Cardiff City maintained their Professional Development Under-18 League title charge with a 3-2 win at Watford.

Former Cardiff and Wales striker Craig Bellamy has walked away from his Academy manager’s position on a temporary basis following allegations of bullying, but his players produced a quality performance.

]Bellamy is passionate about his young players and believes in the pathway to a first team future for the cream, but he has had to step back for the time being.

Sion Spencer (2) and Dan Griffiths scored the goals for Cardiff which kept them top of the South Division.

The first goal was scored by Griffiths after 12 minutes when his short took a deflection on the way into Watford’s net. City hit the net again only to have the effort disallowed for offside, while Spence made it 2-0 from a Griffiths pass just after the half hour.\

Spence curled a shot into the top right corner to grab his second goal of the game to make it 3-1 before Mchiernan grabbed a goal back for the hosts

Watford: Hoskins, Trialist, Mullings, MacLean, Tricker, Suckling, Adebiyi, Trialist 2, Hutchinson, Mchiernan, Horsewood. Subs: Conteh, Baptiste, Blu Lo-Everton, Matthews, Phill

Cardiff City: George Ratcliffe, Jake Davies, Ben Margetson, Trystan Jones, Joel Bagan, Keenan Patten, Sam Parsons, Sam Bowen (cap), Dan Griffiths, Sion Spence (Ryan Kavanagh 66), Harry Pinchard (Kieran Evans 60). Subs: Jordan Duffey (gk), Connor Davies, William Warnock.