Albion 0 Cardiff 2

Chris Burke fired the Bluebirds into a 1-0 half-time lead and goalkeeper Carson's moment of lunacy with seven minutes to go ended the game as a contest.

Former Villa midfielder Peter Whittingham scored the rebound, after replacement keeper Dean Kiely, saved his penalty to give Dave Jones' side the victory they deserved.

The game failed to ignite in a first half played out in driving rain, as Albion struggled for cohesion.

Their best chance came when Graham Dorrans accelerated from his wide left position and picked out Roman Bednar with a good diagonal ball. The striker's touch was good ,but keeper David Marshall did well to block his shot low down.

Yet it was the visitors who had the better of things and Albion's Carson had to make a smart save to push a drive from Rae over the bar.

But Burke would not be denied on 19 minutes after drifting inside Marek Cech with too much room to dart forwards and pick his spot for his second goal in successive games.

Late in the first-half, Cech sent a decent long-range shot just over and a fine ball from Jonas Olsson found substitute Filipe Teixeira who could not find a team-mate with his floated cross.

Bednar had a second good chance early in the second half after receiving Cech's through-ball just inside the box but could not find the target.

Teixeira then had an overhead kick blocked and Dorrans sent a low shot narrowly wide after bursting into the box. Chris Brunt later suffered the same fate, after catching Aaron Wilding in possession.

Bednar then fluffed another good opportunity in glancing a header wide from Gianni Zuiverloon's cross. But the game was sealed in the closing stages, when Carson's moment of madness led to a Cardiff penalty.

Whittingham's kick was saved by Dean Kiely, but the midfielder netted the rebound.