A George Friend own goal has gifted Cardiff City a 1-0 win against Middlesbrough in Tuesday night's Championship clash at the Cardiff City Stadium.
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Peter Whittingham came close to breaking the deadlock in the ninth minute with a drilled left-footed effort, forcing Dimitrios Konstantopoulos into a save at his near post.
Two minutes later it was Boro's turn to fashion a chance when the ball was laid off for Adam Clayton outside the box, but the 26-year-old sliced his shot wide of target.
Craig Noone was next to test the Boro keeper on the quarter-hour mark as he received the ball on the edge of the right-hand side of the box before curling towards the far side of the goal, but Konstantopoulos succeeded in parrying the effort away from danger.
The visitors then came within a whisker of opening the scoring in the 26th minute when an intelligent delivery from the right by Tomas Kalas found the unmarked Albert Adomah, but his header from close range was well saved by David Marshall.
Both sides continued to probe forward, with Grant Leadbitter curling the ball towards the left-hand corner of the goal in first-half injury time, but it flew wide courtesy of a deflection and ultimately came to nothing.
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Cardiff were quickest off the starting blocks at the start of the second half, with Aron Gunnarsson firing wide in the 50th minute before Alex Revell had a chance of his own that also failed to hit the target.
The pendulum then swung the way of the visitors as Matthew Connolly's mistake in the 56th minute allowed Adomah a clean run at goal, but the Ghana international's subsequent effort was tame and easily gathered by Marshall.
When a Bluebirds player was seemingly pushed to the ground just after the hour mark, referee Dean Whitestone pointed towards the box, but much to chagrin of the home fans, he awarded a goal kick.
The game continued to produce end-to-end action, but just when it seemed like it would finish goalless, a goalmouth scramble ended with Friend slicing the ball into his own net to gift Cardiff all three points.
Russell Slade's side climbs up to within a point of the Championship playoff zone in eighth place, while Aitor Karanka's charges remain in the top six, but with Derby County and Cardiff snapping at their heels.
Giuseppe Labellarte
