Burton Albion 0, Cardiff City 1
Kenneth Zohore fired a late winner for Cardiff City in their opening Championship fixture of the season.
The Bluebirds dominated after half-time and were good value for the three points at Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium.
More than 1,700 City fans followed their team to Staffordshire and went home happy with a hard-earned win.
Manager Neil Warnock’s team were not at their best in a lacklustre first half, but they stayed solid and were still right in the match after 45 minutes.
Warnock’s words during the break sent Cardiff players back out hungry to attack and they pressed forward.
Just after the hour Nathaniel Mendez-Laing replaced Bruno Manga, while Loic Damour went on for Lee Tomlin.
The winner came after 87 minutes when Zohore scored with a sizzling finish from the edge of the penalty area. He struck with a left-foot shot, curling his shot into the bottom corner.
It was rare clear cut chance for Zohore over the 90 minutes and he held off two defenders before finishing with style, sending City fans into wild celebrations.
The Danish centre-forward had an early effort disallowed for offside after he turned a Joe Bennett goal into the net. Then he found former Cardiff goalkeeper Stephen Bywater in good form when the visitors stepped up their attacking intent after the break.
Captain Sean Morrison was man of the match for Cardiff, while goalkeeper Neil Etheridge will be delighted with his clean sheet.
Sol Bamba produced an outstanding tackle to deny Marvin Sordell from Lloyd Dyer’s pull-back and the big defender also went close at the other end when he forced Bywater into a big save.
Junior Hoilett saw a header deflected wide, Zohore’s shot was tipped over and Mendez-Laing fired wide when he could well have scored.
Albion battled to hang on, but the confidence and physical presence of Zohore broke their resistance with three minutes left. Burton defenders simply could not dispossess the big man as he fired home.
Burton Albion: Bywater, Lund, Buxton, McFadzean, Warnock, Murphy, Mousinho (Sbarra 89), Irvine, Akins, Sordell (Akpan 64), Dyer (Varney 78).
Subs not used: Naylor, Palmer, Campbell, Barker.
Cardiff City: Etheridge, Bamba, Manga (Mendez-Laing 64), Morrison (capt), Peltier, Gunnarsson, Ralls, Bennett, Tomlin (Damour 64), Hoilett (D Ward 80), Zohore
Subs not used: Richards, Pilkington, Halford, Murphy (gk).
Referee: Geoff Eltringham.
Attendance: 5,050