cardiff began to exert themselves in the match and had their first chance in the tenth minute. peter whittingham and aron gunnarsson exchanged the ball before it was passed to rudy gestede, who found kenny miller in the liverpool penalty area, however his resulting shot went over the liverpool goal. carroll had a chance to score in the 19th minute but his header was saved by heaton. cardiff immediately went on the attack and scored the first goal of the match. martin škrtel's clearance from mcnaughton's initial cross went back to the cardiff player who passed to miller, he passed the ball to joe mason who had run onto the pass from the right hand side of the pitch. his subsequent shot went through the legs of liverpool goalkeeper pepe reina and into the liverpool goal to give cardiff a 1–0 lead. liverpool responded by pushing men forward in an attempt to level the score. the first chance after cardiff's goal saw defender daniel agger advance from his own half towards the cardiff goal but his shot from was blocked and went out for a throw-in. liverpool had another chance from a similar distance a few minutes later but carroll sent his shot over the crossbar. liverpool had a penalty appeal turned down in the 32nd minute when ben turner was adjudged not to have handled the ball. immediately afterwards johnson's cross was cleared by mark hudson, the ball fell to charlie adam who sent his shot just wide of the cardiff goal. just before half-time liverpool had a chance to equalise, but agger's header from gerrard's free-kick was saved by heaton.