Blackburn Rovers 5-1 Cardiff City: Ben Brereton-Diaz treble leads Rovers to crushing win
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Ben Brereton Diaz bundles home his second goal of the afternoon for Blackburn Rovers
Ben Brereton-Diaz led the way with a hat-trick as Blackburn Rovers ran riot at Ewood Park against Cardiff City.
Cardiff's height caused early set-piece problems but Sam Gallagher made a fine return from injury when he seized on a long ball to put Rovers ahead.
Brereton-Diaz doubled the lead with a fizzing volley, before forcing the ball home in a goalmouth scramble for 3-0.
Tyrhys Dolan continued the rout from close range and although Sean Morrison did head a consolation Cardiff goal, Brereton-Diaz claimed his third from the penalty spot after goalkeeper Dillon Phillips brought down Reda Khadra.
The last two meetings between these two sides at Ewood Park had ended goalless, but Cardiff almost took an early lead when a Will Vaulks long throw caused confusion in the Rovers penalty box.
Goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski got down smartly to deny Aden Flint, with Ryan Nyambe hurling himself in the way of Morrison's goal-bound follow-up.
Centre-back Flint remains Cardiff's top scorer so far this season with four goals, although he earned an early booking soon after as he cut down John Buckley to snuff out a Rovers counter-attack.
But Cardiff were caught cold when Buckley's long ball over the top was nicely collected by Gallagher to slot past Phillips and give Rovers the lead.
Blackburn almost doubled their advantage when Daniel Ayala headed against the crossbar, but Cardiff did not heed the warning and fell further behind when Brereton Diaz volleyed in from six yards from Dolan's deep cross.
Brereton-Diaz made it 3-0 just before half-time in almost comical fashion, as his miskick trickled past Phillips and an attempted tackle by Curtis Nelson only succeeded in bouncing the ball off the Rovers attacker and into the net.
Cardiff had never lost three games in a row under Mick McCarthy and the former Republic of Ireland boss brought attacker Mark Harris and Ryan Giles on at half-time for Perry Ng and Vaulks.
The changes did briefly perk up the visitors - as well as their under-serviced forward Kieffer Moore - but Rovers stomped on any green shoots of recovery with a fourth goal.
Brereton-Diaz beat Nelson before finding Gallagher with a cross he nodded down for Dolan to turn in.
With one eye on the midweek game to come against Huddersfield, Rovers boss Tony Mowbray took the opportunity to rest Darragh Lenihan, sending on Hayden Carter.
As Rovers settled into their defensive reshuffle, Cardiff took full advantage as Morrison rose highest to flick in Giles' inviting cross and give the visitors a glimmer of hope.
Harris almost reduced the deficit further but Kaminski was alert to turn his header over the bar.
A fine Phillips save denied Brereton-Diaz, but in the final moments the keeper then brought down Khadra in the box and Brereton Diaz stepped up to convert and claim a deserved first hat-trick of his career.
Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray said:
"It was pleasing because we've been doing a lot of work, we'd had a week to prepare for this game and we had to try and get it right at both ends of the pitch with their set plays. They almost scored from their first long throw after all the work we'd been doing this week.
"We tried to bring them on to us but knowing that you can't just let them keep putting the ball into your box, because you know they will score.
"The starting point is his [Brereton-Diaz] workrate, strikers always get the glory of scoring goals but he's a kid who works his socks off... just delighted he's getting the rewards for all the hard work he's putting in, as they all are."
Cardiff City manager Mick McCarthy said:
"We started the game well for the first 20-25 minutes, whenever it was until they scored. The goal was offside but that does happen in the game and what we can't do is capitulate like we did.
"You've got to stick in it and make sure you don't concede again, we didn't, and then the third goal at half-time the game has almost ran away with us.
"I changed it at half-time, I had to do something, I thought we got a response. Unfortunately when we do that we're all going gung-ho and leaving ourselves wide open, we got caught."
