CHAMPIONSHIP THIS WEEKEND

BRENTFORD manager Dean Smith blamed the length of the Elland Road turf for his side’s 1-0 loss at LEEDS. ‘We didn’t pass the ball well enough at all and it didn’t help that they left the grass a bit long, the pitch played poor,’ he moaned. It didn’t go unnoticed by the Leeds Twitter account, who trolled their opponents with a picture of three lawnmowers cutting the turf after the final whistle. There were angry scenes at St Andrew’s as

BARNSLEY inflicted a fourth straight league defeat on BIRMINGHAM, who slipped into the relegation zone. Furious fans blamed manager Steve Cotterill, with a plastic bottle and a season ticket among the things thrown in his direction. ‘What I’m doing is copping the flak for all of it. At the end of the day, you represent the club, don’t you?’ said Cotterill, who was given an escort out of the ground by security. On-loan Lee Tomlin scored twice as

NOTTINGHAM FOREST powered to a 5-2 win at QPR and then took to Twitter to set the record straight on why Cardiff let him move on transfer deadline day. ‘If people say I fell out with Neil Warnock then they haven’t got a clue... it’s hard to get into a team who are winning most weeks. Simple as that,’ he wrote. It was a stylish way to end a five-game winless run for Forest. After scoring for ASTON VILLA in the recent derby win against Birmingham, Conor Hourihane was challenged by team-mate Jack Grealish to do an Irish dance the next time he scored. Hourihane netted in a 4-2 win at SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY but forgot to jig. Villa owner Tony Xia tweeted Hourihane: ‘You can save it to do with me together THAT day!’ Villa are clearly confident of promotion.