The Sheffield United manager, Paul Heckingbottom, praised his substitutes Rhian Brewster and Reda Khadra after their late impact produced a 1-0 victory at Swansea. Brewster and Khadra combined in the fourth minute of stoppage time to extend the Blades’ lead at the top of the Championship to four points.
The former Swansea loanee Brewster set up Khadra and the on-loan German kept his composure to score his first Sheffield United goal. “You’ve got to make the most of them when you win a game like that, we’re going to enjoy it,” said Heckingbottom.
Preston ban football fan for life for derogatory tweet about the royal familyRead more
Jon Dahl Tomasson hailed the togetherness of Blackburn as they put in a complete team performance to ease past Watford 2-0. Rovers’ dominance was turned into three points with first Blackburn goals for Ryan Hedges, who converted a Tyrhys Dolan cross late in the first half, and Dominic Hyam when he volleyed in at the far post to settle the game in the 82nd minute.
“It was a fantastic result,” Tomasson said. “I think if you look at the first 10 minutes, we had three shots on goal, we were creating chances, we were dominant in the first half, and scored a great goal with one or two touches, against a side who should be one of the favourites to go up. They have plenty of good players who have played Premier League. It should be difficult to come to Ewood Park. You saw that spirit and togetherness.”
Huddersfield’s head coach, Danny Schofield, admitted he was feeling the pressure after his side’s latest setback, a 2-1 home defeat by Wigan. The Terriers suffered their sixth defeat in eight league games to remain second bottom of the table, ahead of only Coventry, who have played three games fewer.
“This job comes with a lot of pressure,” Schofield admitted. “When you’re not winning games, when you’re losing games, the pressure’s mounting, and I take full responsibility for that.” When asked whether he felt his job was at risk, Schofield added: “I can’t really answer that question, that’s for somebody else to decide.”
Steve Morison does not feel Middlesbrough’s second-half revival should detract from the quality of his Cardiff side’s display in their 3-2 win at the Riverside. Cardiff produced easily their best 45 minutes of the season as they raced into a three-goal lead at the break courtesy of goals from Callum O’Dowda, Mark Harris and Perry Ng.
Middlesbrough battled back after the break and two goals in the space of a minute from Duncan Watmore and Rodrigo Muniz ensured the Bluebirds had to survive some nervy late moments to claim their first away win of the season.
The Cardiff manager said: “We’re not Manchester City – we’re never going to dominate a game for 90 minutes. It was always going to be a different game in the second half, they were going to throw caution to the wind, but we were excellent in the first half. We’ve scored three goals away at Middlesbrough: it’s a tremendous performance.”
Vincent Kompany insists Burnley have barely scratched the surface of their potential this season after a thrilling 1-1 draw at rivals Preston North End. Taylor Harwood-Bellis put the Clarets 1-0 up in the 10th minute but his thumping header was cancelled out by Jordan Storey at a raucous Deepdale five minutes later.
“There’s still a lot more to come from us,” he said. “It was a derby game away from home so I think it’s a point gained, but we deserved to win. In the first half we created a lot of chances, and if we’d taken a few more we could have finished the game.”
View image in fullscreenTaylor Harwood-Bellis celebrates scoring for Burnley in the derby with Preston. Photograph: Mick Walker/CameraSport/Getty Images
Lewis Baker scored twice as Stoke cruised to a comprehensive 3-0 victory at Hull for their first win under their new manager, Alex Neil. Stoke took the lead midway through the second half when Baker’s free-kick deflected past Matt Ingram and the visitors grabbed a second on the stroke of half-time through Ben Wilmot’s header.
Baker gave the visitors an unassailable advantage in the second period when his curling finish from outside the area made it three, with the Potters captain playing a part in every goal with two goals and an assist.
1 | Sheff Utd | 9 | 12 | 20 |
2 | Norwich | 8 | 6 | 16 |
3 | Blackburn | 9 | 0 | 15 |
4 | Reading | 8 | -2 | 15 |
5 | Burnley | 9 | 6 | 14 |
6 | Bristol City | 8 | 5 | 14 |
7 | Watford | 9 | 0 | 13 |
8 | Wigan | 8 | -1 | 13 |
9 | Preston North End | 9 | 1 | 12 |
10 | Sunderland | 8 | 2 | 11 |
11 | QPR | 8 | 1 | 11 |
12 | Stoke | 9 | 0 | 11 |
13 | Blackpool | 8 | -1 | 11 |
14 | Cardiff | 9 | -3 | 11 |
15 | Hull | 9 | -7 | 11 |
16 | Rotherham | 7 | 3 | 10 |
17 | Millwall | 8 | -2 | 10 |
18 | West Brom | 8 | 2 | 9 |
19 | Luton | 8 | -1 | 9 |
20 | Middlesbrough | 9 | -2 | 9 |
21 | Swansea | 9 | -5 | 9 |
22 | Birmingham | 8 | -3 | 8 |
23 | Huddersfield | 8 | -5 | 4 |
24 | Coventry | 5 | -6 | 1 |