Cardiff City 5, Burnley 1

The young Bluebirds are back on top in the Professional Under-18 Development League.

They moved above Ipswich Town thanks to a 5-1 home win against Burnley, while the boys from Suffolk crashed 4-0 against Sheffield United.

Cardiff City have completed their regular season fixtures and are two points clear of Ipswich, who still have one match left.

That is against Crystal Palace away this afternoon.

Top quality win today and superb performance from all the boys. Another 90 minutes. Onto the play offs!! #BlueBirds👊🏼⚽️💙 https://t.co/IJ8qoahVuq

— Taylor Jones (@Tays_8) April 13, 2019

Captain Sam Bowen, Connor Davies, Kieron Evans, Dan Griffiths and substitute Siyabonga Ligendza scored for City, while Burnley had London-born centre-back Edon Pruti sent off.

He was dismissed after an off-the-ball incident involving a foul on Griffiths just before the hour mark.

Cardiff made one change to their starting line-up from the previous match with Keenan Patten taking over from Ryan Kavanagh USW Sports Park.

The first chance of the match saw Griffiths make a beautifully timed run to go clear, but his shot was kept out by the goalkeeper.

Burnley took the lead when Mitch George scored after 10 minutes and at that stage the visitors were playing some good football.

Their coach is former Cardiff City player Tony Philliskirk and his team started well.

By half-time, though, the home team were 2-1 in front thanks to goals from Bowen from Ntazana Mayembe’s cross (33 mins), Davies (39) and Evans (40).

Griffiths went close when he met a super delivery from Davies, but his shot curled narrowly wide.

Pruti was sent off with 56 minutes gone and Cardiff powered on to a convincing victory with Griffiths and Ligendza adding two more goals.

They could have had more with Kavanagh shooting wide from Mayembe’s cross, while Patten hit a post from close range.

Cardiff City: George Ratcliffe, Connor Davies (Ryan Kavanagh 78), Taylor Jones, Ben Margetson, Parsons, Keenan Patten, Harry Pinchard, Ntazana Mayembe, Sam Bowen, capt (Siyabonga Ligendza 66), Kieron Evans, Dan Griffiths (Sion Spence 66). Sub not used: Rubin Colwill.

Burnley: Trialist, Fenlon, Rain, Conley, Pruti, Chima, Tucker, Woods, Harris (capt), George, Steels (Carson 63). Subs not used: Allen, Brennan, McGlynn. 

Cardiff City’s under-23 team play their final PDFL fixture of the season tonight (Monday) when they are at home against Bolton Wanderers.

The match is at Cardiff City Stadium (7pm) and entry for spectators is free.