Wow. What a strike.

With one swing of his sweet left foot with the clock approaching 94 minutes, Adam Masina sent the ball flying into the back of the net from a free-kick and sent expectation levels soaring. There is a mighty long way to go but teams have surfed to promotion on moments less dramatic than that. What a hit and what a time to do it. The celebrations at full-time, which we're pretty sure were matched at home, told you just how much that goal meant and how significant it could be.

The game of snakes and ladders at the top of the Championship continues and shows no sign of relenting. Second on Friday night, down to fourth just before kick-off and third before Masina struck gold, the Hornets finished this latest round of matches in second spot. Just. It looked like the Golden Boys were going to lose ground to Brentford and Swansea City in the fascinating race for second spot, but this may turn out to be a pivotal win. All three points are equal, but this felt like more. It was certainly the most hard earned of the seven they have won in the last eight.

The home side were 11 unbeaten coming into this one, were the first side to beat the Hornets at home this season and had scored the third most goals at home in the Championship. This was never going to be the riotuous day out the team had here on their last visit in 2019. And so it proved, with Cardiff providing a searching examination of the team's credentials. The Hornets passed it with flying colours.

They stood up to the challenge, recovered from conceding an own goal early on to win after falling behind for only the third time this season. Indeed, it was the first time they had come from behind under Xisco Muñz, something that bodes well for the remaining ten games and whatever else follows. This group look like they have the stomach for the fight.

The first half was a fascinating tussle, a real contrast in styles and it made for thrilling viewing. It was almost disappointing when the fourth official held up the board for only three additional minutes as you wanted more of this.

The Hornets knew exactly what Cardiff were going to do, but it is one thing knowing what is coming and another thing entirely stopping it. The Bluebirds, with their three strapping centre-halves and their mountainous forward Kieffer Moore, were going to throw the kitchen sink, dishwasher, fridge freezer and any other appliances at the Hornets to really test their mettle on a blustery day.

They hurled it towards Moore straight from kick-off, won a corner inside the first minute and a free-kick inside the second. They caused such chaos at times that you had Ismaïla Sarr and Joäo Pedro thrashing the ball clear, Francisco Sierralta and Nathaniel Chalobah nursing injuries inside the box, Ken Sema, of all people, being spoken to be the under-sieged referee after some jostling at the umpteenth corner and Daniel Bachmann charging off his line and tackling Moore outside his penalty area. It was all hands to the pump. You even had Mick McCarthy, the canny Cardiff manager, getting in on the act by not allowing Joäo Pedro to take a quick throw-in.

The Hornets looked like they had weathered the early heavy storm, particularly when Josh Murphy failed to make the most of a slip by William Troost-Ekong down the inside left, but then Murphy got free down the left soon after and slid the ball across for Sierralta to divert past Bachmann. Moore was lurking unmarked behind him so the Chilean was caught between a rock and a hard place. There went the chance of an 18th clean sheet of the season.

Now you wanted to see what the Hornets were made off and how they would respond. The answer was immediate and emphatic. Following a raid down the right, Chalobah picked up the ball on the edge of the box, showed some nimble feet, engineered a shooting chance and thumped the ball into the bottom left-hand corner. The captain enjoyed that one and so did the bench, for the quality of the strike and the timing of it.

That goal gave the team renewed belief and they started to play with confidence and attack with real purpose. Joäo Pedro tried to recreate that stunning overhead kick he scored for Fluminense, he then stabbed one just over after Sema cut one back and then Sarr, in between being roughed up, flashed one from right to left that Dillon Phillips, at full stretch, had to tip round the post.

The Hornets decided at the start of the second half to adopt the approach that if they have the ball then Cardiff can't launch it at them from set-pieces, completely controlling the game with some lovely possession football. Sarr could perhaps have found the unmarked and well-positioned Joäo Pedro from one such move and then the Senegal international had a header saved low down by Phillips. It was lovely stuff from the visitors. It continued, particuarly down the right, and just past the hour mark, Sarr slammed one wide on the angle.

There wasn't too much goal-mouth action thereafter, although there was plenty of rough and tumble in a high-octane encounter. Things threatened to boil over on occassions, Muñoz certainly went for it, bringing on Isaac Success and Andre Gray in a bold attacking move. The move paid handsome dividends. The Head Coach must have thought the chance had gone when Sarr was denied a fair shout for a penalty, but Sarr yet again came back for more, was fouled and then Masina did the rest. What a finish. What a time to end the free-kick drought. What a final ten games we have in store.