Cardiff's long wait for a first win on their Championship return is finally over after Republic of Ireland star Jack Moylan scored a brace in their 3-1 home victory over Charlton.
The Bluebirds had gone a record-equalling seven games without a win despite dominating a number of their previous matches, but they were full value for their triumph after taking a 2-0 lead in the opening quarter against a Charlton side that came into the fixture sitting in sixth place with only one league defeat.
Moylan scored the first goal in the eighth minute, teed up Yousef Salech for the second in the 24th and then thundered in his second, and Cardiff's third, in the 61st after Tyreece Campbell had reduced the deficit.
Charlton's physicality and pressing meant it took Cardiff some time to settle into their passing rhythm and the first chance of the game fell to Miles Leaburn after good work down the left flank from Karlan Grant and Campbell.
Once they found their composure, the Bluebirds conjured up a a great first goal from Moylan. It started, as with so many of Cardiff's best moves, with Chris Willock on the left edge of box before moving infield to Andy Robertson.
Robertson then passed forward, Moylan stepped over the ball to let it roll on to Salech, who then passed back to the Irishman on the edge of the 'D' to give him a clear shot on goal and he buried the ball in the right-hand corner to give his side a dream start.
Willock had a shot that was heading into the same corner pushed wide by Arthur Okonkwo in the Charlton goal, but Cardiff came again and doubled their lead in the 24th minute.
This time it was Moylan who returned the favour to Salech as he sent an inch-perfect pass across the six-yard box to allow the striker to tap home his fifth goal of the season in all competitions.
Charlton looked stunned, but they were quick to respond and five minutes later Campbell ran on to a superb through ball from Tyler Bindon that cut the Cardiff lines and gave his striker a one-on-one with Nathan Trott in the home goal and he made no mistake.
Okonkwo was called on to pull off a great save from Salech before the break and Joel Colwill should have done better in front of goal when he had a chance to add to Cardiff's tally.
There was still all to play for after the break and things might have been different had Cardiff old boy Grant not hit the side-netting instead of the back of the net after picking up a poor back pass.
Then came Moylan's second just past the hour mark. He worked the ball out of Ollie Tanner on the right edge of the box, took a return pass and fired home an unstoppable shot into the top-right corner to make the game safe.
Cardiff's Brian Barry-Murphy:
"It was a very important game for us. We felt as if we'd been playing reasonably well and we have to do it again. We knew today's game was going to be tough, but we played a great game, created really good chances and we took enough of them to win.
"We obviously had a real awareness of what Charlton do and how effective they can be, but we got into the spaces we needed to and created good chances. I was particularly pleased with the response to conceding the goal because that was obviously a test for us.
"We bounced back pretty much straight away and kept creating good chances. In the second half, I felt as if we ran out deserving winners.
"You don't always get what you feel you deserve. We were clear with the players that there were certain games where we weren't at our best, but we had full belief that if we kept playing the way we were playing and managed to score the goals we felt we would, we could win the game.
"We felt as if we were bringing a player who would improve the squad when we bought Jack Moylan. He has qualities we probably didn't have before.
"He's a very dangerous player in the situations you saw him in today. The big appeal for us was because of where he's come from, he has a lot of improvement in him. The way he's working means he will improve a lot and become a great player for the club."
Charlton's Nathan Jones:
"It's an unrecognisable performance to what we normally do. We got outworked, outbattled, outran, outpassed, outthought - everything about it.
"Ironically, we've had three massive chances in the game, but that would only have papered over the cracks of a really poor performance.
"We give Cardiff credit because they played well, but we allowed them to do what they wanted. Our intensity in our press, reading the second balls, our physicality - all of it meant it was quite easy to play against us, that's the big thing I'm embarrassed about.
"We were inept. How we pressed, the work-rate we had - we were really poor. That's not taking anything from Cardiff, because Cardiff would have had to do something right to have really tested us, but that's an unacceptable performance from us out of possession, and that's why we conceded what we did.
"To get any foothold in the game, you have to pass the ball well enough, and we didn't. When they pressed us, we just gave the ball away, so we were never able to build anything. All in all, that's a really poor performance from us."
