Tue Jan 31, 2017 10:09 pm
Cardiff City made it three Championship home wins on the bounce with a comfortable defeat of Preston.
BBC
31st Jan 2017
Peter Whittingham scored from the penalty spot and a fine individual goal from Kenneth Zohore earned the points for Neil Warnock's side.
The result was a blow to the play-off hopes of Preston who had lost just once in nine away games before the defeat.
The Bluebirds have pulled 11 points clear of the relegation places at the other end of the table and are 15th.
The visitors came closest to open the scoring early on when Jordan Hugill was just inches away from forcing home an Aiden McGeady cross.
But it was the Bluebirds who took the lead on 18 minutes when Daniel Johnson brought Junior Hoilett down in the box.
Whittingham stroked home coolly from the spot for his 97th goal in a decade at the Welsh club.
Just 10 minutes later Warnock's men doubled their advantage thanks to Zohore.
The Danish striker surged forward from the halfway line, beating three Preston players before dinking the ball over the advancing Chris Maxwell in the Preston goal.
It was the perfect way for Zohore to celebrate his 23rd birthday.
Preston almost got a goal back when Ben Pearson forced a good save from Allan McGregor, but then Cardiff saw Hoilett divert a Sean Morrison header onto the bar on the stroke of half-time.
Despite early Preston pressure at the start of the second period, Zohore almost scored again on the break on 63 minutes, but this time Maxwell made the save.
With striker Jermaine Beckford brought on at the interval Preston pushed to cut the deficit, but found the Cardiff defence, marshalled by the impressive Sol Bamba, in uncompromising form.
Warnock's side held out with the minimum of fuss to earn three home league victories on the bounce for the first time in two-and-a-half years.
Tue Jan 31, 2017 10:30 pm
Attendance - 13,894 (247 brave souls from Preston)
Zohore.jpg
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.