Cardiff City 2-1 Leeds United | Premier League match report

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<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.24.2.2/61064?ns=guardian&pageName=Cardiff+City+2-1+Leeds+United+%7C+Premier+League+match+report%3AArticle%3A1801799&ch=Football&c3=Obs&c4=Championship+%28Football%29%2CCardiff+City+%28Football%29%2CLeeds+United+%28Football+club%29%2CFootball%2CSport&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=Joe+Lovejoy&c7=12-Sep-15&c8=1801799&c9=Article&c10=Match+report&c11=Football&c13=&c25=&c30=content&c42=Sport&h2=GU%2FSport%2FFootball%2FChampionship" width="1" height="1" /></div><p>Craig Bellamy came off the bench to galvanise Cardiff after a sterile first half, breaking the stalest of stalemates with a laser-guided free-kick. Suitably inspired, the Welsh team doubled their advantage four minutes later, with a Peter Whittingham penalty, and Rodolph Austin's reply came too late to prevent Cardiff claiming maximum points and climbing the table at the expense of opponents popularly perceived as promotion rivals.</p><p>Cardiff were playing in red, Leeds in blue. So much for tradition. First blood went to the Yorkshire fans, who taunted their rivals with choruses of "Are you Wrexham in disguise?" Full credit to the visitors, too for having the whole crowd on their feet midway through the first half by starting a chant of "Stand up for LFC", in recognition of Liverpool's Hillsborough dead finally receiving justice.</p><p>Out on the pitch, it was hardly the happiest return to his old club for Ross McCormack, the Leeds and Scotland striker, who was carried off on a stretcher after only six minutes, injured by what was a fair challenge from Jordon Mutch.</p><p>The teams had identical records at kick-off, but Warnock said beforehand that he envied Cardiff's ability to spend £13m players such as Kim Bo-kyung, Nicky Maynard, Tommy Smith and Craig Noone.</p><p>Financially, Leeds are in limbo pending the outcome of a much-mooted takeover. Nevertheless, Warnock had a new face on parade in Michael Tonge, recruited on loan from Stoke, who made a busily effective debut in midfield.</p><p>After their disappointments last season both sides are much changed, their summer signings running into double figures in each case. Bellamy, who had missed the previous two matches with calf trouble, made his comeback on the bench, kept out of the starting lineup by Noone, who had been outstanding in the 3-1 victory over Wolves.</p><p>That said, it was Bellamy who brought the biggest cheer of a poor first half, when he started warming up on the touchline. Before the interval there was precious little else – not a single goal attempt of note – to stir the capacity crowd from their torpor. The onus was on Cardiff, as the home team, to break the stranglehold Leeds had on the game, and the consensus was that Bellamy was likeliest to do it. It was, however, Warnock who made the first change substitution, sending on El&nbsp;Hadji Diouf in place of Adam Drury for the second half. Aidan White switched to left-back to facilitate the change.</p><p>Cardiff had stirred themselves and upped the tempo, but continued to be stymied by Leeds, who defended assiduously to keep them out.</p><p>That said, the Welsh team were tantalisingly close to taking the lead after 67 minutes, when Noone's cross from the right picked out Smith at the far post, where the former QPR man's volley flashed just over the bar.</p><p>No one immediately gave way to Bellamy, who broke the stalemate in stunning fashion within four minutes of his introduction. Just as he had done on his debut, the season before last, the local boy came good with a high-class free-kick, smashed across Kenny.</p><p>After 71 minutes Maynard, in the inside-right channel, was pulled down by Tom Lees and Whittingham doubled the margin with the sort of penalty nobody saves. Game over? No way, Leeds were back in it within five minutes, Jamaica's Austin scoring with a high-velocity free-kick of his own, from 28 yards.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/championship">Championship</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/cardiffcity">Cardiff City</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/leedsunited">Leeds United</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/joe-lovejoy">Joe Lovejoy</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /><img width='1' height='1' src='http://guardian.co.uk.feedsportal.com/c/34708/f/639039/s/2375a661/mf.gif' border='0'/>
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