Bruno Ecuele Manga’s 18th minute goal has given Cardiff City a 1-0 lead over the Blues at half-time at the Cardiff City Stadium.

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 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.

Peter 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 couple of freekicks in dangerous areas - the home side had only really threatened from theirs, most notably Whittingham’s corner which led to the goal.

Cardiff: Moore, Peltier, Connolly, Manga, Malone, Noone, O’Keefe, Ralls, Whittingham, Pilkington (c), Immers. Subs: Wilson, Morrison, Dikgacoi, Ameobi, Zahore, Gunnarsson.

Town: Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Smith, Berra, Knudsen, Skuse, Hyam, Bru, Pringle, Sears, Murphy. Subs: Crowe, Digby, Tabb, Douglas, Maitland-Niles, Varney, Pitman. Referee: Andrew Madley (West Yorkshire).

Photo: Action Images

happybeingblue added 16:55 - Mar 12 blimey finally the suffolk pundit with brenna has cracked it we miss a jim magilton type midfielder been saying that on here for yrs
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happybeingblue added 16:56 - Mar 12 too many grafters and not enough ball players
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Steelmonkey added 16:56 - Mar 12 Season over, glad we had our strongest team back out there today.
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