He was well placed to head in from close range after the City defence failed to clear a cross from Zigor Aranalde.
It was only after Walsall went ahead that Cardiff were able to attack the massed visiting rearguard.
Cardiff boss Lennie Lawrence brought on Andy Campbell in the 77th minute as City tried to rescue something from a game they could have won comfortably.
Eight minutes from time Robert Earnshaw fired a shot against the inside of the post and two minutes later an overhead kick was goalbound before Ian Roper cleared for a corner.
Bluebirds boss Lawrence felt that his side deserved something from the game.
"We were very hard done by today and we didn't deserve to lose," he said. "I thought one goal would do it and I full believed that we would get it.
"But if you can't score you have to keep a clean sheet and we should have cleared the ball that led to their goal.
"We seemed to lack confidence up front and we were really mugged when they broke away to score, but there was an element of misfortune in the defeat.
"We have to stop losing as soon as possible and get some more quality into our opponent's box."City's poor run of results, which has seen them gain one point from the last four matches, will surely mean that owner Sam Hammam will get the cheque book out in the New Year.