Nottingham Forest boss Mark Warburton is confident his team can avoid relegation to League One despite seeing his team just a point and a place above the Championship drop zone.
Forest's 1-0 defeat at Cardiff saw them slip to 21st as Burton's 2-0 win at Birmingham saw them spring three points ahead of Forest.
Aron Gunnarsson's impressive second-half strike was enough to earn Neil Warnock's Cardiff the three points in the Welsh capital, the Iceland midfielder driving home from distance.
Both teams struggled to create clear-cut chances in the first half, but Gunnarsson found the bottom corner to consign Forest to their 22nd league defeat of the season. Warburton's team need a win and quickly, but the former Rangers manager believes his team can stay in the division.
"We are disappointed and frustrated. We know it's a physical test here and we had to stand up to that, which we did," he said.
"We created some good chances to score, but I'm disappointed we conceded a goal from 25 yards because I thought we did more than enough to get a point.
"We are where we are and I'm not getting away from that. But if we play like we did today and show the desire and work ethic we did, then we'll be okay. I hope the supporters saw that in our performance because this is a very tough place to come.
"We have to concentrate on ourselves now because if you don't do that in this league, you pay the price."
A drab, scoreless first half saw both teams have a series of half-chances. Kenneth Zohore was Cardiff's main threat while Peter Whittingham, on his return to Warnock's side, rattled the crossbar with a rocket of a strike.
Livewire winger Mustapha Carayol went close on two occasions, but Forest struggled to work Allan McGregor in the Cardiff goal with Jamie Ward isolated up front.
The second period saw Carayol cut inside to bring an acrobatic save from McGregor but that effort was soon followed by Gunnarsson's strike, the midfielder finding the net after Forest failed to clear a Kadeem Harris cross.
Warburton introduced Britt Assombalonga, Zach Clough and Apostolos Vellios to try and get his team back into it, but Vellios could only hit the bar with a late header.
Cardiff boss Warnock said: "Gunnar normally whacks the pigeon off the top of the stand with those strikes. It was like a missile going into the top corner.
"I watched it all the way in and the goalkeeper had no chance. It was a cracking finish.
"I think he can do more in attack and should be pushing for 10 goals a season, but I'm delighted.
"I know people have said we've got nothing to play for, but we wanted to have a real go and I think we did that."