Match Report

The Bluebirds made hard work of it, but have beaten lowly Mansfield Town 1-0 this evening at Ninian Park.

Robert Earnshaw's 30th league goal of the season was enough to secure three points for the Bluebirds and see them return to the top two for about 20 hours at least!

Earnie's 61st minute strike equalled the clubs league scoring record set by Lee Richards 76 years ago. The Welsh International showed his Staggering pace (sorry about the pun Mansfield fans!) to run onto a neat pass from target man Peter Thorne and calmly put the ball past Keith Welch in the Mansfield goal.

Earnshaw's goal had made up for several missed chances earlier in the game.

It wasn't an inspiring performance from the Bluebirds, and Mansfield, who have the worse goals against record in the league, defended very well for most of the game but City deserved the three points, and had they taken earlier chances could have won by more.

Mansfield rarely looked like scoring with their best chance of the match falling to Iyseden Christie during the opening 10 minutes.

The three points has taken the Bluebirds back into the automatic places, but whether they stay there will depend on Crewe's result at Kenilworth Road tomorrow.

Full Time Score - Cardiff City 1-0 Mansfield Town

Cardiff City - Alexander, Jenkins, Prior, Barker, Croft, Boland, Kavanagh, Ainsworth (Bonner 80), Mahon, Earnshaw, Thorne.
Unused Subs: Gordon, Legg, Bowen, Margetson.

Mansfield Town - Welch, Hassell, Doane (Williamson 86), Eaton, Day, Corden (Mitchell 80), Curtis, Mendes (Larkin 70), Disley, Christie, Lawrence.
Unused Subs: Pilkington, Gadsby.

Referee - G Hegley

Croft hasn't been at his best in recent games, but a much better performance from the full back tonight who made some vital challenges, and also made his usual important runs forward which often lay the grounds for City attacks.

Spencer Prior and Peter Thorne both also had excellent games.

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