Cardiff strengthen bid for automatic promotion with victory over Bolton

Cardiff strengthened their bid for automatic promotion back to the Championship as they ended a near five-and-a-half hour home goal drought in a 2-0 victory over Bolton.

The last time the Bluebirds had scored at home was February 17, where Omari Kellyman netted the final goal in a 4-1 win over Wimbledon and the same player broke the deadlock against the Trotters.

The hosts totally dominated the first half, firing in 13 shots, hitting the crossbar and forcing Jack Bonham into making two fine saves, but had nothing to show for their good approach work.

It took only five minutes of the second half before Kellyman rose unmarked to head home his side’s sixth corner of the match.

Two minutes later, Alex Robertson inspired a breakaway from deep before releasing Chris Willock to race into the box and fire into the bottom right-hand corner.

The Bolton fans started singing “we’ve had a shot” in the 64th minute when substitute Amario Cozier-Duberry finally forced Nathan Trott into a save and then Sam Dalby headed against the post.

Defeat for the visitors was another dent to their hopes of squeezing into the top two and leaves them 11 points adrift of Cardiff in second, with four games to go. The Bluebirds also have a game in hand.