Cardiff City laid on partyatmosphere for fans

Cardiff boss Cork's Brian Barry-Murphy said he wanted a party atmosphere in his side’s final home game after clinching automatic promotion and his team responded with a 5-1 win over already-relegated Northampton on Saturday.

The revelry began as early as the 10th minute when Ollie Tanner volleyed home the first of his brace to get the party started and Joel Colwill added a second nine minutes later after his brother, Rubin, set up his goal on a plate.

It was one-way traffic throughout the opening 45 minutes with the Cobblers failing to get a shot off to test out debutant Harry Tyrer in the home goal. It was 3-0 by the break with a little help from Northampton’s Wales U21 forward Jack Vale.

He attempted a back pass to his under-siege goalkeeper Lee Burge from 25 yards out and handed home striker Callum Robinson the simplest of tasks to turn and stroke the ball home.

Tanner smashed the ball into the roof of the net for the fourth nine minutes into the second half after Burge had pushed a Chris Willock cross into his path. 

Yousef Salech added a fifth in the 85th minute.

To their credit, Northampton, who slumped to a 12th defeat in a 14-match winless league run, were far more competitive in the second half and Jack Evans grabbed a consolation goal in the 68th minute.

A delighted Cardiff head coach Brian Barry-Murphy was full of praise for his players.

“Our intention was to try and show the very best parts of our game, attack and try and score more goals than we have done in our previous home games,” said Barry-Murphy.

“To do that is testament to the ability of the players and their mentality to do it when it would have been easy to probably just coast through the game.”

Meanwhile, manager David Artell does not want Grimsby to settle for play-off qualification this season after securing their top-seven place with a 4-0 victory over Swindon.

Douglas man Jaze Kabia netted a hat-trick and January signing Maldini Kacurri added his first for the club on a memorable afternoon for the Mariners.

On Jaze Kabia’s hat-trick heroics Artell reserved special praise for his striker after a standout individual performance.

“He’s a natural goalscorer,” he said.

“His third goal was terrific – a long ball and he’s in before the goalkeeper can even adjust.

“He deserves a huge amount of credit for scoring three goals.” 

On Kabia’s mentality the Head Coach was particularly pleased with the forward’s hunger to keep improving.

“He was gutted when I brought him off because he wants the golden boot,” he said.

“I love that attitude.

“That’s what we’re trying to create – players who constantly want more and never settle.”

Elsewhere, Alan Browne's Middlesbrough’s hopes of winning automatic promotion remain alive after they thrashed Watford 5-1 at the Riverside. With second-placed Ipswich drawing at West Brom, Boro have moved to within a point of the top-two positions with one game to play, although Ipswich still have a game in hand.

Boro’s 5-1 victory was their joint-biggest win of the season and came courtesy of doubles from Morgan Whittaker and Tommy Conway plus a goal from David Strelec.

Charlton beat Hull at lunchtime on Saturday with Cork's John Egan's goal not enough to push the Tigers' playoff hopes forward as the games run our.