David McGoldrick's early penalty gave Southampton a vital win in their Coca-Cola Championship clash with Cardiff at St Mary's.

Saints won the spot-kick in the 10th minute after good work from Jason Euell led to Mark Kennedy handling in his own area.

Youngster McGoldrick slammed the ball past Dimitrios Konstantopoulos into the bottom-right corner of the net to boost the home side who remain in the division's bottom three.

Cardiff were poor in the first half and although they improved after the break, the promotion chasers could not find an equaliser.

Saints had started the match brightly with Andrew Surman and Marek Saganowski probing but failing to breach the Bluebirds defence.

McGoldrick's goal sparked City into life and Roger Johnson had a shot well blocked by Rudi Skacel soon afterwards.

The south-coast club were next to threaten in the 25th minute when Surman crossed for Saganowski but the Pole headed wide from a good position in the centre of the penalty area.

McGoldrick shot off target soon afterwards before Johnson tried his luck for the Welshmen, Kelvin Davis holding comfortably.

The hosts continued to belie their lowly league position and Konstantopoulos had to be alert to save from Euell's 20-yarder on the half-hour.

Saints continued to have the better of the match as the first half drew to a close but could not translate their dominance into clear-cut chances.

Cardiff manager Dave Jones introduced former Arsenal midfielder Quincy Owusu-Abeyie for Peter Whittingham at the break in an attempt to spark his promotion hopefuls into life.

And his half-time reshuffle appeared to be having an effect with Ross McCormack firing a free-kick wide before Gabor Gyepes headed wide of the target after Euell's block.

Just after the hour mark Saganowski came agonisingly close to converting Euell's cross but could not quite make contact, before the Pole shot over when he should have hit the target at least.

Saganowski might have done more soon afterwards but he scuffed wide after Skacel's good work.

With the match moving into the last five minutes Davis did well to smother McCormack's prod and City then had loud claims for a penalty turned down after appealing for handball against Chris Perry.

Eddie Johnson spurned Cardiff's final chance in the third minute of stoppage-time when he fired over the bar from Chris Burke's cross.

It compounded a miserable afternoon for Jones on his return to his former club.

Teams:

Southampton Davis, James, Saeijs, Perry, Skacel,Lallana (Schneiderlin 72), McGoldrick (Wright-Phillips 81),Gillett, Surman, Saganowski (Liptak 89), Euell.

Subs Not Used: Forecast, Smith.

Booked: Euell.

Goals: McGoldrick 11 pen.

Cardiff Konstantopoulos, Comminges (Eddie Johnson 81),Roger Johnson, Gyepes, Kennedy, Burke, Rae, Ledley,Whittingham (Owusu-Abeyie 46), McCormack, Parry.

Subs Not Used: Scimeca, Purse, Capaldi.

Att: 18,526

Ref: Kevin Wright (Cambridgeshire).