
Results:
Friday
Fulham 2 Wigan Athletic 0
Stoke City 2 Nottingham Forest 3
Saturday
Queens Park Rangers 0 West Bromwich Albion 2
Blackburn Rovers 1 Luton Town 2
Charlton Athletic 1 Leeds United 0
Derby County 3 Birmingham City 2
Huddersfield Town 1 Millwall 1
Hull City 2 Cardiff City 2
Middlesbrough 1 Sheffield Wednesday 4
Preston North End 3 Bristol City 3
Swansea City 1 Reading 1
Sunday
Barnsley 1 Brentford 3
Round-up:
The Championship's weekend action began with two matches on Friday night, as Fulham ended a run of 4 consecutive matches without victory by winning 2-0 at home to Wigan Athletic. After a goalless first half, it took Fulham less than two minutes of the second half to go ahead thanks to a goal from left-back Joe Bryan, before they wrapped up the victory seven minutes from time thanks to captain Tom Cairney. Meanwhile, in the other match played on Friday night Stoke City's disastrous start to their season continued, as they suffered a 3-2 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest, who themselves are unbeaten since the opening day of the season. However, Stoke did take the lead of the match thanks to Lee Gregory's 10th minute goal. That lead was cancelled out with a Joe Lolley goal in the 36th minute after a blunder from Stoke's goalkeeper Jack Butland. The two teams went into half-time level, though it took less than two minutes of the second half for Nottingham Forest to go in front, and they did so thanks to a goal from Sammy Amoebi, and just under a quarter of an hour later they built up a 2-goal cushion thanks to a goal from Lewis Grabban. Stoke City did give themselves a glimmer of hope as James McClean scored in the 84th minute to make the score 3-2, but it was insufficient as Nottingham Forest hung on for their 3rd successive league triumph. Furthermore, it is worth pointing out that Nottingham Forest's win came despite having fewer attempts as well as less possession, thus showcasing how clincal they were when chances fell their way.
The action began on Saturday with West Bromwich Albion extending their unbeaten start to the season as they ended a run of four successive victories for Queens Park Rangers in a 2-0 victory. After a goalless first half, West Brom took the lead inside just 8 second half minutes thanks to Nathan Ferguson's maiden senior goal for the club. In addition to falling behind, Queens Park Rangers were then reduced to 10 men eight minutes from time as Yoann Barbet was sent off for a professional foul, and West Brom then wrapped up the win from the resulting free kick which was scored by Matheus Pereira.
As a result of their victory earlier on, West Bromwich Albion did go top of the table as they took advantage of the fact that both Leeds United and Swansea City slipped up. Leeds United suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat away to Charlton Athletic, thanks to a scrappy goal from Macauley Bonne which should probably have gone down as a Stuart Dallas own goal. Meanwhile, Swansea City were denied a victory by a 90th minute goal from Reading's Andy Yiadom which cancelled out Borja Baston's 3rd minute strike, and thus the sides had to take a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw. There was a clash between two sides who have started the season in fine form, as Preston North End hosted Bristol City with the sides playing out a six-goal thriller. Bristol City went in front after 29 minutes thanks to a goal from defender Taylor Moore, which stood despite him impeding Preston goalkeeper Declan Rudd, and they doubled the lead in the 36th minute thanks to another corner which was headed home by Andreas Weimann. Preston were then handed a golden opportunity to get back into the game as Han-Noah Massengo committed a foul in the penalty area, and Paul Gallagher converted the resulting spot kick. Preston then were awarded another penalty in the second half after a handball by Ashley Williams, and this time it was Daniel Johnson who stepped up to take the resulting penalty which he converted as well. Nathan Baker then put Bristol City back in front in the 60th minute, however, they were pegged back once more as defender Patrick Bauer made it 3-3. Bristol did have the ball in the net once more thanks to Famara Diédhiou, though the goal was correctly disallowed due to a foul in the build-up. Sheffield Wednesday recorded successive league wins on the road as they recorded an impressive 4-1 victory over their current manager, Garry Monk's former employers, Middlesbrough. Sheffield Wednesday took the lead after just 5 minutes thanks to an Adam Clayton own goal, before they doubled it just a minute later thanks to Dominic Iorfa. Middlesbrough did get back into the game thanks to a goal from Paddy McNair, however, Sheffield Wednesday restored their two-goal lead just 4 minutes later thanks to Adam Reach, before they bagged their fourth goal of the match through Steven Fletcher in the 34th minute which wrapped up a comfortable 4-1 win.
After a rather awful week for the club off the pitch, Derby County did at least record their first league victory since the opening day of the season as they won 3-2 at home to Birmingham City. Chris Martin, who was a bit of a forgotten man in Derby, has returned to the club and bagged his second goal in as many games inside the opening two minutes. Their lead was then doubled 5 minutes after half-time through Martyn Waghorn. However, the complexion of the game altered completely within just 4 minutes, as Gary Gardner scored to put Birmingham back in the game, before Croatian midfielder Ivan Sunjic scored a senastional goal to level the scoring at 2-2. Birmingham then had a golden opportunity to take the lead as they were awarded a penalty following a foul by Krystian Bielik on Alvaro Gimenez, but Lukas Jutkiewicz saw his spot kick saved by Derby goalkeeper Kelle Roos, and this was to prove crucial as Derby scored the winning goal thanks to Jamie Paterson which gave them their first home victory of the season. Luton Town bounced back from successive league defeats by recording a 2-1 win away to Blackburn Rovers thanks to goals from James Collins and Matty Pearson. Huddersfield Town did at least get their second point of the season which enabled them to move off the bottom of the table, as they played out a 1-1 draw at home to Millwall. Fraizer Campbell's first goal for Huddersfield since joining the club in the summer put them in front after 24 minutes, but that was cancelled out in the 41st minute as Matt Smith profited from a goalkeeping blunder by Kamil Grabara, and despite going down to 10 men Millwall held on for the point. Despite leading the match twice, Hull City were ultimately held to a 2-2 draw by Cardiff City. Hull City first took the lead thanks to Kamil Grosicki's strike right on the stroke of half-time, before Robert Glatzel equalised for Cardiff in the 55th minute. Jordy de Wijs's goal in the 89th minute seemed to be enough to give Hull the victory, however, Cardiff's Danny Ward scored in the 92nd minute to salvage them a point.
Finally, the weekend's action concluded on Sunday as Barnsley hosted Brentford. After the hosts took the lead inside the opening minute, Brentford came from behind to win 3-1 thanks to a hat-trick from striker Ollie Watkins, his first hat-trick since December 2016 for Exeter. Consequently, Barnsley remain without a win since the opening day of the season whilst Brentford earned their first league win since the end of August.
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