CARDIFF replaced Leeds at the top of the Sky Bet Championship table after a 3-1 win over their Yorkshire visitors.

Danish striker Kenneth Zohore ended his eight-game goal drought with a brace and Junior Hoilett added a beauty before Kemar Roofe gave ten-man Leeds hope midway through the second period.

Whites skipper Liam Cooper was sent off at the end of the first half for two bookable offences with Cardiff already 2-0 ahead.

The visitors actually played better after the break but it was not enough to prevent Cardiff boss Neil Warnock from celebrating victory against his former club.

Ezgjan Alioski fired an early warning into the Cardiff side-netting but the contest lacked rhythm as injuries to Pontus Jansson and Stuart Dallas disrupted the flow of the game.

The Leeds pair were able to continue after treatment and Cardiff slowly began to take control, with Dallas deflecting Joe Bennett's effort over.

Leeds were undone after 28 minutes when Mateusz Klich slipped and Loic Damour released Hoilett with a cute pass.

Hoilett was travelling at full tilt but he had the presence of mind to find Zohore, who converted his first goal since the opening day of the season.

Cardiff took a firm grip on proceedings after 37 minutes when Kalvin Phillips could only help a long ball on and Hoilett gave Leeds goalkeeper Felix Wiedwald no chance from 20 yards.

Zohore flashed another effort just wide but Leeds' task was made almost impossible when Cooper was sent off in the third minute of first-half stoppage time.

Cooper had perhaps been fortunate to receive only a caution for his earlier scissors tackle on Damour.

This time he saw red after responding sluggishly to a ball played down the touchline and crudely took out Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.

Sean Morrison bundled the ball into the net from the resulting free-kick but the Cardiff captain was flagged offside.

Leeds removed Pablo Hernandez at the break as Matthew Pennington was sent on to cover for the absent Cooper.

The ten men almost halved the deficit after 54 minutes when Neil Etheridge denied Gaetano Berardi and Alioski with a superb double stop.

The game was seemingly put beyond Leeds five minutes later when Hoilett and Morrison combined and Zohore again tapped home from close range.

Roofe's deflected strike gave Leeds belief they could engineer an unlikely comeback but the vast majority who made up Cardiff's biggest crowd since April 2016 – 27,160 – went home happy.