled to a header, before then gliding his way into the box and squaring for the Irish striker, who duly drilled the ball into the net.
Blackburn enjoyed a flurry of chances as the second half worn on, with Trott getting down well to smother substitute Jayden Fevrier's effort moments after the Rovers man had seen an effort cleared off the line. Trott was enjoying a busy afternoon, and was soon on hand to keep out Sean McLoughlin's header before palming away Afolayan's ball into the box.
Moylan saw an effort blocked on the line by Carter at the other end as Cardiff sought a route towards an equaliser, before then sending a crashing drive narrowly over the bar. Blackburn substitute Augustus Kargbo forced another save from Trott as his near post as the game ticked towards the final 15 minutes, with the Cardiff keeper also parrying Cantwell's stinging late strike away as the hosts looked to kill the game off.
But their one-goal lead proved enough to condemn Cardiff to another disappointing day at the office.
