Joel Colwill's header earns a point, and Cardiff City stay one of two Championship clubs without a win

Cardiff City had the ball and Stoke City had the lead, and 1-1 was where the night settled. A goal kick from Viktor Johansson, the Stoke City goalkeeper, was headed on by George Hirst on 22 minutes, Róbert Boženík hooked the loose ball into the box, and Ben Johnson got to the loose ball ahead of the Cardiff City defence and forced it past Nathan Trott in the Cardiff City goal, his first goal since joining Stoke City on a season-long loan from Ipswich Town. Half-time came with Cardiff City a goal down. The equaliser arrived on 63 minutes and Chris Willock crossed, Joel Colwill rose highest, and the header looped in. Cardiff City hit a post three times. Ollie Tanner's early shot came back off a post, Colwill struck another moments after his goal, and Jack Moylan volleyed a deflection against a third in stoppage time.

Mark Robins, the Stoke City manager, had already changed the shape before Cardiff City scored. Eric Bocat replaced Luca Bombino, who made a full Stoke City debut, on 59 minutes, Bae Jun-Ho came on for Hirst at the same time, and Colwill headed level four minutes later. Robins went again on 69, sending on Jack McGlynn for Boženík and Lamine Cissé for Justin Devenny, and Stoke City defended the point from there. Brian Barry-Murphy, the Cardiff City head coach, made one substitution all night, Cian Ashford for Willock on 82. The match's own numbers say the rest of it. Cardiff City held 71 per cent of the ball, took 26 shots to Stoke City's 12 and put 18 of those inside the box, and got seven on target. Johansson made six saves. The same provider rated Colwill the best player on the pitch at 8.1, with Willock, who made four key passes as well as the cross, next on 7.7.

Barry-Murphy spoke after the game and put the night on the goal his side gave away. "I'm disappointed we didn't get the victory. We had a very clear plan of how we were trying to achieve that, and achieved so many of the situations that we wanted," he said. "The goal we conceded is naturally disappointing and felt pretty easy from our point of view, so we can improve that a lot, but the players kept going right to the end and tried to score." On the scorer, making his first Championship start of the season, the head coach said: "You saw he got close to another goal and his movement in the box, in the second half particularly, was very good." Robins watched the same game from the other end. "We allowed them too much of the ball, but that's the way they build and that's the way Brian plays," he said afterwards. "We had a couple of really good moments to go 2-0 up and then we conceded the goal." The point was Stoke City's first away point of the season, and it ended a run of nine straight away league defeats.

Trott on the response to going behind

Nathan Trott, the Cardiff City goalkeeper, made three saves and gave the morning after its clearest read on what Brian Barry-Murphy is asking for. "I think the good signs are that even when we go behind, we still have that mentality to go ahead and try and win the game," Trott told Cardiff City TV. "This is what Brian [Barry-Murphy] wants from us, and this is what he knows that we're capable of doing." The goalkeeper rated his own night plainly. "Today was an okay game for me. Obviously in the Championship you're going to get a lot of crosses, it's direct." On the stop that kept the point in Cardiff: "It's always nice for a keeper to have a big moment, saving a 1v1 and keeping us in the game."

The draw leaves Cardiff City 20th and level on four points with Derby County and Bolton Wanderers, and it leaves one line untouched: of the Championship's 24 clubs, only Cardiff City and Burnley have still to win. Four of Cardiff City's six matches have finished level, and all four of Brian Barry-Murphy's points as head coach have come from draws. The winless league run now stands at seven games, back to the 5-1 win over Northampton Town on 25 April, which came in League One and in last season. Bolton Wanderers, on those same four points, host Cardiff City at 12:30 on Saturday, which is the kind of fixture a side stuck on draws has to start winning.

Correction, 9 September 2026

Correction, 9 September 2026: an earlier version said Christopher Willock made five key passes. The provider credits him with four. The checks below also still carried the shot counts of 27 and 19 that were corrected to 26 and 18 in the copy earlier the same day. Both are corrected above.