Cardiff City 3-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

By Mark Langshaw, Reporter | 02 September 2012

A hat-trick from Peter Whittingham gives Cardiff City a 3-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers in this afternoon's Championship contest.

A hat-trick from Peter Whittingham gave Cardiff City a 3-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers in this afternoon's Championship contest.

Wolves drew first blood with 10 minutes on the clock via a free kick after Sylvan Ebanks-Blake went down under Whittingham's mistimed tackle.

Bakary Sako stepped up and drove the ball into the bottom corner from just outside the penalty area, but their lead didn't last long.

The hosts hit back just one minute later through a Whittingham penalty. The midfielder smashed home from 12 yards after Craig Noone was hacked in the box by Ronald Zubar.

Cardiff took the lead three minutes after that, and Whittingham was the thorn in Wolves' side once again, finding the bottom corner after being lined up by Nicky Maynard.

Whittingham almost opened the second half by competing his hat-trick, forcing Carl Ikeme into a brilliant save from a direct free kick.

He didn't have to wait long to claim the match ball, though, and once again it came as a result of Wolves' indiscipline.

Tongo Doumbia upended Noone, and Whittingham hit the back of the net with the resulting free kick, curling one into the top corner to complete his hat-trick.

Wolves, who created very little in the second period, never looked like pulling a goal back and can have no complaints about the final score of 3-1.