Goals from Junior Hoilett and Victor Camarasa, gave Cardiff City victory over West Ham United at the Cardiff City Stadium.

The win allows the Bluebirds to keep pace with Southampton who won at home to Tottenham.

Story of the game 

Cardiff started brightly and had the first chance of the game. Aaron Gunnarsson made his way into the West Ham box but his weak shot was easily held by Lukasz Fabianski. 

Cardiff's early pressure paid dividends when in the 4th minute, Josh Murphy was played in down the right and his low sweeping cross was put in byHoilett to give the Bluebirds an early lead. 

Cardiff were almost two up shortly after, when Oumar Niasse was slid through and was bearing down on goal, only  for Angelo Ogbonna to make a fantastic last ditch tackle.

Niasse had another great chance in the 12th minute. The striker was able to nip in front of Fabianski but was unable to put it away from a very tight angle on the top of the box. 

Cardiff continued to dominate the game and limited West Ham to only half chances.

Niasse proved to be a thorn in West Ham's side throughout the first half. The striker again almost doubled the lead but his shot hit the side netting. 

Javier Hernandez was booked towards the end of the half for a blatant dive.

Felipe Anderson was taken off at half-time and Marko Arnautovic came on to try and change things up.

The second half started, in a similar way to the first, with Cardiff dominating possession and limiting West Ham when they do break on the counter.

Cardiff did double their lead after, 52 minutes. Aaron Cresswell misplaced a pass going backwards, Hoilett latched onto it and put the ball in the box, Murphy nodded it back across goal and Victor Camarasa bundled it over the line.

Cardiff continued to dominate and West Ham really could not create anything going forward. 

Niasse almost made it three, less than five minutes later, when he battled superbly with Issa Diop but the Senegalese man could not get his shot on target.

Cardiff should really have been three up, when Murphy played the ball in from the right but Niasse was denied again by a superb save from Fabianski and then got up to deny Camarasa a second. 

West Ham did go close to pulling one back, in the 70th minute, when Declan Rice danced his way to the top of the Bluebirds box but his effort came back off the upright and was cleared away.

The Hammers had another chance through Arnautovic a few moments later, but Neil Etheridge turned it behind superbly.

Cardiff managed the game superbly and were able to see out the win and push.

Takeaways from the match

They had no Sol but they Soldiered on

Cardiff were without the enigmatic Sol Bamba in this game but they really didn't miss at all. They battled hard throughout and never gave West Ham time on the ball. They limited the Hammers to taking lots of pot shots from outside the box. The defending throughout was top notch and now they need to replicate this in their next game against Chelsea at the end of the month.

Cardiff do have what it takes to stay up

Cardiff showed in this game that they have the ability to beat teams comfortably in this league. Their biggest problem is replicating these results consistently. They now have a three-wee break, due to the FA Cup and International break, which could break up the momentum, they have got from this game.

West Ham looked toothless

Full credit in this game has to be given to Cardiff but it was helped by how poor West Ham were. The Hammers took until the 75th minute to have a shot on target, which really shows how poor they were at creating chances. They tried mixing things up at half-time by bringing on Arnautovic but apart from one chance it really didn't affect the game to much.

Man of the Match 

Josh Murphy

The winger has come under a lot of criticism for not living up to the billing and underperforming when his side really needed him. On the other hand, Murphy was superb in this game and showed why he cost so much money from Norwich City, in the summer.

Murphy was instrumental in both goals and put through a misfiring Niasse several times. The thing Murphy, needs to do is kick on and play at this level consistently.

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