Norwich City 3-2 Cardiff City

Norwich scored three goals in the first half on their way to a win against Cardiff City

Alex Neil won his first home game in charge of Norwich as the Canaries held off a fightback from Cardiff City.

Gary Hooper's header put Norwich ahead, before Kyle Lafferty's curled effort doubled their lead.

Canaries keeper John Ruddy saved Peter Whittingham's penalty before Cameron Jerome hooked in a third for Norwich.

Alex Revell steered in Whittingham's cross and Kadeem Harris lobbed over Ruddy as Cardiff reduced the deficit but a late Revell header drifted wide.

The result means Neil has guided Norwich to successive victories since he succeeded Neil Adams as manager on 9 January.

Norwich remained seventh in the Championship and a point off the play-off places as they look to make an immediate return to the Premier League.

However, the promotion hopes of Cardiff, who were also relegated from the top flight last season, are dwindling as they have now won once in seven league matches and are 10 points adrift of the play-off places.

Russell Slade's side went behind after 15 minutes when Hooper headed in Jerome's cross, before Lafferty scored his first for the club, with a low curling effort from the edge of the box that went in off the post.

It got worse for Cardiff as Ruddy blocked Whittingham's spot-kick following Carlos Cuellar's foul on Adam Le Fondre and Jerome finished after good work from Russell Martin to make it 3-0 before half-time.

Norwich's Nathan Redmond hit the crossbar but two Cardiff goals in three minutes gave them hope of earning a point, but they could not find an equaliser.

Norwich manager Alex Neil: "I thought we were excellent for 60 minutes and the bottom line is that we have come away with the three points, so I am happy with that.

"In the first half we were always a threat going forward, we were strong in midfield and also defended well. I couldn't have asked for more. We also started the second half well but then they scored their goals and the game changed.

"I don't remember them having too many chances after that, while we had four or five breakaways which we should have made more of - but the overriding emotion at the end was one of relief because we really shouldn't have been in that position.

"We failed to deal with two straight balls for the first goal while the second was a bog-standard clearance that should never have resulted in a goal. That is something we need to work on."

Cardiff manager Russell Slade: "We have seen it before, at Brentford and Bournemouth, where we have left ourselves with too much to do. I called for a response from the players at half-time and their reaction was excellent - but it's tough when you go three down.

"In the first half I thought we were a threat going forward and we could have scored three goals ourselves, including the penalty. But our defending was the worst I have seen since I have been here. We had an extra man in midfield so we should have been nice and solid, but that was anything but the case.

"We know we can match the top sides like Norwich and we did that for a spell. But we need to be doing it for a decent period and once again that wasn't the case."