Burton Albion 2-0 Cardiff City

Lucas Akins headed Burton 2-0 in front four minutes into the second half

Burton Albion heaped more pressure on Cardiff boss Paul Trollope by winning the first ever league meeting between the two sides.

Jackson Irvine's first half strike gave the hosts the advantage despite Cardiff creating several first half chances.

Lucas Akins headed home just after the break as Burton secured a third victory of the season.

Cardiff remain in the Championship relegation zone in 23rd position while Burton are up to 18th.

The victory saw the Brewers keep their first clean sheet in eleven league games, while the Bluebirds have now lost six of their last seven Championship contests.

Cardiff boosted by the return of England striker Rickie Lambert, started the busier of the two sides and almost opened the scoring on six minutes when Lambert freed Stuart O'Keefe, but he was denied by a terrific stop from Jon Loughlin, low to his left.

REACTION: Burton Albion first-team coach Andy Garner speaks to BBC Radio Derby

That was as close as Cardiff came before they fell behind, a failure to clear a set piece proving costly when Irvine fired home through a crowd.

Trollope's side thought they had won a penalty on 32 minutes when ex-Cardiff defender Ben Turner challenged Craig Noone, but the referee waved away the protests.

And any hopes Cardiff had of a second half revival were distinguished four minutes after the break when Akins was given too much space in the City penalty area and was able to head past Ben Amos.

McLaughlin's fine stop to deny Peter Whittingham was the closest Cardiff came in a second period where the Brewers looked comfortable in defence.

Burton Albion first-team coach Andy Garner:

"It was incredibly important for us to get the win heading into the international break.

"We looked at these games against QPR and Cardiff over this week and I think we would have settled for four points out of six coming off the back of two defeats.

"There is still a lot more to come from this group. We got stuck in the middle a bit in the last 10 minutes between going for a third goal or making sure we got the clean sheet.

"Today is a fantastic clean sheet for us. The back three and the keeper all did their jobs very well."

Cardiff head coach Paul Trollope:

"We came off the back of a disappointing game against Derby but a good away win at Rotherham last week.

"We were trying to build upon that on the road but we shot ourselves in the foot conceding, from our point of view, a soft goal in the early period of the game.

"That was backed up by a disappointing goal from a set play early in the second period that killed any real hopes of getting back into the game despite there still being a long time left."