Cardiff City 3-2 Brentford

Tony Watt bundles the ball past David Button for Cardiff City's opening goal against Brentford

Kenwyne Jones' stoppage-time winner spared Cardiff City's blushes against battling Brentford.

Goals by on-loan striker Tony Watt and Jones put the Bluebirds in charge at half-time.

But after Jake Bidwell and John Swift had pulled the Bees level with four minutes remaining, Brentford looked the more likely winners.

Then Jones turned the home fans' jeers to cheers as he slid-in a left foot shot from close range.

Cardiff had squandered two-goal leads in their previous two home games - the draws against Burnley and Sheffield Wednesday - and looked nervous defending their two-goal interval advantage.

Swift's 86th-minute equaliser was met with a crescendo of boos from the home fans, although Brentford had played most of the good football.

Ipswich's win at Fulham means Cardiff stay in seventh place in the table, while Brentford remain 10th.

Manager Russell Slade made only one change from the team that drew with Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday with Fabio da Silva starting in place of Scott Malone.

The Bees started a point and three places below the Bluebirds after losing just once in their previous 10 matches.

And they were comfortable in possession in spite of Cardiff City's determined start.

Kenwyne Jones fires in from close-range to claim three points for Cardiff against Brentford

But the home team's early threat saw Anthony Pilkington head a chance on to the bar, and Watt made no mistake in the 10th minute when he bundled in from close range after Craig Noone's shot was parried.

Brentford were not threatened and were posing questions when they were caught on the break.

Pilkington freed Watt who beat his man and then fed Jones who needed two attempts to get the ball past Button in the Bees' goal.

The keeper was forced into a good save to deny Watt early in the second half as Brentford boss Dean Smith shuffled his team with John Swift posing a threat down the left.

The introduction of Josh McEachran and Jota on the hour underlined his attacking intent.

And it was rewarded within minutes as captain Bidwell headed in Alan Judge's corner.

Cardiff dropped deeper in defence and the players' nervousness transferred to the crowd who greeted Swift's equaliser with derision, though in truth the Bees deserved to be on level terms.

But then, with the home fans streaming out of the ground, substitute Malone and Fabio combined to create the chance for Jones, who made no mistake.

Cardiff boss Russell Slade: "We have been in that position a couple of times recently and again we should have got a third goal and erased any fears of Brentford getting back into the game.

"But to come through it, when you have been through it twice and it looks like it is happening again, was excellent.

"We showed great unity to get the winner and that is going to make a huge difference for us in terms of confidence."

Brentford manager Dean Smith: "I thought that was very harsh on us because it was a game we did not deserve to lose.

"We only really started to make inroads once we made a couple of changes and when we got the one goal back, we had our chances even before John Swift equalised.

"Ultimately we got done by a loss in concentration and a bit of tiredness."