Cardiff City 1, Hull City 0: Sol Bamba winner has Cardiff boss Neil Warnock in raptures

SOL BAMBA’S header 57th minute header gave Cardiff City the win that kept them within decent range of Championship leaders Wolves.

Bamba struck when Anthony Pilkington flicked on a Lee Tomlin cross that the central defender hammered in from close range.

Struggling Hull managed little in reply, Seb Larsson’s off target long range drive being the closest they came to scoring.

It took a superb block from Hull skipper Michael Dawson to deny as the Bluebirds kept the distance between themselves and Wolves to four points.

Cty manager Neil, Warnock heaped praise on Bamba, saying: “I wouldn’t swap him for anyone in the Premier League let alone the Championship.”

Warnock added: “He’s been a bit unlucky lately – he scored a good goal against Norwich when they gave a penalty, and he thought it was his goal when Tomlin scored at Reading.

And his teammates were pretty happy with him, too

“But he’s always there for us and it’s his presence that makes the difference.

“He epitomises Cardiff City fans, that’s why they like him, you know those legs will come round like an an octopus when someone thinks they’ve gone past him.

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“The other lads respond to him. Anybody goes out of line, he sorts them out.

“He does a lot for charity behind the scenes, he doesn’t do it for recognition but because he enjoys it. He knows he’s lucky to be doing what he’s doing – and we’re so lucky to have him here with us.

“He wants to win and he wants to be in the Premier League before he finishes.

“I’ve been telling him for seven years he should be there – but this is the closest he’s been. Whether it’s via play-offs or automatic, we’ll give it a good shot.”

Said new Hull boss Nigel Adkins: “For a club that is down at the moment we got on the front foot and gave Cardiff problems for 35 minutes.

“I don’t think it was a free-kick [for the Cardiff goal] and it was offside. It’s fractional but it’s offside.

“Sometimes you get those decisions and sometimes you don’t.

“It was a competitive game and a lot of my players were on their knees at the end. They gave it everything.

“Plenty of teams have been rolled over here but we competed and we were in it right the way through until the end.”