Cardiff City battle to huge win over League One promotion rivals Bradford City

Cardiff City held off a second-half fightback to claim a significant win over promotion rivals Bradford City at Valley Parade.

David Turnbull curled home his first league goal of the season to put Cardiff in front, before Calum Chambers touched home to double the advantage midway through the first half.

Jenson Metcalfe fired home for the hosts just before the hour to keep the contest alive, but Cardiff held on to claim all three points.

The win opens up a seven-point gap between themselves and the chasing pack ahead of the day's other games, and also extends Cardiff's unbeaten run to six games.

Brian Barry-Murphy made two changes to the side that drew with Leyton Orient last time out, with this his first match since being named League One's manager of the month.

His side's first-half performance was perhaps even more worthy of celebration, against a Bradford side that had previously won all but three of their home games this season.

Turnbull had already been denied by Bradford goalkeeper Sam Walker, who had to be alert to claw away the midfielder's deflected low effort on 14 minutes.

But he would find the net around a minute later in fine style.

Some neat build-up on the edge of the box saw Ollie Tanner stab the ball into the feet of the Scot, who sold his man a dummy before curling a lovely right-footed strike into the top corner.

After a sluggish start, Cardiff had sprung into life, with Alex Robertson and Ryan Wintle also trying their luck from distance.

And they doubled the lead 10 minutes after Turnbull's opener, with Tanner heavily involved again - this time drilling a low effort into the box that was touched home by Chambers.

Bradford had inflicted Cardiff's first defeat of the season when the side's met in the