Bolton have earned a rare away win in the Championship by beating Cardiff City 3-0 in South Wales.

The visitors scored all of their goals in the second half as the home side crumbled under pressure.

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Cardiff started the match brightly as Craig Noone saw his volley saved by Adam Bogdan before Peter Whittingham fired narrowly wide following some slick build-up play.

Noone was in the thick of the action again moments later when he shot off target.

Bolton struggled to match Cardiff for attacking intent, and the hosts came close to breaking the deadlock on 25 minutes through Eoin Doyle, who saw his effort cleared off the line by Barry Bannan.

The visitors had a shot of their own cleared off the line soon after when Dorian Dervite's goal-bound strike was hacked away by Alex Revell, though this was the best that they could muster during the opening half.

Despite being second best in the first half, Bolton broke the deadlock 10 minutes after the restart thanks to Eidur Gudjohnsen. The veteran striker received the ball from Emile Heskey on the edge of the box before drilling a fierce drive into the top corner.

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It then got better for the Trotters just four minutes later as Craig Davies capped a fine solo run by shooting across goal from a tight angle to find the bottom corner.

Cardiff were shell-shocked after conceding two goals in quick succession, and Bolton wrapped up the victory with 17 minutes left on the clock thanks to Davies, who cut inside from the left before curling the ball into the far post.

Davies was rampant in his search for a hat-trick as the game wore on, but he was denied by David Marshall before Matthew Kennedy's deflected shot went wide at the other end.