Erol Bulut hailed Cardiff’s character after they scored two stoppage-time goals to snatch a 2-1 win at 10-man Preston.

Karlan Grant bundled the ball over the line from a yard out, before Ike Ugbo’s 99th-minute header sealed the win for the Bluebirds.

Milutin Osmajić’s 48th-minute goal put Preston ahead but the hosts were on the backfoot for much of the second half following Robbie Brady’s red card.

The winger was shown a second yellow just four minutes after Osmajić’s goal but Preston did brilliantly to keep Cardiff at bay, only to see their hard work undone in stoppage time.

Bulut celebrated wildly at the final whistle and says the result is no less than his team deserved.

“It’s a very important win for us here today. From the first minute of the match until right up until the end of the game, my players showed the character that they needed to,” Bulut said.

“It’s not easy to play against 10 players in this type of situation but we reacted in the right way. Sometimes it can be more difficult than with 11 players, but we did everything right in the game. We kept the ball and tried to create chances throughout the game and got our reward.

“I think we deserved to get the three points at full time as we kept on pushing to create something.

“When I saw there were nine minutes added on at the end, I thought that it could have been closer to 12, because our opponents tried only to waste time in the second half. You could see how important it was for both teams to get the win and eventually we got there.”

The result moved Cardiff up to sixth in the table, just a place and a point behind Preston.

The visitors carved out the better chances in a scrappy opening 45 minutes, but it was Preston who struck first just three minutes after half-time.

Mark McGuinness’ loose touch presented Osmajic with a chance to race in behind the visitors’ defence and he kept his cool to steer the ball past Runar Runarsson.

Veteran winger Brady was shown a second yellow card after clipping Yakou Meite in midfield, and Cardiff camped inside the Preston half.

Grant hit the post from outside the box, before scrambling the ball over the line from a corner, before Ugbo struck with a last-gasp header.

Preston boss Ryan Lowe said: “I’m disappointed for the boys; they are on the floor in the changing room.

“But, I am proud of them for what they did in the game, for large parts of that game that is, particularly having to play with 10 men in the second half.

“We did well, apart from those two moments where there was a bit of luck for them and misfortune for us.

“I cannot fault the lads for what they have put into the match. To lose in the 99th minute, when they put everything on the line, I am so proud of the lads as I always am. It is a result that’s a kick in the teeth at the moment.

“But, we come back in tomorrow and recover, analyse the things we could have done a bit better and pick ourselves up. There were parts of the game, even with 10 men, that I was really pleased with. But, it’s disappointing to not get any points.”

Dimitrios Goutas and Karlan Grant both scored their first goals for Cardiff as the Bluebirds made it back-to-back wins in the Championship for the first time this season.

Their 3-2 home win over Coventry pushed them into the top half of the table and saw the Sky Blues drop to 15th. Kion Etete polished things off for the home side with a goal with his first touch in the 84th minute.

Matt Godden scored twice for the visitors, levelling the scores in the first half and then heading home his second in the 95th minute.

Cardiff boss Erol Bulut opted to rest Wales skipper Aaron Ramsey after his two games for club and country last week but rewarded Ollie Tanner for scoring his first goal for the club in the 2-0 win over Swansea by giving him his first start at home in the Championship.

It had taken Tanner a mere 40 seconds to score with his first touch after coming on at the weekend and he was the first into the thick of the action for the Bluebirds playing in a wide right position as he tested the Coventry defence.

He flashed a header past the post in the fifth minute and then saw Greek defender Goutas follow in his footsteps three minutes later by scoring his first goal for the club as he powered home a free header from a Joe Ralls corner.

The home side were good value for their lead and almost got a second in the 33rd minute when a Ryan Wintle cross from the right edge of the box was turned inches wide by Ike Ugbo from the middle of the six-yard box.

Coventry arrived in the Welsh capital sitting two places above their hosts but on the same number of points. Having absorbed most of the pressure in the opening half-hour, they hit back in the 33rd minute from a corner.

Jak Alnwick punched the ball away from his goal, but only as far as the edge of the D. Milan van Ewijk immediately stroked a pass to his left to skipper Liam Kelly, whose first-time touch into the area found Godden to turn on the edge of the six-yard box and bag the equaliser.

It was his fifth goal in eight games to underline just why the Sky Blues were so keen to get him to sign a new contract last month.

All of a sudden there was a real spring in the step of the visitors and when Tatsuhiro Sakamoto was introduced eight minutes into the second half they got even livelier.

Cardiff, though, regained the lead just after the hour mark after they swept the play upfield and Ralls carried across field to give Tanner and Wintle the chance to combine on the right. It was Wintle’s measured cross that enabled West Brom loanee Grant to stoop low and head home from eight yards.

Alnwick had to be at his best in the home goal to stop Kasey Palmer from levelling in the 71st minute when he shot from 10 yards out.

Etete fired across goal to hit the left corner to make it a two-goal lead and though Godden scored his second of the night in the fifth of the 10 added minutes it was too little, too late.

Birmingham’s unbeaten start to the season ended at St Andrew’s as slick Cardiff strode to a 3-1 victory and passage into the third round of the Carabao Cup for the first time since 2014.

It took the Bluebirds just three minutes to open the scoring as Karlan Grant burst away from Marcel Oakley down their right. The former West Brom man rolled a pass into Rubin Colwill’s path and the 21-year-old stroked home first time.

Blues’ best moment of the first period came in the 24th minute when Andy Rinomhota was booked for bringing down Juninho Bacuna from behind. The Curacao international picked himself up and curled the free-kick over the wall only to see Alex Runarsson superbly tip on to the bar.

The hosts’ task became even more difficult in the 56th minute when Lukas Jutkiewicz was sent off for serious foul play after a late challenge on Mahlon Romeo.

Cardiff doubled their lead 12 minutes later when Ollie Tanner picked out Colwill in the penalty box and the youngster laid back for Ryan Wintle to strike unerringly into the bottom corner from 20 yards.

Birmingham made a contest of it with 20 minutes to go as Manny Longelo threaded a pass into the path of Scott Hogan who finished neatly between the goalkeeper’s legs, but Erol Bulut’s men settled it with a back-post finish from Kion Etete four minutes into added time.