League One leaders Cardiff City continued their unbeaten start to the season with a resounding home win over Plymouth Argyle that consigned the Pilgrims to a fifth defeat from six.
Cardiff midfielder Ryan Wintle elevated what had been a disjointed and error-strewn encounter when he sent a 25-yard rocket whistling into the top corner shortly before half-time.
The Bluebirds doubled their lead three minutes later thanks to Chris Willock's heavily deflected effort from the edge of the area, leaving Plymouth to wonder how they were suddenly trailing by two goals.
It got worse for Tom Cleverley's side early in the second half as Rubin Colwill scored Cardiff's third thanks to another big deflection – again off Plymouth defender Brendan Wiredu.
Substitute Isaak Davies then rounded off the scoring at a rain-soaked Cardiff City Stadium with a powerful finish in the final minute.
A fifth win from six league games under new head coach Brian Barry-Murphy – and eight matches unbeaten in all competitions – keeps the Bluebirds at the summit of League One.
Plymouth, meanwhile, continue to slip down the table with only three points from their first six league fixtures under former Watford boss Cleverley.
Both these teams were relegated from the Championship last season, but there was a startling contrast to they way they had begun their League One campaigns.
Whereas Cardiff had made their best start to a season since 2017-18 – when they were promoted to the Premier League – with four wins and a draw, Plymouth had lost their first four matches before finally beating Blackpool last weekend.
There was little to separate the teams for much of a first half in which neither side were able to impose themselves, so the visitors might have felt a little hard done by to be two goals down at the break; perplexed to be three behind soon afterwards.
Nothing could be done about Wintle's thunderbolt of an opening goal, while the luckless Wiredu could hardly be blamed for deflecting Willock and Colwill's second and third into his own net.
Yet Plymouth might still feel they could have defended better in the lead-up to those goals, with Cardiff's players afforded too much time to shoot.
As for the Bluebirds, this was another accomplished performance in the promising early stages of Barry-Murphy's tenure, and they had chances to extend their margin of victory.
Defensively, they were sound as ever. Remarkably, the only league goal they have conceded this season was a first-half penalty against Peterborough United in their opening game.
Cardiff have now gone nearly nine hours without conceding in League One. There is a long way to go in this campaign, but they could not have wished for a better start to their mission of making an instant return to the Championship.
Cardiff City: Trott, Kpakio, Fish, Lawlor, Bagan, Wintle, J. Colwill (Ng 87’), R. Colwill, Ashford (Nyakuhwa 67’), Willock (Davies 67’), Salech (Robinson 67’). Subs not used: Turner, Chambers, Mafico.
Plymouth Argyle: Ashby-Hammond, Sz?cs, Mitchell (Edwards 72’), Wiredu, Sorinola (Issaka 64’), Boateng, Ibrahim, Benarous (Pepple 52’), Watts (Hatch 72’), Mumba, Tolaj. Subs not used: Baker, Galloway, Roberts.
