Cardiff City battered by Plymouth Argyle as 12-match unbeaten run comes to screeching halt

Cardiff City’s 12-match unbeaten run did not just end at Home Park, it was torn to shreds in a gale-force, rain-lashed maelstrom that will live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons.

League One leaders heading into the weekend, four points clear and brimming with confidence, Cardiff were battered 5-2 by a rampant Plymouth Argyle side who sensed vulnerability in the wind and went straight for the jugular.

From the first whistle it felt unstable. The conditions were wild, the ball skidding and swirling, and Cardiff never truly settled. Within three minutes Lorent Tolaj should have scored, racing through only to shoot straight at Nathan Trott. It was a warning. It would not be heeded.

Cardiff’s own early moments - Ollie Tanner cutting inside, Chris Willock striking the side netting - offered flickers of control. But Plymouth pressed ferociously. Long throws rained into the box. Crosses flew in from deep.

The breakthrough came on 28 minutes and it was painfully simple. Aribim Pepple spun the ball around the corner, Tolaj burst through, shrugged off Calum Chambers and bent a sumptuous finish beyond Trott. It was sharp, clinical and entirely deserved.

Four minutes later it was 2-0. Joe Edwards broke down the right, lifted a cross to the back post and Pepple ghosted in, unmarked, to slot home. Cardiff looked stunned. Before they could process it, they were scrambling again.

There was a lifeline, though. Tanner, Cardiff’s brightest spark all afternoon, delivered low from the right and Omari Kellyman turned cleverly into the bottom corner to make it 2-1.

But Plymouth were not to be deterred and minutes later they had restored their lead.

Pepple rose highest at the back post to thunder in Plymouth’s third on 35 minutes, another