Cardiff close gap on leaders Wolves

LONDON: Second-placed Cardiff closed back to within four points of English Championship leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers with a 1-0 home win over Hull.

Sol Bamba’s 57th-minute goal ensured Cardiff maintained pressure on Wolves, who defeated Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 on Friday.

Bristol City remain third, eight points behind Wolves, after beating Nottingham Forest 2-1 thanks to first-half goals from Marlon Pack and Joe Bryan on Saturday.

Kieran Dowell pulled a goal back for Forest but they were unable to equalise.

Andreas Weimann scored against his old club as fourth-placed Derby defeated fifth-placed Aston Villa 2-0 at Pride Park. Johnny Russell secured the win in second-half injury time.

Sixth-placed Sheffield United’s poor run continued with a 1-0 defeat to Preston at Deepdale, Jordan Hugill scoring the only goal.

Sheffield United have lost four of their past five matches and are now only one point ahead of seventh-placed Leeds, who defeated Norwich 1-0 at Elland Road courtesy of Pontus Jansson’s header.

Sunderland climbed out of the bottom three by beating mid-table Fulham 1-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Eighteen-year-old Josh Maja scored on his league debut to give Chris Coleman’s side just their third league win of the season and first home victory since Dec. 17, 2016.

Bolton replaced Sunderland in the relegation zone after being beaten 1-0 at home by Burton, who jumped from bottom to 22nd in the table thanks to Lloyd Dyer’s first-half winner.