Championship roundup: Fulham close gap at top with 7-0 rout of Blackburn
Fulham narrowed the gap to Championship leaders Bournemouth to two points with an emphatic 7-0 victory against 10-man Blackburn.
The Cottagers were already two goals ahead through strikes from Neeskens Kebano and Aleksandar Mitrovic when Jan Paul van Hecke was sent off on the half-hour mark. The Dutch defender was shown a straight red card for serious foul play after bringing down Harry Wilson.
Rovers survived any further damage until half-time but Wilson scored a quick double early in the second half as Fulham closed in on a fifth successive league win. Late goals from Kebano and substitute Rodrigo Muniz, who netted twice from the bench, rounded off a magnificent night for Marco Silva’s side at Ewood Park.
Top-of-the-table Bournemouth lost for the first time in the league this season as they suffered a surprise home defeat to Preston. Ben Whiteman put the visitors ahead at the start of the second half but Philip Billing equalised on the hour mark. The expectation was that the Cherries would go on and win but Alistair McCann struck 12 minutes from time to give the Lilywhites a first away league win of the campaign.
Third-placed West Brom also edged a little closer to Scott Parker’s team after a hard-fought 1-0 win against Hull at The Hawthorns. Karlan Grant scored the only goal of the game after 69 minutes. Steven Fletcher’s 79th-minute strike sealed a 1-0 win for Stoke at Blackpool and the three points move Stoke into the play-off places. QPR are up to fifth in the table after Andre Gray’s first-half goal saw them win 1-0 at struggling Cardiff.
The big game at the bottom of the table saw Barnsley come from behind to win 2-1 against Derby at Oakwell. Sam Baldock opened the scoring for the visitors but Victor Adeboyejo levelled things up before the break. Aaron Iseka scored the winning goal soon after the restart for managerless Barnsley.