Championship roundup: Fulham held while Blackburn beat Bournemouth
Scott Parker was furious with the match officials as Bournemouth suffered a 2-0 Championship defeat at home to promotion rivals Blackburn to extend their winless run to five matches.
Ben Pearson’s unlucky first-half own goal and the Dutch defender Jan Paul van Hecke’s first in Blackburn colours made it four straight wins for Tony Mowbray’s side – but Parker was adamant that the visitors’ opener should not have been allowed to stand by referee Simon Hooper and his assistants.
Parker said: “There were two players who were blatantly offside. I spoke to the official at half-time and he said that if he made a mistake, he was sorry. I could sense in his body language he was not sure. It wasn’t even tight. You need to do your job at that moment.”
Second-placed Bournemouth have now won only one of their last seven games after starting the season with a 15-match unbeaten league run.
Parker said: “I sensed an anxiousness in the stadium as the game wore on and that made it very difficult for us. We will stick to our principals and stick to what I stand for. It is easy to play when you are unbeaten in 15 and everything is going well – the real test is now.”
Nathan Jones praised his Luton side’s fearlessness as they held Championship leaders Fulham to a 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road. Fulham went ahead through Aleksander Mitrovic’s 22nd goal of the season, but the hosts deservedly equalised through Elijah Adebayo’s diving header just after the hour.
“They have slightly more quality than us because they’re probably on a £100m a year budget,” said Jones. “They probably have a little bit more composure and a little bit more quality. If we had just a bit more of that, we would have won the game today. But for us to get toe-to-toe with them just shows the great place we’re in.”
West Brom’s head coach Valerien Ismaël revealed the club had asked for their game against Reading to be postponed because of a Covid-19 outbreak. Ismaël’s side won the game 1-0 at the Hawthorns through Callum Robinson’s 61st-minute goal despite being without four players who tested positive for the virus. Albion’s bench was full of academy players apart from goalkeeper David Button.
“We tried to postpone the game but the EFL forced us to play,” said Ismaël. “It wasn’t only positive cases – some had symptoms as well. We explained to the EFL and the doctor from the EFL said it was an outbreak but they forced us to play. So I’m more than proud with the win and I congratulate the guys. You can’t imagine what a very difficult week this has been.”
Steve Cooper insisted his winning return to Swansea was no more special than any other victory. Cooper’s Nottingham Forest stretched their unbeaten Championship run to eight games as Philip Zinckernagel, Lewis Grabban, Brennan Johnson and Cafu scored in a 4-1 win. Cooper left Swansea in July after taking them to the Championship play-offs twice in his two years in charge, and celebrated animatedly in front of the Forest fans at the final whistle.
“The person who thought about coming back the least was me, I was just so focused on the game,” said Cooper. “Tactically we were perfect. We came here to win, full of confidence, expecting to win the game, but we knew we had to do it in a certain way. The guys played the game-plan exactly as we wanted it to go.”
Luke Plange scored his first senior goal to give depleted Derby a 1-0 win over Blackpool at Pride Park, while Stoke and Middlesbrough played out a goalless stalemate.
Ryan Lowe’s first game in charge of Preston ended in a 2-1 victory as Daniel Johnson scored a late winner to sink struggling Barnsley. Alan Browne put Preston ahead and Tykes captain Cauley Woodrow brought his team level before Johnson claimed the winner.
It was also 2-1 at London Road where Peterborough came from behind to defeat Millwall, who had led through Tom Bradshaw’s 16th-minute strike. A Danny McNamara own goal and an effort from substitute Jonson ClarkeHarris turned the game on its head.
Matt Godden’s injury-time header rescued a point for Coventry as Huddersfield had to settle for a 1-1 draw, having taken an early lead courtesy of Danny Ward’s opening goal. And Matty James’ stoppage-time equaliser salvaged a point for Bristol City in a 2-2 draw at Hull, who had twice led in the match with goals from Ryan Longman and George Honeyman. Antoine Semenyo hit the Robins’ first equaliser before James struck late on.
It was also 2-2 at St Andrew’s where Cardiff came from two goals down