Cardiff 1-2 Luton

Cardiff joy at Michael Ricketts' early goal was short-lived

Cardiff City lost their eight-match unbeaten run as Luton recovered from an early setback to win at Ninian Park.

All looked rosy for the Bluebirds when Michael Ricketts put them ahead after just nine minutes, collecting a clever flick-on to rifle a low shot home.

But then Peter Holmes flighted a long ball behind Cardiff's defence which Dean Morgan dispatched left-footed.

Holmes completed the comeback after the break, arriving in the area to scramble a loose ball home from close range.

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Cardiff manager Dave Jones:
"I felt that once we scored we should have gone on and imposed ourselves on the game.

"But we just sat back and never really got going until the last 10 minutes, when we should have scored.

"Even though I'm not sure we deserved it, we should still have came away with a point."

Luton manager Mike Newell:
"We controlled the game today and it would have been difficult to take had we not gone away with the three points.

"We gave away a sloppy goal but we had more than enough chances after that to have gone on and won comfortably.

"We had chances to put them out of reach but we weren't quite able to do that."

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Cardiff: Alexander, Weston (Lee 82), Purse, Loovens, Barker, Ardley, Koumas (Mulryne 86), Ledley, Cooper (Parry 58), Jerome, Ricketts. Subs Not Used: Cox, Margetson.

Booked: Jerome.

Goals: Ricketts 9.

Luton: Beresford, Edwards, Coyne, Heikkinen, Davis, Nicholls, Holmes, Brkovic (Underwood 75), Morgan (Keane 81), Feeney (Showunmi 86), Howard. Subs Not Used: Brill, Perrett.

Booked: Holmes.

Goals: Morgan 30, Holmes 57.

Att: 14,657

Ref: M Jones (Cheshire).