Cardiff City must be delighted by one aspect of Norwich City victory amid Alex Robertson factor | OneFootball

Cardiff beat Norwich City in a thrilling late comeback victory on Saturday afternoon, made all the more impressive by doing so without Alex Robertson

Cardiff City recorded their fourth consecutive home victory on Saturday afternoon as they completed a thrilling late comeback to beat Norwich City by a scoreline of 2-1, and the fact they did so without Alex Robertson makes it all the more impressive.

The Bluebirds managed to maintain their buoyed home form of late through late goals from Callum Robinson and Callum O'Dowda, who both struck within four minutes to inspire all three points in dramatic fashion.

Cardiff went a goal down early into the second-half when Borja Sainz' stunning effort from range found its way into the back of the net, although they were rocked by an uplifting atmosphere and sense of momentum in the latter stages.

Norwich themselves spurned further chances to put the fixture beyond doubt, with Sainz failing to capitalise one-on-one with Jak Alnwick, and Cardiff enjoyed periods of sustained late pressure before making the visitors pay the price for their fluffed opportunities.

Parity was restored when O'Dowda broke down the left-hand side before finding Robinson inside the box, and the striker duly netted his fifth league goal of the season as his effort deflected off Shane Duffy and wrong-footed Norwich stopper George Long.

They would've been more than satisfied with a point, no doubt, but all three were wrapped up minutes later when O'Dowda fired home an emphatic strike in what was a crowded penalty area, sending the Cardiff City Stadium into raptures.

Off yesterday's evidence, Cardiff may not face too many better sides than Johannes Hoff Thorup's men. Indeed, only league leaders Sunderland have scored more goals this season than Norwich's 23, while they were unbeaten in seven heading into their trip to Wales.

It was a mightily-impressive victory for Cardiff, make no mistake about that. It was their most hard-fought of the Omer Riza era, too.

However, it's all the better given that they were without Alex Robertson, who has underlined his importance to the Cardiff side to great extent ever since arriving from Manchester City in the summer.

Alex Robertson, Cardiff City impact makes Norwich City feat even more impressive

Palpable fear and concern inflicted on Cardiff supporters at precisely 2:00PM on Saturday when Robertson was ruled out of the squad entirely by what was an undisclosed "injury" at the time.

Cardiff managed to claim yet another victory and stretch their unbeaten run to six matches in the Aussie's absence, of course, and they deserve immense credit for exactly that.

Robertson has proved a serious hit in the Welsh capital, and his importance to this team simply cannot be understated.

Still just 21 years of age, Robertson represents the dynamic, all-action midfield profile which Cardiff had lacked in the engine room for some time and it would be blatantly dismissive to not take note of how they did struggle to break Norwich down centrally and play between the lines for large parts of yesterday's affair.

His ability to distribute the ball with pace, precision and intent makes him the five-star heartbeat of the Cardiff midfield. The crown jewel in Robertson's footballing arsenal is his variation of passing, which offers Cardiff myriad options in the way they attack the opposition.

Equally capable at receiving the ball from a goal-kick and opening up the pitch with a diagonal cross-field pass to one of Callum O'Dowda, Anwar El Ghazi and Chris Willock, for example, as he is at playing in the pockets and threading intricate and inventive final-third passes, Robertson has the quality, confidence and intelligence to dictate his side's tempo at all times.

He's the tempo-setter which Cardiff had not been blessed with since another Man City academy graduate in Tommy Doyle more than two years ago, although Robertson's willingness to drop deeper and regain possession with his ability to break up play and lunge in with commanding slide tackles perhaps sets him apart from the now-Wolves man in one crucial aspect.

That side of his game often goes more unnoticed, particularly with Cardiff becoming increasingly ball-dominant and attack-minded under Riza.

However, the ex-Portsmouth loanee was a standout during the well-earned stalemate draw at West Bromwich Albion last weekend, offering the requisite tenacity and athleticism alongside double-pivot-partner David Turnbull to stifle the Baggies' attacking transitions.

All things considered, there is quite a reasonable school of thought that Robertson is the single-most important player at Cardiff right now, with his all-rounded profile covering every required midfield department and coming up trumps in different game states.

Just as willing to do the dogged out-of-possession work in the engine room as he is to direct Cardiff's attacking tempo by cutting teams open with line-breaking passing and progressively carrying the ball upfield, he's an integral operator and the Bluebirds will be delighted by winning in his absence - a scenario which did feel somewhat unlikely when his omission was revealed.

Omer Riza offers promising Alex Robertson update after Cardiff City absence

Despite the euphoria from yesterday's finale, supporters were rightly on tenterhooks to learn of an update on Robertson.

His omission had come very much out of the blue, with Riza not disclosing anything of the sort during his press conference on Thursday afternoon, so it was unclear what injury he had sustained in the first place and just how long it would keep him on the sidelines.

Not long, it would now seem.

Riza revealed to the media post-match that Robertson's omission was simply due to an agreed precautionary measure, with the midfielder having played the full 90 minutes in all of Riza's first six matches before missing Norwich's visit to Wales.

Cardiff have a double-header on the agenda, with both Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers coming up in the next week. Thankfully for the Bluebirds, it appears as though Robertson could well return to contention for those consecutive affairs.

"Nothing too serious. We'll monitor him through today and tomorrow, and the beginning of the week and see where we get to by Wednesday.

"It's precautionary as he's had issues with that hamstring before, and he's played a lot of games. He's played five or six games.

"He's covered a lot of distance. I think he's covered 10 or 11km every game so there's a lot of working going into those legs."