Stoke City 3-3 Cardiff City: Bluebirds claim point thanks to extraordinary fightback

Cardiff's players celebrate Kieffer Moore's leveller

Cardiff City began life after Mick McCarthy by fighting back from 3-0 down to draw a remarkable game at Stoke City.

The Bluebirds ended their club-record run of eight straight defeats as caretaker boss Steve Morison took a point in his first game in charge.

Cardiff scored three times in five minutes through Rubin Colwill, Mark Harris and Kieffer Moore.

Jacob Brown and Steven Fletcher's double had earlier put Stoke in charge.

Michael O'Neill's team looked to be cruising to victory when Fletcher scored Stoke's third goal at the start of the second half.

But Cardiff took advantage of some slack Stoke defending to pull one back through Colwill - their first goal in six games - before two more quickfire strikes left the hosts shaking their heads in disbelief.

Morison had made five changes to the last Cardiff side picked by McCarthy, and his reign ought to have got off to the perfect start when two Stoke defenders collided and Colwill ran clear.

Colwill opted to square when he might have shot himself - but full debutant Kieron Evans overran the pass and a golden chance was gone.

With that Stoke took control, Ben Wilmot sending in a perfect cross for Brown to flash a header past Alex Smithies at his near post.

Stoke looked to have secured a first win in four league games after Steven Fletcher made it 3-0

The defensive fragility that spelled the end for McCarthy remained all too evident as Stoke came forward again, Brown running into space before checking and feeding Fletcher.

The veteran striker's first goal since April was a little fortuitous, as his 25-yard drive ricocheted off Mark McGuinness and beyond a helpless Smithies.

Cardiff had a chance to respond before half-time when Colwill rolled in Moore, but Joe Bursik's fine save denied the Wales striker.

In the opening seconds of the second half, Jordan Thompson pickpocketed Will Vaulks and fed Brown, whose pass allowed Fletcher to send a looping shot inside the far post to put the Potters in total control.

But Cardiff were not finished. They came close as Leandro Bacuna's free-kick hit the far post after deflecting off the wall, and finally found the target a minute later as Colwill's dipping effort from outside the box beat Bursik when the Stoke goalkeeper might have done better.

The visitors' second came five minutes later thanks to another Stoke error, as Thompson left Josh Tymon's heavy pass and Moore squared for Harris to sweep a shot past Bursik.

Within a minute they were level, Ryan Giles crossing from the left for Moore to tap home his first goal in 14 matches.

The visitors thought for a moment they had won it when Harris produced another near finish, only for the offside flag to save the home side.

Cardiff's fans had gone from desperate to jubilant in a matter of minutes, while Stoke were booed off after letting two points slip through their fingers.

Stoke manager Michael O'Neill:

"I have seen the goals back and we have a shambolic five or 10 minutes where we concede a really poor first goal, a really poor second goal in a very short space of time. Suddenly the game unravels a little bit - the third goal we should have defended better.

"From being 3-0 up and comfortable we find ourselves level. It's incredibly frustrating from that point of view.

"When you give two goals away as we did, you are always liable to concede again.

"It's extremely disappointing because a lot of what we did was good. But we showed the other side of things as well and that's something that needs to be addressed."

Cardiff caretaker manager Steve Morison:

"3-0 down, we made a change and it worked. The lads were fantastic for that period and we could have won it.

"It's pleasing to stop the run of results and hopefully we can go from there.

"We had some really good chances in the first half and didn't take them. We hit the post with Leo's free-kick and you think it's going to be another one of those days.

"We got the goal which the goalkeeper's probably got to save and from there on we were fantastic.

"We could have had the win. We didn't, but we are happy with a point because obviously at 3-0 down it wasn't looking likely."