Cardiff City are winless in their last nine away league games
Luton Town secured a hard-fought 1-0 win over Cardiff City to climb out of the Championship relegation zone and end the Bluebirds' six-game unbeaten run.
Anwar El Ghazi had Cardiff's best opening in the first-half at Kenilworth Road while Luton's top scorer Carlton Morris went the closest to scoring for the hosts.
It meant Jacob Brown's bullet header from a corner in the 57th minute proved enough for the Hatters as they clinched a first win in four matches.
Defeat was only Cardiff's second in eight games under interim boss Omer Riza as the Welsh side sit outside the bottom three on goal difference - two places behind Luton who are 19th.
The two sides found themselves at opposite ends of the form table before a ball was kicked, so it was perhaps no surprise to see the Bluebirds start on the front foot.
El Ghazi came within a whisker of giving the visitors the lead as his header from a David Turnbull delivery skimmed inches wide in the third minute.
Brown saw his deflected effort fall kindly for Jak Alnwick before Cardiff's top scorer Callum Robinson fired wide at the other end.
Following a lively opening, the contest slowly petered out in Bedfordshire as both sides lacked a spark in the final third.
But striker Morris was central to a flurry of late first-half action, heading over from Amari'i Bell's inviting cross before being booked for protesting after his cross appeared to strike the arm of Cardiff defender Calum Chambers.
The Hatters faithful - who had seen just two wins from seven home Championship matches - were unimpressed with referee Matt Donohue after he failed to award Luton a penalty.
Their mood was almost made worse seven minutes after the restart as Perry Ng picked out substitute Yakou Meite whose looping header was tipped over by Thomas Kaminski.
Having survived that scare, Rob Edwards' side took the lead in the 57th minute as Brown was left unmarked from Alfie Doughty's corner to head in off the underside of Alnwick's crossbar.
The sense of relief around Kenilworth Road was palpable, but Kaminski had to remain alert to tip over a speculative Turnbull effort from the halfway line immediately from kick-off.
Luton showed more composure following Brown's key goal, and clear cut chances were at a premium which undoubtedly suited the hosts as Kaminski remained relatively untroubled.
And they saw out the final stages with minimal fuss to clinch a fourth league win of the campaign as Cardiff lost for the first time since Riza's first match as caretaker manager at Hull City on 28 September.
Post-match reaction
Luton manager Rob Edwards:
"You can see Cardiff are confident at the moment, they have got a bit of a swagger and that shows.
"Early on in the game we weren’t as aggressive as we could have been but we got to grips with that, looked more like ourselves and then it was really hard for them to play through us.
"My only slight criticism is we could have had one or two more. We should have had a penalty, that's one thing, and with all the territory and threat, I want us to be a bit more ruthless.
"But the lads gave everything, you could see that, and we deserved the win."
Cardiff City interim boss Omer Riza:
"I think we're disappointed. We knew what we were coming into today, we knew what we'd have to deal with.
"I thought we dealt with it well, a couple of little bits that they caused us problems with.
"At times we probably need to be a little bit cleaner technically for that final opportunity.
"We got undone with the set play from the corner which we've looked at. It's a good ball, but I think we need to deal with it better."
