top of page

EFL Championship round-up: Stoke earn first win of the season, West Brom go back to the top

Writer's picture: Andrew ZarbAndrew Zarb

West Brom players celebrate scoring in a 4-2 win over Cardiff which enabled them to move to the league summit.

Results: Friday Birmingham City 2 Middlesbrough 1

Saturday Fulham 2 Charlton Athletic 2 Bristol City 1 Reading 0 Derby County 2 Luton Town 0 Huddersfield Town 3 Hull City 0 Millwall 2 Leeds United 1 Nottingham Forest 1 Brentford 0 Preston North End 5 Barnsley 1 Queens Park Rangers 4 Blackburn Rovers 2 Sheffield Wednesday 1 Wigan Athletic 0 Swansea City 1 Stoke City 2 West Bromwich Albion 4 Cardiff City 2

Round-up: The Championship's weekend action once again kicked off with a Friday night fixture, which saw Birmingham City host Middlesbrough in a match which saw late drama. The home side were dominant for the majority of the match, and they took the lead in the 33rd minute thanks to a goal from Fran Villalba. Despite having dominated most of the match, Birmingham failed to extend their one-goal advantage and thus it meant that Middlesbrough were still in the contest, and they made Birmingham pay for their inability to convert their chances with an 87th minute equaliser from Daniel Ayala. However, Birmingham still secured the victory as teenager and academy graduate Odin Bailey scored his first senior goal for the club in the 89th minute which thus ended a run of 3 successive defeats. The action today began with a London derby as Fulham played hosts to Charlton Athletic in a match where ultimately neither side could be separated. The away side took the lead in deserved fashion towards the end of the first half thanks to a goal from Conor Gallagher. However, Fulham produced an improved performance in the second half and equalised in the 55th minute thanks to a brilliant strike from Ivan Cavaleiro. That said, it was Charlton who went back in front a mere 2 minutes later thanks to a goal from Macauley Bonne, before Fulham levelled things once more thanks to Aleksandar Mitrovic's 63rd minute goal which ensured a share of the spoils for both sides. In the afternoon matches, the stand out result came in South Wales as Swansea City relinquished their place at the top of the table after Stoke City came from behind to beat them 2-1. Andre Ayew's first minute goal put Swansea in front, before Stoke equalised in the 22nd minute thanks to Sam Clucas. It looked like the sides would have to take a share of the spoils, before a 90th minute goal from Scott Hogan gave Stoke their first league win of the season, however, they remain bottom of the league. The team who replaced Swansea at the league summit were West Bromwich Albion, who held off a spirited Cardiff City fightback to win 4-2. Goals from Matheus Pereira, Grady Diangana and Charlie Austin meant West Brom raced into a 3-0 lead after 71 minutes, before Danny Ward scored a brace for Cardiff to bring the scoreline back to 3-2. The victory was then wrapped up in the 93rd minute thanks to a goal from Romaine Sawyers, and provided a perfect response to the defeat they suffered away to Leeds last Tuesday. Leeds United were brought back down to earth with a bump following last Tuesday's victory over West Brom, as they suffered a 2-1 defeat away to Millwall. Leeds United went down to 10 men after only 14 minutes as centre-back Gaetano Berardi was shown a straight red card, and Jed Wallace converted the resulting spot-kick to put Millwall in front. The lead was doubled right on the stroke of half-time thanks to Tom Bradshaw, before right at the start of the second half Leeds halved the deficit thanks to a goal from Ezgjan Alioski. However, Alioski's goal proved to be insufficient as Millwall held on for their first triumph since the 17th August. Nottingham Forest moved into the automatic promotion places as they recorded a slender 1-0 victory over Brentford thanks to a 56th minute goal by Ben Watson. Preston North End moved up into third place as they recorded an impressive 5-1 victory over Barnsley thanks to a Daniel Johnson brace in addition to goals from Tom Barkhuizen, Ben Pearson and Josh Harrop, with Cameron McGeehan scoring Barnsley's solitary goal. Bristol City remain unbeaten since the opening day of the season as Famara Diédhou scored in the 12th minute to give them a slender 1-0 victory over Reading, who have now slipped into the relegation zone. The reason that Reading have slipped into the relegation zone is that Huddersfield Town recorded a second successive victory to move themselves out of the relegation zone, as they won 3-0 at home to Hull City thanks to goals from Karlan Grant, Juninho Bacuna and Elias Kachunga. Derby County extended their unbeaten league run to five consecutive matches as they recored a 2-0 victory at home to Luton Town - their second in the last three games - thanks to an own goal from Matty Pearson which was followed up by a Tom Lawrence goal. Sheffield Wednesday bounced back from their disappointing defeat in midweek away at Hull City by recording a slender 1-0 win at home to Wigan Athletic thanks to a 57th minute Massimo Luongo goal. Finally, Queens Park Rangers ended a run of two consecutive defeats by recording a 4-2 victory at home to Blackburn Rovers. Nahki Wells put QPR in front in the 30th minute, before this was doubled in the 49th minute by Eberechi Eze. Blackburn's Bradley Dack scored a 57th minute penalty which halved the deficit, before Bright Osayi-Saumel scored 3 minutes later to restore QPR's two-goal advantage. Jordan Hugills 77th minute goal meant QPR went 4-1 up, before Adam Armstrong scored a mere consolation for Blackburn in the 86th minute.

2 views0 comments

Comments


bottom of page