Cardiff did little to remove the spectre of relegation and discovered just how cruel football can be as a Tommy Miller penalty two minutes after the hour condemned them to an eighth Championship defeat of the season in the Welsh capital last night.

If the ebullient Cardiff owner, Sam Hammam, is grappling £30m losses and a crippling £750,000 monthly wage roll, Ipswich still show the financial scars from losing top-flight status in May 2002.

The East Anglian club might have finally escaped the talons of administration, but an encumbering CVA arrangement that sees them dispersing creditors, from a total original indebtedness of £54m, at 5p in the pound, a figure that will increase to 15p should Premier League membership return, will exist until June 2007.

Judging by the pre-match comments, there is definite empathy between the beleaguered Cardiff manager, Lennie Lawrence, and his counterpart, Joe Royle. Yet that dissipated into the evening drizzle as Cardiff advanced with purpose early on, the striker Lee Bullock heading over the crossbar and Richard Langley's acutely angled free-kick swinging fractionally wide of the far post.

There might have been 28 points separating the third-placed visitors and fifth-from-bottom City at kick-off, but the uninformed observer would have struggled to fathom why.

Ipswich's sharp counter-attacking football was making an impression in the minutes before half-time, though, Darren Bent going close and a thrusting Ian Westlake twice thwarted by Neil Alexander.

Darren Currie, recalled to the Ipswich line-up in place of calf victim Jim Magilton had an increased effect on the midfield attrition after the break. The former Brighton player fired two shots over the bar before the 62nd-minute incident that tilted the contest in Ipswich's favour.

The Wales international Danny Gabbidon illegally blocked Miller in the area, the ex-Hartlepool man rising to beat Alexander from the spot.

Tony Rees (The Independent)