The Bluebirds recorded their second away victory of the week on Saturday, with Chris Willock scoring a fine second half goal to secure a 1-0 win over Luton Town.
Brian Barry-Murphy made three changes to the team that defeated AFC Wimbledon in midweek. David Turnbull, Callum Robinson and Chris Willock came in, with Joel Colwill and Yousef Salech dropping to the bench. Ollie Tanner was also absent through injury.
Turnbull made an impact as a substitute on Tuesday evening, and he was involved early on at Kenilworth Road. The former Celtic man struck a powerful low effort just off target five minutes in.
Town's first chance of the match came after 17 minutes. Nahki Wells was played in clear, but he failed to test Nathan Trott at close range, placing it wide. It was end-to-end stuff, as the Bluebirds went close two minutes later. Callum Robinson was unable to get his feet right when striking, following good work from Rubin Colwill and Willock. Turnbull struck the follow up, but the Hatters recovered to get a block in.
Robinson put that miss behind him and when a half chance next arose, he went for it. City's No.47 saw Luton Town goalkeeper Josh Keeley off his line, and struck from halfway. The shot stopper recovered to tip the effort wide, but the forward had the Town man scrambling.
The Bluebirds were in the ascendancy, but their plans were made to change as Turnbull was unable to continue just after the half hour mark. Joel Colwill came on to replace him.
The hosts looked to capitalise on any disruption in the City set up and went close to opening the scoring two minutes later. George Saville struck from distance, but he was denied by the excellence of Nathan Trott. Trott pulled off another great stop soon afterwards to keep the score level, tipping away Lasse Nordås' effort.
The start of the second half saw more Trott heroics. Former City man Mark McGuinness powered a header at goal, but our No.13 got a brilliant hand to it.
Referee Martin Coy was called into action after 52 minutes, as Luton Town goalkeeper Josh Keeley wiped out Robinson outside the penalty area. The decision he made was a yellow card. The extremely lucky man between the sticks held Rubin Colwill's free-kick moments later.
The hosts took control following this incident with Christ Mokosso, Jordan Clark, McGuinness and Millenic Alli all trying to find a way past Trott, but with no success.
Luton's dominant spell was ended with a moment of individual brilliance, as the Bluebirds took the lead with 68 minutes gone. Willock saw his passing lanes blocked off, so the former QPR man went alone, sitting down McGuinness before firing into the far corner.
The Bluebirds managed the final 25 minutes of the game superbly, limiting their opponents to shots from distance. Colwill could have made it two late on, but was inches away from finding the net with a chipped effort.
Brian Barry-Murphy's men remain unbeaten in the league this season, and secured a hugely valuable three points on the road. They next face Cheltenham Town in Carabao Cup action on Tuesday, 26th August - 7:45pm kick-off at Cardiff City Stadium.
FINAL SCORE: LUTON TOWN 0-1 CARDIFF CITY
Luton Town: Keeley, Naismith, McGuinness, Alli, Walsh (Nelson 72'), Lonwijk (Kodua 58'), Clark, Nordås (Bramall 90'), Wells (Yates 58'), Saville (Baptiste 72'), Makosso. Subs Not Used: Shea, Holmes, Bramall.
Cardiff City: Trott, Kpakio, Fish, Lawlor (Chambers 70'), Bagan, Wintle, Turnbull (J.Colwill 32'), R.Colwill, Ashford, Willock (Davies 90'), Robinson (Salech 70'). Subs Not Used: Turner, Ng, King.