Bruno Ecuele Manga’s 18th minute goal saw Cardiff City to a 1-0 victory over the Blues at the Cardiff City Stadium. The defender nodded home Peter Whittingham’s corner at the near post with Town rarely seriously threatening to find a reply.
Daryl Murphy, Cole Skuse and Luke Hyam returned to the Town side with Brett Pitman and Jonathan Douglas dropping to the bench, while Kevin Foley, who was suffering with bruised ribs after the Bolton game, wasn’t in the 18.
Michael Crowe, who was called back from his loan spell at Braintree earlier in the week, was also amongst the subs with second-choice keeper Dean Gerken unwell.
Cardiff were without their first-choice keeper David Marshall due to a virus and Simon Moore started in his place. Former Blues academy schoolboy Stuart O’Keefe was named in the Bluebirds’ midfield.
The Blues started with Murphy and Sears as a front two with Kevin Bru and Ben Pringle in narrow roles on the right and left respectively of a four-man midfield.
Town were again in their orange third kit, while keeper Bartosz Bialkowski was asked by the referee to change from his green shirt to a yellow one before kick-off - leaving him in the unfortunate combination of a yellow shirt and green shorts - with Cardiff stand-in keeper Moore also wearing green.
Sears struck the game’s first shot in the fifth minute after he battled for a Murphy flick-on. Moore blocked the strike not overly confidently but claimed the loose ball.
On eight Skuse blocked from O’Keefe on the edge of the box but it was the Blues who had made the better start to the game.
There was a scare for Cardiff keeper Moore in the 16th minute when he failed to hold on to Pringle’s corner from the left. The ball was stabbed out to Bru but the Mauritius international was unable to get to it and committed a foul as he looked to do so.
Two minutes later the home side went in front via their first significant attempt of the game.
Whittingham sent over a corner from the left and the unmarked Manga met it at the near post and directed his header past Bialkowski.
After the goal the game returned to its previous pattern of the Blues taking the game to Cardiff. On 23 Christophe Berra headed Pringle’s right-sided corner wide at the far post when the Scotland international clearly thought he might have hit the target.
Soon after, Cardiff had a spell of pressure after Town were unable to clear from a corner, but Murphy then won a flag-kick at the other end, which was returned to Pringle, who sent over a dangerous cross just beyond his team-mates in the area.
Following a spell of Town possession on the right, Murphy headed a Luke Chambers cross wide in the 35th minute.
A minute later, Whittingham whipped in a dangerous freekick from deep on the left which Murphy just managed to divert away from Matthew Connolly in space behind him.
The Blues continued to press and on 40 Moore was forced to punch when under pressure after the home defence had repeatedly failed to clear following a Pringle freekick deep on the left. Soon after, the keeper claimed from Murphy from a Pringle corner on the right.
The Blues were unable to threaten in one minute of added on time and went in at the break rather harshly 1-0 down.
Town had been on top for much of a not hugely enthralling half, however, without overly testing Cardiff deputy keeper Moore, aside from Sears’s early strike and one or two crosses.
While the Blues hadn’t made enough of their set pieces - they had won six corners as well as a couple of freekicks in dangerous areas - the home side had only really presented any threat from theirs, most notably Whittingham’s corner which led to the goal.
Town switched Bru for Brett Pitman ahead of the start of the second half with Sears moving to right midfield.
Neither side created anything of note until the 56th minute when Bialkowski sent the Blues away on a counter-attack following a Cardiff corner.
Pitman flicked on Hyam’s cross from the right to Pringle, who screwed his shot into the side-netting from a decent position on the left of the area.
Town weren’t too far away from an equaliser in the 59th minute when Sears was allowed to reach a long ball from the left. The striker steered the ball past the advancing Moore, but Scott Malone cleared from inside the six-yard box.
The Blues were starting to look more threatening and a minute later Pitman struck a shot from distance which deflected wide.
Town kept the ball for long spells but without creating a further opening, then on 66 Malone broke away for Cardiff after exchanging passes with Lex Immers and hit a shot which flew not too far over Bialkowski’s crossbar.
Three minutes later, Whittingham curled a low 20-yard freekick to Bialkowski’s right, which the keeper claimed comfortably.
Luke Varney replaced Pringle in the 72nd minute, while Whittingham limped off for the home side and Aron Gunnarsson took over.
Sears, now on the left, saw a shot blocked after he cut into the area after exchanging passes with Jonas Knudsen following a corner then Bialkowski tipped Anthony Pilkington’s looping header over from Joe Ralls’s corner on the right.
From the subsequent flag-kick the former Canary went close again, Tommy Smith perhaps getting a touch on the ball just prior to the Irish international connecting with a volley which flew well into the stand behind the goal.
Moore allowed a Sears freekick from the left to slip through his hands and out of play on 79, then five minutes later Murphy shot over from the right with the Blues still unable to create a clear-cut opening.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles took over from Smith for the final two and a half minutes as the Blues continued to look in vain for the equaliser.
Town continued to push during four minutes of injury time - Sears saw an effort blocked during a goalmouth scramble - but, as for most of the rest of the half, rather unconvincingly and referee Andrew Madley’s whistle confirmed the Blues’ defeat.
Having gone in behind after the first half, Town had a lot of the ball after the break but largely huffed and puffed and were unable find a way through a solid Cardiff defence.
The Blues probably deserved something from the game on the balance of play but created too few clear-cut opportunities, while the home side took their one real chance, which from a Town perspective was very preventable.
The defeat and results elsewhere see the Blues stay eighth but now four points behind Sheffield Wednesday - who won 3-0 at Nottingham Forest - in sixth, although still with a game in hand.
That match is Blackburn’s visit to Portman Road on Tuesday with Rotherham - who came from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 with Derby today - in Suffolk next Saturday.
Cardiff: Moore, Peltier, Connolly, Manga, Malone, Noone, O’Keefe, Ralls, Whittingham (Gunnarsson 73), Pilkington (c) (Dikgacoi 83), Immers. Unused: Wilson, Morrison, Ameobi, Zahore.
Town: Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Smith (Maitland-Niles 88), Berra, Knudsen, Skuse, Hyam, Bru (Pitman 46), Pringle (Varney 72), Sears, Murphy. Unused: Crowe, Digby, Tabb, Douglas. Referee: Andrew Madley (West Yorkshire). Att: 15,175.