THE last time Cardiff City managed to beat Peterborough at Ninian Park before this embarrassingly one-sided rout was more than a quarter of a century ago, back in the 1975-76 season.
Let's just say it was a pretty fair bet Lennie Lawrence's men would break that unwanted jinx from the moment last defender Simon Rea was sent off for hauling down Rob Earnshaw after just 15 SECONDS yesterday.
Rea's dismissal had the assembled media scribes frantically searching the record books to see if that was a world record.
We discovered it wasn't - Sheffield Wednesday's Kevin Pressman having been given red after just 13 seconds of his side's Division One clash with Wolves two years ago.
That would have been scant consolation, though, for Rea and Peterborough boss Barry Fry who, from that moment on, knew that 10 men against 11 in Cardiff's own Ninian lair meant this was going to turn out to be a total mismatch.
And it duly proved to be, as goals from Graham Kavanagh, Earnshaw from the penalty spot and Rhys Weston ensured the Bluebirds coasted to their sixth successive League win to keep on marching at the top of Division Two.
At times it was so easy the game resembled a training session for City.
Neil Alexander didn't have a stop to make in the entire 90 minutes. That says everything.
City manager Lawrence said: "In hindsight, Rea would have been better off letting Earnie go. Even if we had scored, they would have had 89-and-a-half minutes to get it back!"
His Posh counterpart Fry moaned: "It's hard enough coming here as it is. But when you get a player sent off in the first minute and the referee goes on to give a dodgy penalty against you, well you've no chance."
Which Peterborough indeed had. NONE whatsoever. Most pundits saw this as a three-point certainty for the Bluebirds beforehand. But for those few who had any doubt, it took just those 15 seconds to dismiss such daft notions.
Peterborough kicked off, the ball was worked forward, Maxwell intercepted and hoiked it 60 yards over the top of the visiting back four.
Actually, I'm not sure if it was a back four or a back three because no-one had any time to suss it out before Fry was forced to reshuffle his tactics!
Anyway, Earnshaw's pace took him racing clear, he controlled the ball on his chest, advanced towards the edge of the penalty area and was hauled back by last defender Rea.
Referee Paul Danson raced up to the bewildered Peterborough centre back and brandished a red card. Off he went and that was game over already, even though Kavanagh narrowly failed to pour further ignominy on Peterborough when he crashed the subsequent free kick against the bar.
The only surprise was that it took City a further 18 minutes to actually score and that Kavanagh's strike remained the only goal of the half.
A cracker it was though, Peter Thorne and Willie Boland linking with Gary Croft, who then sent a reverse pass across the pitch to the advancing Weston down the right. His cross was headed across goal by Thorne to Kavanagh, whose thunderous volley flew past a helpless Mark Tyler.
After that, the Bluebirds had an embarrassment of possession, but their moves invariably fell down around the Peterborough penalty area, often through an over-complicated final pass or poor cross. The quality was good up to the final third - the cutting edge sadly missing at that point.
Kavanagh and Maxwell had shots from distance which failed to really trouble Tyler, while Maxwell miscued an effort when he was set up by a Kavanagh-Weston combination down the right.
On the very rare occasions that Peter-borough did break out, the majesty of Danny Gabbidon at the back, either with his pace on the ground or clearing head-ers in the air, ensured any potential danger was immediately averted.
There was almost as dramatic a start to the second half as there was to the first when Earnshaw, invariably involved again, raced on to Gareth Whalley's clip over the top, but drove wide.
Within seven minutes of the restart, though, Earnie was at it again, working his way past two defenders only to be sent tumbling in the box by Matthew Gill.
Penalty, said Mr Danson. Peterborough protested, but to no avail. Earnshaw simply turned his back, waited for the fuss to spill over and the referee's whistle to blow, and then almost walked up to drill his spot kick perfectly into the corner of Tyler's net.
In the 57th minute even Weston got in on the act, thumping a half-volley from a corner into the ground and seeing it loop over Tyler and into the goal to make it 3-0.
City, if we are to be totally honest, really should have scored at least a couple more after that. But it didn't really matter. It was another three points in the bag.
