91Èȱ¬

Russell Slade maintained his winning start as Cardiff manager as his side came from behind to beat Ipswich.

Daryl Murphy's thunderous half-volley gave Ipswich the lead, only for Peter Whittingham to equalise with an equally impressive strike from distance.

Federico Macheda put Cardiff in front with a tap-in at the beginning of the second half.

Adam Le Fondre then claimed his first goal for Cardiff to secure the Bluebirds' second successive victory.

Having ended Nottingham Forest's unbeaten start to the season in his first match in charge on Saturday, Slade made only one change as he aimed to end another strong run of form.

After missing the Forest triumph through illness, Fabio returned at left-back to face an Ipswich side who had not lost in eight games, a sequence stretching back to August.

Cardiff were the marginally better side in a disjointed opening quarter, with wingers Craig Noone and Anthony Pilkington running at their opponents at every opportunity.

Pilkington saw one curling effort parried over by Ipswich goalkeeper Dean Gerken, though Ipswich fired a couple of warning shots with Conor Sammon and Jonny Williams both shooting wide.

When Ipswich eventually hit the target, they did so in spectacular fashion as Murphy's half-volley from 25 yards flew past David Marshall in the Cardiff goal.

Not to be outdone, Whittingham responded for Cardiff less than 10 minutes later as his long-range shot soared into the top corner.

That was Whittingham's second goal in three days following another strike from distance in the 2-1 win over Forest, and it was the other goal-scorer from that game, Macheda, who gave Cardiff the lead against Ipswich.

Noone sent the initial cross floating in from the right wing, before Pilkington volleyed the ball back across the face of goal and Macheda tapped in from close range.

Ipswich struggled to recover from that goal and the visitors fell further behind 20 minutes from time.

Le Fondre's shot inside the box took a big deflection and bobbled into the net, giving the striker his first goal for Cardiff and securing back-to-back wins for the Bluebirds for the first time since August.

Cardiff City manager Russell Slade told 91Èȱ¬ Wales Sport: "I'm delighted for a different reason tonight. I didn't think we started the game quite as well as we had done on Saturday [against Forest] and I was disappointed with the goal we gave away.

"But what I was pleased about was the response was good - it was a great by 'Whitts' [Whittingham] to get us on level terms at half-time and then second half we galvanised ourselves.

"I think the players are starting to see they can find a little bit more within themselves, certainly in terms of the game plan they're sticking to that better and better. And sometimes they need reminders of course."

Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy: "It was very disappointing. We played well in the first half but I don't know what happened in the second half.

"They could have been playing the circus music out there the way we defended for their goals in the second half.

"For the second goal we did not make the first clearance, the second clearance or the third clearance and it ends up being a shot across the box, the lad sticks his leg out and it goes in.

"It was similar for the third, it was not very good at all. It was comic cuts."