Cardiff City 1-0 Ipswich Town

Bruno Ecuele Manga of Cardiff City heads to score the opening goal

Cardiff City kept apace with the race for the Championship play-offs as they overcame fellow top-six hopefuls Ipswich.

The hosts edged an even first half as Bruno Ecuele Manga's firm header put them 1-0 ahead at the break.

There were half-chances for both sides in the second half, though Cardiff held on for a comfortable victory.

Despite a third win from four matches, the Bluebirds stay seventh in the table and a point behind the play-off places.

Sheffield Wednesday's victory at Nottingham Forest means the Yorkshire club retain sixth spot, though Cardiff's win against Ipswich does open up a three-point gap between Russell Slade's men and their rivals in eighth.

Both sides pushing hard

Both teams started the day a point outside the play-off places having slipped up in midweek, Cardiff losing to Leeds and Ipswich conceding a late equaliser at Bolton.

There was a sense that something had to give as, while Cardiff boasted the second best home record in the Championship, Ipswich's tally of 28 points on the road was bettered only by Burnley's 29.

Stuart O'Keefe fires at goal for Cardiff

The two sides looked well matched in the early exchanges before Cardiff took an 18th-minute lead as Ecuele Manga met Peter Whittingham's fine outswinging corner with a powerful header which flew past Bartosz Bialkowski.

Although Whittingham continued to pepper Ipswich's penalty area with inviting crosses, genuine scoring opportunities were at a premium for the rest of the first half.

Ipswich enjoyed more possession after the restart, though Cardiff could have doubled their advantage as Scott Malone's left-footed strike fizzed narrowly over and Whittingham had a free-kick comfortably saved.

Freddie Sears seemed Ipswich's likeliest source of a goal as one of his low shots blocked by Matt Connolly, though Cardiff were seldom under serious pressure.

The home side missed another chance to put the result beyond doubt when Anthony Pilkington's header was tipped over by Bialkowski, but it mattered not as Cardiff stayed in touch with the Championship's promotion contenders.

Cardiff City boss Russell Slade: "It was a big win for us. I'm not a great believer in six-pointers because you can never do that, but the three points are huge for us at this moment in time.

"It's about the results at this time. We had a fantastic game against Leeds and collected nothing for our efforts but, here, it was a different type of game, that asked different questions, against a really direct, efficient side who asked real questions of us.

"Ipswich are probably the best at grinding out a result in this league and we have done it to them.

"I'm proud, we've done that, that we've been ugly. It was not pretty, we were fighting."

Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy: "I feel frustration because there's nothing in the game except for one corner kick.

"It's a great cross and great header for the goal, but he (Manga) should not get a free header in our box.

"We've not done enough to win it, but we should have defended better and got a 0-0 draw. I was settling for a horrible, turgid game and I thought we might nick it from a corner, but it's ended up the other way.

"We've got two home games and we really need to win them to get back in the mix. But there are no mugs in this league and they will be difficult games."