Cardiff City 2-1 Huddersfield Town: Moore brace earns Cardiff first win in 11 games

Wales striker Kieffer Moore has three goals in his last three games

Kieffer Moore's second-half brace earned struggling Cardiff City a first win in 11 games against Huddersfield Town.

Daniel Sinani took advantage of calamitous defending by the Bluebirds to put the Terriers ahead early on.

Levi Colwill's point-blank header forced an excellent reaction save out of Alex Smithies before former Bluebird Danny Ward saw an effort bounce back off the post as the Terriers looked to seal victory.

The game looked to be slipping away from Cardiff, but Kieffer Moore jumped highest to head home Joe Ralls' corner and draw the Bluebirds level after 74 minutes.

And in injury time, the Wales international stepped up again, this time from youngster Isaak Davies' cross to put an end to the Bluebirds' miserable form and give caretaker manager Steve Morison a first win.

The victory ends a run of six straight home Championship defeats for Cardiff, while Huddersfield have now gone 16 games without victory against the Bluebirds.

The first chance of the game fell Cardiff's way, but from the edge of the 18-yard Ryan Giles could only drag his effort wide.

The Terriers were then dealt an early blow, captain Jonathan Hogg went down unchallenged in the middle of the pitch, signalling immediately to the bench, and was replaced by Scott High.

But the visitors were soon ahead, a simple long ball was not dealt with by Mark McGuinness, and his under-hit back pass was collected by Sinani who calmly finished into the bottom corner.

After another half hour of action, severely lacking in cutting edge, McGuinness had to be alert to deny substitute Josh Koroma a tap in before Perry Ng's curled effort finally forced a save from Lee Nicholls.

Cardiff started the second half brighter, Giles and Ralls both surging into the Huddersfield box as the home crowd demanded more.

Giles then played Moore through for the hosts' first clear-cut chance, but the Wales international got it all wrong and fired well wide.

That miss finally brought the game to life, as both teams sensed the chance to score on the counter attack.

From a corner Colwill forced a brilliant point-blank save out of Smithies, before Ward got the better of Aden Flint and beat the Cardiff goalkeeper only to see his effort come back off the post.

And Huddersfield were left to rue their missed chances, as Moore made no mistake with his next chance, heading in Joe Ralls' corner from a couple yards out.

Moore saw another header comfortably saved before Huddersfield rallied in the closing minutes, Flint making a couple of last-ditch tackles.

And Cardiff were rewarded for the resilience late in injury time, as academy product Davies drove to the edge of the Huddersfield box before crossing for Moore's winner.

The Bluebirds move three points clear of the relegation zone with victory, while Huddersfield miss the chance to move into the Championship play-off places.

Cardiff City caretaker manager Steve Morison told BBC Radio Wales Sport:

"It's fantastic. Everyone needed it, the whole place needed it and the boys in that dressing room needed it more than anyone.

"Take their goal out of it which was a horrendous error on our part, and a 10 minute spell in the second half, but apart from that I thought we dominated from start to finish.

"He [Moore] is a lot more than a goalscorer but ultimately he had two moments in the second half where he's been incredibly good with his head.

"It's what he's paid to do and he's done it really well today."

Huddersfield Town manager Carlos Corberan told BBC Radio Leeds:

"Today was a very difficult defeat to accept. Sometimes to explain is difficult.

"We had opportunities to score the second goal. When you don't do that, you are going to put the result at risk.

"They scored a goal that would draw [the match] but we wanted to go for more. The team was able to continue attacking. Through that, we didn't manage the last section of the game.

"It's 100% frustration, the feeling that we have, because the minimum result that we deserved today was not to lose the game."