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Brentford held on against Cardiff to move up to third in the Championship after a thriller in the Welsh capital.

Alex Pritchard's low shot, Andre Gray's cool chip and Jota's stunning long-range strike gave the Bees a 3-0 lead at half-time.

Cardiff rallied after the break through Craig Noone's header and Kenwyne Jones's close-range finish.

Brentford are now two points off top spot while Cardiff stayed 11th in the table, 10 points behind the Bees.

It was Cardiff's first home defeat in seven games, the last being Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's final match in charge against Middlesbrough.

Since then they had taken 16 points from a possible 18 in their six home matches before the visit of newly-promoted Brentford.

Mark Warburton's Brentford, who had won two of their last three matches on the road, took the lead, as Pritchard clinically finished off a swift counter-attack with a low finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the Cardiff box.

Pritchard then turned provider as Gray latched onto his pass before coolly chipping the ball over the advancing Bluebirds goalkeeper David Marshall to double the Bees' advantage and claim his ninth goal in 21 appearances.

Cardiff should have cut the deficit minutes later, but Adam Le Fondre's turn and shot from the edge of the six-yard area was deflected wide.

The Cardiff defence were again picked off as Pritchard's pass found Spanish winger Jota, who curled a stunning shot into the top corner from outside the corner of the penalty area.

The Spaniard's effort was met with a mixture of applause and boos from the home support on a bitterly cold afternoon.

Shortly after the break the Cardiff faithful were lifted as Noone headed home Kadeem Harris's cross.

Jones then hooked the ball home from close range shortly after coming off the bench to pull it back to 3-2.

Cardiff continued to press, but failed to create a clear opening to complete the comeback they craved.

Cardiff City manager Russell Slade said:

"The lack of consistency is frustrating and annoying. Last week at Bournemouth it was similar, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.

"We have got to be more ruthless in both boxes. We need to be consistent and care for 90 minutes. The second half was fantastic, but we were already 3-0 down.

"I can only apologise to the fans for the first half. I am as frustrated as they are, we got ourselves in a situation that is not helping anybody."

Brentford manager Mark Warburton said:

"Everyone sees us as honest and committed and that is great for us. It means we can go about our business and hopefully in May we will be in good shape.

"We deserve to be where we are, we have been delivering good performances.

"At half-time we told the players an onslaught was coming and we could have kept things tighter, but we saw it out."