Cardiff City 1 West Bromwich Albion 1

The Championship game between Cardiff City and West Bromwich Albion at the Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday February 16 2010.

West Bromwich Albion regained top spot in the Championship, for the time being at least, thanks to a Gianni Zuiverloon goal at the Cardiff City stadium.

With Newcastle United resting ahead of tonight's game against Coventry City at St James's Park, the Baggies took over in pole position as Cardiff City further improved their chances of a play-off place.

However, it might have been an altogether different story had Albion substitute Simon Cox been a little more forceful when attempting to prod home a corner into added time.

Unfortunately, for Cox, man of the match Kevin McNaughton was on hand to hack the ball clear and preserve a valuable point for his side.

After a somewhat pedestrian start from both sides, it was the Bluebirds who struck first when captain Jay Bothroyd was hauled down by a clumsy tackle from the giant centre-half Jonas Olsson.

Peter Whittingham lashed home the ensuing penalty for 19th goal of the season and though they picked up the pace after that, Albion were restricted to a series of rather tame long range efforts that rarely troubled the Scotland goalkeeper David Marshall.

Bothroyd's aerial threat, even against the towering Olsson, provided Cardiff with a valuable long ball option on a night when they sorely missed the midfield presence of Joe Ledley and Stephen McPhail.

In contrast, Albion were neat and tidy in the central area of the field and when the influential Graeme Dorans caught Gabor Geypes napping in the 22nd minute, Andwele Flory struck an upright with Marshall well beaten.

Chris Burke forced a decent save from Scott Carson a minute after Whittingham had departed through injury, but having lost their way somewhat in the second quarter, the visitors levelled two minutes into first half stoppage time when Gianni Zuiverloon escaped the clutches of Mark Kennedy to score off the post.

With Cardiff looking increasingly vulnerable at the back, Chris Brunt hit the side netting with a rasping drive three minutes into the second half before Zuiverloon, on the overlap, was held back by Kennedy. Having been booked for taking the resulting free-kick too quickly, Dorans set up Zuiverloon to inexplicably blaze his shot into Row Z.

Ninety seconds later, Robert Koren saw yellow for deliberately handballing Gavin Rae's cross. However, once again, the set piece came to nothing as Bothroyd headed into the arms of Carson.

As both sides set off in pursuit of victory, there were half chances aplenty. Rae shot hopelessly high and wide from 25 yards before Geypes reacted quickest in his own six-yard box following a slide rule cross from Frank Nouble.