Wycombe Wanderers’ stay in the Championship hangs by the slightest of threads after they lost 2-1 away at Cardiff City.

A double from striker Kieffer Moore gave Mick McCarthy’s side the win, but, with Derby losing at home to Birmingham, the Chairboys mathematically still have a chance of avoiding the drop.

The Chairboys visited the Welsh capital knowing that they needed to win, and better Wayne Rooney’s side result against the Blues to have any chance of staying up.

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The game started slowly for Ainsworth’s men in their first-ever visit to the Cardiff City Stadium, as the hosts had the fixture’s first attempt after three minutes when Josh Murphy forced David Stockdale into a save from just outside the six-yard box with a low effort.

It was a warning sign of what the former Premier League team could do, as they just held onto the ball well and passed around the Wanderers backline with ease.

It’s no surprise that they had only lost four of their last 18 games under Mick McCarthy before this match.

Cardiff continued to attack as Curtis Thompson performed brilliantly in that anchor role to try and stop any danger, but on 23 minutes, the hosts got the goal they deserved.

Kieffer Moore, who cost Cardiff £2m at the start of the season from Wigan Athletic, got the ball on the edge of the byline and just ran at the defence.

He then cut inside on his left foot to fire in a low and hard effort past Stockdale from 15-yards. 

Two minutes later, they nearly doubled their advantage when Wycombe gave the ball away carelessly in the midfield, and Cardiff broke.

However, Marlon Pack’s tame effort from just inside the box was easily saved by Stockdale.

A couple of half-chances from Uche Ikpeazu and Fred Onyedinma followed for Wanderers before they were given a lifeline just before half-time.

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Perry Ng’s sloppy pass found Onyedinma who drove at the Cardiff backline and after getting into the box, he was brought down by Sean Morrison.

A clear penalty and it was poetic that Joe Jacobson, who started his career at Cardiff, as well as them being his boyhood club, stepped up to slot the spot-kick down the middle, as he sent Alex Smithies the wrong way.

1-1 at half-time, but as Derby were leading 1-0 thanks to a Colin Kazim-Richards strike.

This meant Wycombe were 45 minutes away from relegation.

In a quiet 15 minutes at the start of the second half apart from a McCleary effort that went flying over the Cardiff bar, the news that Birmingham had leveled filtered around the ground.

This meant Wanderers weren’t going down.

Ainsworth’s men continued to fight on as Ikpeazu fired in a first-time effort straight at Smithies from eight-yards.

However, with 20 minutes to go, Moore got his second of the match  - his 20th of the season, after he fired in a low and hard shot from inside the box following some poor defending from Wycombe.

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In the dying minutes, Pack hit the post for Cardiff whilst Will Vaulks, who came on at the end, was shown a straight red card for a late tackle on Thompson, but Wanderers go back to Buckinghamshire emptyhanded.

However, they were offered a lifeline, as Lukas Jutkiewicz scored a second for Birmingham, inflicting a 2-1 defeat on Derby and offering Wycombe hope.

This means Wycombe must need to beat Bournemouth on May 1.

It’s now all or bust next Saturday.