In a first half of few opportunities it was former Bluebird Mark Harris who broke the deadlock, as the Wales striker fired home from close range after a moment of rare quality from the home side split the Cardiff defence.

The hosts made the result safe with two goals in four minutes after the interval as another former Cardiff player, defender Ciaron Brown, headed home a second before Przemyslaw Placheta crashed home a sensational third.

Cardiff substitute Cian Ashford scored a late consolation goal for Cardiff after some slack marking and Callum Robinson scored with nearly the final touch of the game, but it was not enough to save them from a defeat that moves Oxford out of the bottom three and leaves Cardiff firmly in relegation trouble.