Cardiff City progressed through to the third round of the Carabao Cup thanks to goals from Rubin Colwill, Ryan Wintle and Kion Etete against 10-man Birmingham City.
By Glen Williams
Colwill was electric all evening and got on the scoresheet within three minutes to hand City an early lead. A rash challenge from Lukas Jutkiewicz early in the second half then reduced the hosts to 10 men and the Bluebirds then capitalised thanks to a well-taken goa from captain Wintle.
Blues gave City a fright in the last 20 minutes, despite the man disadvantage, when Scott Hogan drilled home from close range, but Cardiff managed to hold out, courtesy of an injury-time strike from Etete, for their second win in four days.
Erol Bulut threw a massive spanner in the works with his team, naming two right-backs, five central midfielders and no centre-backs in his starting XI.
There was room in the starting lineup for Romaine Sawyers, whom Bulut told was free to leave before Friday's transfer deadline, while Vontae Campbell was also named on the bench despite also being allowed to go. Curiously, there was no Jack Simpson in the squad for the second game running.
There was a debut for Arsenal loanee Alex Runarsson in goal, while the bench was packed with young players and academy products desperate to get more first-team minutes under their belts.
The game started at a wonderful, frenetic pace and it was a dream start, by all accounts, for Cardiff, who took the lead with just a little over two minutes on the clock.
The move started with a well spread ball from Ryan Wintle out to Karlan Grant, who blitzed past his defender before driving in a low cross for Colwill, who opened his body and steer the ball expertly into the bottom corner.
Make no mistake, it was Cardiff who settled into this one the better of the two sides as they looked to control the ball and the game and did so well. Colwill and Ollie Tanner were particularly in sync as they linked up time and time again down the right-hand side.
Cardiff's wingers were really getting the better of their opposite numbers and it helped to create a number of good opportunities. Tanner had some joy and on one occasion skipped past his man and hit a low cross in towards Kion Etete, who spurned the opportunity when he poked wide.
Cardiff looked to have controlled the game well, but one break from Birmingham prompted Andy Rinomhota to bring down Juninho Bacuna in a dangerous position. The midfielder, brother of Leandro, of course, whipped a dangerous free-kick at City's goal from 20 yards out, but Runarsson, on debut, make a wondersave to maintain Cardiff's lead, pawing away after an acrobatic dive.
The second half didn't start well for the hosts, either, with Jutkiewicz receiving his marching orders early on. The forward thought he was fouled by Ebou Adams seconds earlier and took his frustrations out by means of a dangerous lunge on Mahlon Romeo and rightly saw red.
Cardiff almost capitalised immediately as they broke upfield rapidly, resulting in Wintle poking a pass through to Grant, who drilled a low shot at goal. Neil Etheridge did well to deny him.
But Cardiff continued to bang on the door and it took some really quality to open it. Tanner fizzed a low cross into Colwill, who lay the ball off with a magnificent first touch, before Wintle leathered it home into the bottom corner from 20 yards.
City thought they had it all wrapped up, but Birmingham had other plans as they raced up the other end to score. Emmanuel Longelo slotted through a delightful ball for Hogan in behind Cardiff's defence and the striker buried it beneath Runarsson with his first touch.
Birmingham pushed, as you might expect, late on, and one more chance was bound to come and it fell to the foot of Sam Cosgrove, who clipped his effort wide of the mark despite being found just six yards from goal.
Cardiff, on the other hand, went down the other end and a low cross from Kieron Evans found Etete at the back stick and he rifled it into the roof of the net.
Birmingham City XI: Etheridge; Oakley, Sanderson, Long (M. Roberts 66), Longelo; Sunjic (Cosgrove 66), Bacuna (Gardner 77); James, Hall (Miyoshi 46), Stansfield (Hogan 66); Jutkiewicz
Subs: Mayo, Buchanan, Khela, Donovan.
Cardiff City XI: Runarsson; Romeo, Ng, Adams, Tanner (Ugbo 88); Rinomhota, Wintle, Sawyers; R. Colwill, Etete, Grant (Evans 60).
Subs: Alnwick, McGuinness, Semenyo, Campbell, J. Colwill, Ashford, Wigley.
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