Brighton's Gus Poyet said: "I'm very pleased. When you start in a new division playing against good teams, you need to prepare for the worst.
"But I can't complain so far. It's full credit to the players. They have been excellent. They understand the game and how we want to play.
"I think this was the best of the three wins without any doubt. The first one was at home in a new ground and there was pressure on us.
"We needed to win and get our first points in Championship. It took us a while to settle down.
"Then last week was a different style and we were fortunate with the penalty. But, here, we were very good in the first half.
"As soon as we scored, we knew we could go on and win the game. And then even at 2-0, we could have just defended but the players wanted more."
Cardiff's Malky Mackay said: "I was pleased with the amount of effort the players put in tonight, but I'm disappointed with the goals we lost.
"We put a lot of pressure on Brighton in the first half and, not taking anything away from the goal because it was a smashing strike, but we lost possession in a sloppy area without any pressure on us. It wasn't great defending.
"It was really sloppy and it was a poor goal to concede. Even at 2-0 down, the crowd got behind the team because they could see the players were trying hard to get back into the game.
"Our decision making wasn't as it should be and we didn't take our chances. We battled hard as a team but it wasn't meant to be."