Cardiff City scored twice in five minutes to open up a 2-0 lead over Nottingham Forest at half time in the Championship this afternoon.

Matty Fryatt came close to opening the scoring for the visitors early on when he fired in a low strike, but David Marshall was on hand to tip the shot wide.

Craig Noone had to clear an effort off the line for Cardiff as Chris Burke tried to break the deadlock, allowing the home side to get on the counter-attack and take the lead through a Federico Macheda strike into the bottom corner.

The hosts doubled their lead within five minutes when Peter Whittingham picked up the ball 25 yards out, and was left enough time and space to blast in a second for Cardiff.

Adam Le Fondre tried to set Macheda up for another shortly before the half-time whistle, but Michael Mancienne cleared the striker's cut-back before it reached the scorer of the opening goal.