Twice-nightly Kightly does the damage for Wolves

13 April 2012

Michael Kightly scored two goals at Ninian Park to upstage Cardiff's veteran double act.

Then Wolves skipper Jody Craddock rose highest at a corner to extend Wolves' unbeaten run to six games and pile more misery on former boss Dave Jones.

A Robbie Fowler penalty and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's first-half strike looked to have sent Cardiff on their way to a muchneed victory but Kightly scored twice before captain Craddock claimed a rare goal by nodding in Jay Bothroyd's corner to boost the visitors' promotion push.

Fowler was left cursing a missed golden opportunity to open the lead in the opening minutes, scooping the ball wide after Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's dummy had set him free.

It was the kind of opening Fowler would usually gobble up and one sensed the miss would come back to haunt the former Liverpool man.

It duly did just when Michael Kightly rubbed salt into the wounds as he handed Wolves the lead in the 13th minute.

After Bothroyd's surging run had been halted, the ball fell kindly for Andy Keogh, whose low cross found winger Kightly sliding in for a simple tap-in.

But as the nervy Cardiff crowd were beginning to get on the home players' backs, the Welsh side were thrown a lifeline after Karl Henry needlessly tripped Joe Ledley for a penalty after Hasselbaink's intelligent knockdown.

It was left to Fowler to make amends for his earlier glaring miss by sending Wayne Hennessey the wrong way from the spot for his fourth League goal of the season in the 23rd minute.

In a thrilling contest where both sides were intent on attacking, it was Cardiff's turn once again to celebrate after Hassselbaink's cool in the 30th minute.

Paul Parry's run and Fowler's flick found the ex-Chelsea man in acres of space and he sidefooted Cardiff into the lead.

The second half began in almost identical fashion to the first, with Wolves on the front foot and Cardiff's defence leading a charmed life.

Kightly's shot went inches wide before an offside flag denied Seji Olifinjana.

The arrival of Freddy Eastwood gave the Wolves attack extra impetus and Kightly grabbed his second goal before Craddock hit the winner in the 74th minute.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in