Northampton 1-3 Cardiff City: Bluebirds dig deep to record gritty win

Cardiff City returned to winning ways in League One with a gritty 3-1 victory on the road at Northampton Town.

A first-half strike from Joel Colwill and an own goal and Chris Willock special after the break decided matters as Cardiff produced a patient display where they had to weather a number of storms across the 90 minutes.

The Bluebirds were coming into this one off the back of two league defeats - although there have been two wins in the EFL Cup and and Football League Trophy against Wrexham and Arsenal respectively. The three points here have moved the capital city club back to the top of the table.

Manager Brian Barry-Murphy made three changes to his starting XI, with Will Fish replacing Dylan Lawlor, Ryan Wintle coming in for Alex Robertson and Isaak Davies for Cian Ashford, with Willock returning to the bench.

And the visitors made a bright start, with Omari Kellyman and Ronan Kpakio linking up well down the right.

At the other Jack Perkins had an early sighter at goal but his effort was wayward.

Fish then sprayed a lovely cross-field ball to Davies, with the away team using the flanks effectively.

The opener came on seven minutes, following good work from Kpakio.

The right-back laid the ball off to Joel Colwill on the edge of the box who fired off a right-footed effort past ‘keeper Ross Fitzsimons into the corner of the net for his third of the season.

The Cobblers responded well to going behind, with the home side hitting the post just before the 15th minute.

Cardiff then suffered a blow with Ruben Colwill forced off the field with an ankle injury.

Despite trying to run it off, the talisman couldn’t continue and David Turnbull was called upon to replace him.

Without the elder Colwill, who was finding bags of