Fulham handed huge Championship automatic promotion boost as Cardiff City lose at Derby

Fulham's hopes of automatic promotion to the Premier League were boosted on Tuesday night as Championship rivals Cardiff City were beaten 3-1 at Derby.

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock blamed "Sunday League" errors for the defeat, which stalled his team's advance towards promotion.

Warnock saw his side concede three times in the second half as Derby won for only the third time in 14 games to return to the play-off places, while Fulham now sit just a point off of second-placed Cardiff with two matches remaining.

It had all been going to plan for Cardiff when Callum Paterson sent a swerving volley inside Scott Carson's near post in the 28th minute but the game changed after Gary Madine missed a great chance in the 64th minute.

Cardiff goalkeeper Neil Etheridge tried to keep the ball in instead of letting it go out for a goal kick and when Richard Keogh headed it back, Cameron Jerome held off a challenge to roll in a shot.

A dreadful mistake by Yanic Wildschut resulted in the second when he was robbed close to the byline by Andre Wisdom, who set up Matej Vydra to drive in his 21st goal of the season.

Another error, this time by skipper Sean Morrison, allowed Jerome to seal it in the 90th minute and Warnock admitted: "It's just unlike us.

"I thought it was a game we should have won. I'm disappointed in crucial decisions but that doesn't compensate for the disappointment of letting three Sunday League goals in.

"When you make elementary errors like we did for all three goals - Neil could have let it go out for a goal kick, (Aron) Gunnarsson slices it, there's that many mistakes in one goal and the second one was a forward doing the wrong thing."

Warnock had been critical when the fixture was called off last month because of snow but he joked: "I can't blame the weather for the goals we conceded, can I?

"But I think every club apart from Wolves would love to be in our situation, with 86 points, and it just shows how far we have come."

Derby climbed two points ahead of Millwall in the battle for the top six and manager Gary Rowett knew how important the result was.

"It's massive," he said. "I said to the players beforehand that we're not going to get a second chance because if we didn't win it's out of our hands.

"It's a massive boost for us at the moment because having been on the run we've been on, it's incredibly deflating and difficult to put your finger on exactly what it is that can make you go from only losing a couple of games in 22 to only winning a couple in 13.

"It's been really tough, probably the most difficult period of my six-year managerial career, but we retained belief and I thought tonight was probably as well as we've played. I thought we showed a lot of courage to get back."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.