Cardiff City beat Luton Town 3-1 to go four points clear at the top of League One, with Joel Colwill stealing the show.

The young Welsh midfielder found David Turnbull after a lovely turn found space for the first goal, with the 21-year-old restoring the Cardiff lead after Jordan Clark’s penalty levelled things against the run of play.

Colwill capitalised on a mistake from Kasey Palmer before wrong-footing Josh Keeley from the edge of the box.

Five minutes later the hosts had a third with the pick of the bunch, Perry Ng driving in from 25 yards out to raise the roof at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Colwill’s day was almost outdone by the biggest cheer of the second half coming in the 69th minute, as Cardiff welcomed back his older brother Rubin Colwill from a lengthy spell on the sidelines with an ankle injury – suffered against Northampton on 22 November.

Dylan Lawlor also returned to the pitch after over a month out with a inner ligament injury to his knee, with another Wales squad prospect returning ahead of key qualifiers next month.

“Joel Colwill’s game is improving so much, he has such a hunger to improve,” said Cardiff manager Brian Barry-Murphy after the 3-1 home victory.

“The parts of his game we feel are important to give him the outcomes that he got today are the bits he has been working on.”

He added: “He arrives in the box all the time and because of that he has to have the ability to make the correct decision.

“He has the technical ability to make it happen like he did today.”

Colwill agreed with his head coach’s assessment, and was delighted in his role in the Bluebirds’ 13th League One victory from 16 at the Cardiff City Stadium this season.

“Since Brian has come in we’ve done a lot of work to help me develop,” said Colwill.

“I like to think I have developed this year. I think I’ve come on quite a bit and I’m glad it’s starting to show in games.

“It was a really good afternoon, we all gave a good account of ourselves. Anything to help the team is a really positive thing, I’m obviously glad to score and assist but ultimately it was the team performance which got us over the line today.”

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