Cardiff City secured a ‘statement’ victory over fellow promotion contenders Bradford City on Saturday, with a screamer from David Turnbull.

Elsewhere in the EFL, Swansea picked up a creditable home draw with Birmingham City, while Wrexham’s long unbeaten run ended, and Newport remain rooted to the bottom of League Two.

Let’s get into the action.

Cardiff continue to win the big matches

It was a tale of two screamers at Valley Parade on Saturday, as David Turnbull’s wonderful curling effort was matched by Jenson Metcalfe’s strike from almost the exact same spot.

Cardiff, though, ran out 2-1 winners away to one of their main promotion rivals, with Callum Chambers the quickest to react to Ollie Tanner’s low ball from a short corner splitting the two sides on the day.

That was only a second home league defeat since March for third-place Bradford, who are now nine points behind Cardiff and outside of the automatic promotion places.

“It’s a big statement. Coming here, we knew how tough it was going to be. They’ve been flying high, especially at home this season,” Turnbull told BBC Sport Wales after the game.

“It says a lot about the mentality. Everybody was in it together. It just shows how together we all are. We love fighting for each other.”

Wrexham’s long unbeaten run ended

Struggling Norwich City ended Wrexham’s five-game winning run, with Phil Parkinson branding the match a ‘missed opportunity’ for his side.

Tunisia international Anis Ben Slimane notched his first goal of the season to put Norwich ahead early on at Stok Cae Ras, but Wrexham improved after that setback, with Sam Smith’s fifth goal of the campaign bringing them level.

They could not go on to secure a win though, as Jovon Makama bagged his 13th goal of the season with Norwich stretching their unbeaten away run in the league to four matches.

“If individually and collectively the performance level drops within a game then that’s not going to be enough to get a result. I think that was it today,” said the Wrexham manager.

“I said to the lads afterwards, when we were 3-1 down against Sheffield United, we stayed in a nice rhythm about ourselves and we worked our way back into the game brilliantly.

“Today, after those couple of technical errors, we needed someone to get hold of the ball and get us playing again – when we did that, we had some good spells again and nearly got back in it.

“So it’s obviously frustrating, we’ve been on a brilliant run, we’re not going to get too down about it. But I feel it was an opportunity today. If you look at the last 35 minutes of the first half, how well we played, it’s an opportunity I feel we’ve wasted.”

Swansea end home winning streak with Birmingham draw

Swansea were on course for a fifth successive Championship home win after Zan Vipotnik’s cushioned volley gave them a first-half lead, before Patrick Roberts’ second half equaliser put paid to the home fans celebrations.

Vitor Matos’ team went on to hit the woodwork three times, but their failure to find a second goal meant Roberts’ close-range drive was enough for the draw.

Despite the dropped points, Matos insisted the Swans “are improving and doing the right steps”.

“It’s good to see that we are creating more chances and from the chances we are creating, we are becoming a dangerous team, an aggressive team,” said the Swansea head coach.

“Then it’s about efficiency – football is about that, of course. But at this moment, we got a point, we grab that point, we grab the performance and we move on. I think we are [going] in the right direction.”

Newport suffer crushing late defeat

Newport County missed the chance to move out of the League Two relegation zone as Gillingham scored two goals in added time to win 3-2.

With the match 1-1 going into the final 10 minutes of regular time, Cameron Antwi thought that he had won it for the Exiles, but a penalty from Gillingham skipper Armani Little and Garath McLeary’s header won it for the hosts deep into stoppage time.

---

If you want to read more pieces from Sportin Wales, why not read to our monthly magazine here or subscribe to the magazine and newsletter at https://sportin.wales/subscribe/.

Our podcast is back for the new season and our co-founder Alex Cuthbert is in charge! You can find all the episodes here or the video versions on our YouTube channel.

You can also keep track of our pieces and videos on our socials at @Sportin_Wales on X or Sportin Wales on Instagram and Facebook.