Cardiff City 1-1 Watford: Bluebirds throw two points away as late Bayo leveller cancels out Ashford strike

Cardiff City threw away two points at home to Watford after a late Vakoun Bayo strike cancelled out a lovely Cian Ashford goal.

Both strikes came in the second half, with the in-form Ashford curling a lovely effort around the goalkeeper just past the hour-mark, but Bayo latched on to a cross with just three minutes of normal time to go to rescue a point for the Hornets.

The result sees the Bluebirds now five games unbeaten in all competitions, but for Omer Riza, who has previously bemoaned his side's inability to turn draws into wins, this will hurt. It was Cardiff's game in hand over many of their rivals and they have leapt out of the relegation zone as a result, but Portsmouth, who are immediately below them, do have two games in hand over them.

Cardiff started brightly under the Tuesday night lights. They had Watford pinned in their own half for the first quarter of the game and tested Jonathan Bond with a few tricky efforts.

The best of the early chances came following a crunching challenge from Calum Chambers to release Alex Robertson, who then fed Willock down the left. The winger chopped inside, as he so often does, and sent a rasping, whipping effort towards the far corner, but Bond, at full stretch, flew and tipped it wide.

The hosts once again stung the goalkeeper's palms when a fortuitous bounce landed at the feet of Chambers out on the far flank. He took a half decent touch before lashing a shot on goal from a tight angle and it was tricky for Bond, with the ball bouncing just before him, but he clung on well.

There was a slow ebb to the game, all things considered. Watford sat in a low block and Cardiff were largely unable to penetrate their defensive banks, resulting in precious few jaunts into the