The Championship is back for another weekend of action-packed matches across England’s second tier, from late comebacks to a high-scoring contest at Deepdale.
Across the 12 Championship matches this weekend, there was a total of 28 goals in total which works out at just over two per game, which for the second tier is extremely surprising.
Heading into this weekend’s matches, Leicester City led the way and were closing in on the 40-point mark, after losing just one of their first 14 matches but faced a difficult clash against Leeds United.
Similarly, Ipswich Town travelled to Wayne Rooney’s Birmingham with the Blues still in search of their first points under the former England international since he arrived at the club.
Elsewhere, two out-of-form sides (Preston North End and Coventry City) went head-to-head at Deepdale with both teams in desperate need of a victory.
With all of that being said, let’s take a look at this weekend’s Championship action…
Leicester City 0-1 Leeds United
Beginning with Friday evening’s fixture between high-flying Leicester and Leeds United. The Foxes had only lost once in fourteen league games since Enzo Maresca’s arrival whilst Leeds United had finally found form following relegation from the Premier League.
The game itself was end to end throughout the contest, with Leicester’s Abdul Fatawu hitting the woodwork with a fantastic individual move. However, Georginio Rutter scored the only goal of the afternoon in the second half after he converted a close-range tap-in to become the second side to beat Leicester in league action this season.
Birmingham City 2-2 Ipswich Town
Birmingham City hosted an in-form Ipswich Town side and Wayne Rooney’s men must have been on cloud nine when his team went 2-0 up, thanks to a Jay Stansfield goal and a Cameron Burgess own goal.
That’s as good as it got for Birmingham and Rooney as Ipswich brought on their super sub in Marcus Harness who scored twice to share the spoils between the two teams.
Bristol City 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday
Managerless Bristol City faced a Sheffield Wednesday side who have had a rough start under new boss Danny Rohl.
The Robins were helped somewhat when Barry Bannan was shown a controversial red card on 32 minutes despite not being the last man. Rob Dickie scored the winning goal to ensure the visitors remain rooted to the bottom.
Preston North End 3-2 Coventry City
Coventry City travelled up to Preston for a tough game in the north-west, with the Sky Blues having been winless since the 1980s (thanks to our writer Callum for that one).
It did start well for Coventry when Haji Wright fired in the opener but Preston then replied 3 times through Duane Holmes, Alan Browne and Militun Osmajic before Wright then added a consolation late on. This was win number 2000 for Preston, a brilliant result for them.
Plymouth Argyle 3-3 Middlesbrough
The Pilgrims hosted an in-form Middlesbrough side and it played host to an excellent six-goal thriller.
Josh Coburn gave Middlesbrough the lead before Bali Mumba and Finn Azaz replied for Plymouth. Coburn then got his second and Sam Greenwood made it 3-2 but Morgan Whittaker went against the Boro script and earned Plymouth a point in this pulsating fixture full of goals.
Millwall 0-1 Southampton
Managerless Millwall hosted an in-form Southampton side as the club continued to try and regain their form following a tough start to the campaign.
Former Premier League winger Ryan Fraser grabbed a late winner for Russell Martin’s side to sink a further blow into Millwall’s season.
West Bromwich Albion 3-1 Hull City
West Bromwich Albion beat play-off chasing Hull City at the Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon in what was a hard-faught victory against tough opposition.
Jed Wallace opened the scoring for the home side with both Matt Phillips and Semi Ajayi adding to the home sides tally. Louie Coyle scored the only Hull goal.
Rotherham United 1-1 Queens Park Rangers
Out-of-form duo Rotherham United and QPR struggled to light the sparklers in this one as Marti Cifuentes took charge of QPR for the first time following the sacking of Gareth Ainsworth.
Ilias Chair scored an excellent individual goal to give the away side the lead, but the Millers drew level courtesy of Georgie Kelly’s equaliser.
Norwich City 1-3 Blackburn Rovers
Struggling Norwich City were comfortably beaten by Blackburn Rovers during Sunday’s final match of the weekend.
Tyrhys Dolan and a brace from Sammie Szmodics sent Blackburn on their way to all three points. However, Scott Wharton was controversially sent off for Blackburn and Gabriel Sara did get a late consolation for Norwich to give the hosts a glimmer of hope but it was too little too late.
Rest of the league
In the other three games in the division the games ended goalless. Stoke City vs Cardiff City, Huddersfield Town vs Watford and Swansea City vs Sunderland all were forced to settle for a draw.
In the latter, Charlie Patino saw red for Swansea whilst Jamal Lowe missed a penalty in a match that could have gone either way.
