Bolton Wanderers stun Cardiff City as late winner sees Bluebirds go seven without win

Cardiff City suffered another painful defeat as Thierry Gale's late header stunned the Bluebirds and condemned them to a seventh Championship game without a win.

It was a familiar tale as Brian Barry-Murphy's side dominated possession for large spells at the Toughsheet Community Stadium and created enough opportunities to have been ahead, only to be punished when Bolton struck in the final minute of normal time.

It was another frustrating afternoon in front of goal for Cardiff, who had been desperate to turn their encouraging performances into their first victory of the season. But they were far too wasteful and while Gavin Bazunu make 10 saves, he was not made to work hard enough from a Cardiff standpoint.

The Bluebirds started brightly and were quickly in control of the ball, with Jack Moylan, Chris Willock and Yousef Salech combining to cause problems for the Bolton defence.

Moylan's low cross found Salech inside the opening 10 minutes, but his first-time effort was saved by Bazunu, who would prove to be Bolton's man of the match.

The goalkeeper produced another excellent stop when Salech rose highest to meet a Willock cross, tipping his header over the bar.

Joel Colwill then came within inches of opening the scoring when a corner reached him at the back post, with the ball bouncing off his leg towards goal before Bazunu somehow reacted to keep it out from point-blank range.

Cardiff were playing some of their best attacking football of the afternoon, with Alex Robertson also testing Bazunu from distance, but the final touch repeatedly deserted them.

At the other end, Bolton's clearest opportunities were largely created by Cardiff errors. Nathan Trott was called into action to deal with a tame Samuel Iling-Junior effort, before producing another save from a Ruben Rodrigues strike from 25 yards.

Cardiff were unable to find a breakthrough before the interval and the pattern continued after the restart.

Moylan remained a threat and forced another corner after latching on to a clever pass from David Turnbull, but the Bluebirds could not make their pressure count.

And then came the sucker punch.

With the game seemingly drifting towards another frustrating draw, Theo Bair sent a cross towards the back post in the 90th minute and Gale rose to head the ball into the bottom corner.

It was a smash-and-grab moment that left Cardiff stunned.

There was still time for one final chance, with Ollie Tanner crossing for Callum Robinson, whose volley was brilliantly saved by Bazunu in stoppage time.

But it was not to be.

Cardiff's wait for a first Championship victory goes on, with seven league games now played without a win and the Bluebirds left to rue another afternoon when their performance failed to produce the result it deserved.

Bolton XI: Bazunu; Larrazabal, Davies, Toal, Conway; Erhahon (Hardie 83), Sheehan; Dong (Nelson 75), Rodrigues (Ito 64), Iling-Junior (Gale 46); Dalby (Bair 46).

Subs: Bonham, Famewo, Simons, McAtee.

Cardiff XI: Trott; Ng, Osho, Bielik, Bagan (Scanlon 90); Robertson (Kpakio 90), J. Colwill (Turnbull 59), Moylan; Tanner, Salech (Robinson 75), Willock (Ashford 75).

Subs: Tyrer, Tankiewicz, Turner, Moreno.

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