Championship: Leeds leave it late to beat Hull, Blackburn thrash Sunderland
Leeds retook the second place held briefly by Leicester after Crysencio Summerville’s late penalty and Dan James’s spectacular strike gave them a 3-1 home win over Hull. Sam Byram’s header put the hosts ahead, Fábio Carvalho equalised but Regan Slater fouled Summerville in the area. The winger got up to convert the spot-kick before James sealed the victory in style, sending the ball sailing into the unattended goal from just inside Hull’s half as his side broke following a corner that Ryan Allsop, the Tigers’ goalkeeper, had gone up for.
“There was no doubt this was a welldeserved win,” Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Leeds. “I think we had six times the amount of expected goals that they had, but it was a complicated game for us. For many of my players it was their third game in six days because they’ve played on Tuesday or Wednesday on international duty.
“We had many problems today, but the biggest problem was we played a really good side; they are a really good possession side. If you analyse their results against the top sides they never lose because they have many, many good footballers and they set traps … attacking the space in behind with lots of pace and individual quality.”
John Eustace’s wait for a win as Blackburn manager came to an end in emphatic fashion as relegation-threatened Rovers hammered Sunderland 5-1 at the Stadium of Light.
The Championship’s top scorer, Sammie Szmodics, set Blackburn on their way with a quickfire first-half double – his 22nd and 23rd league goals of the season – before strikes from Ryan Hedges and Tyrhys Dolan early in the second half wrapped up the points. Chris Rigg came off the bench to score a consolation for Sunderland 13 minutes from time but Blackburn added a fifth four minutes later through Andrew Moran.
After seven draws and two defeats from his first nine games in charge, Eustace’s first win lifts Rovers five points clear of the relegation zone. Sunderland ended a seven-match winless run at Cardiff on Good Friday but failed to build on that victory and were booed off at half-time and full time.
Rotherham staved off relegation for at least another week after they battled to a 2-1 home win over Millwall. The Millers have endured a harrowing season, with this just their fourth victory and a dire run of 10 losses in their last 11 matches saw them on the brink of relegation. A crazy final 20 minutes saw Rotherham twice go ahead to get their first win since Boxing Day. The home side took the lead after 71 minutes as Seb Revan cut in from the right and lashed into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. Millwall responded after 78 minutes as Ryan Longman reacted quickest to a scramble in the box to poke over the line.
The loanee striker Charlie Wyke nodded in the winner with four minutes left and it ensured Neil Harris’s side remain in danger of the drop themselves, just four points above the relegation zone.
Darnell Furlong scored a late equaliser for West Brom as they took another point in their efforts to secure a Championship playoff spot in a 2-2 home draw against Watford. Furlong struck in stoppage time to draw Albion, who had trailed by two goals, level at the Hawthorns. Edo Kayembe had opened the scoring for the visitors in the 51st minute with a fine finish and then the visitors doubled their lead through Mileta Rajovic in the 66th minute.
However West Brom refused to roll over and Brandon Thomas-Asante pulled a goal back in the 71st minute, before Furlong fired in a wonderful strike from range.
The Bristol City striker Nahki Wells scored the only goal of the game to condemn relegation-haunted Plymouth to a fifth home defeat without scoring. City grabbed a 57th-minute winner when Jason Knight drove at goal and teed up Anis Mehmeti whose shot was acrobatically saved by Michael Cooper at full stretch.
The Argyle keeper then managed to save Mark Sykes’s close-range follow-up but the ball looped up and the substitute Wells nodded in on the line. Plymouth were reduced to 10 men when the midfielder Alfie Devine was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 78th minute.
Jay Stansfield’s goal ensured Gary Rowett celebrated victory in his first home game in interim charge of struggling Birmingham as they eased their relegation fears with a priceless 1-0 win over playoff hopefuls Preston.
The on-loan Fulham striker Stansfield’s 68th-minute strike – his 10th Championship goal of the season since joining on loan from Fulham – secured the interim manager and Birmingham a deserved first victory in eight games, and the first since Tony Mowbray, who is undergoing medical treatment, was last in the dugout.
Middlesbrough closed in on the playoff places as they claimed a 2-0 victory over struggling Sheffield Wednesday. Isaiah Jones’s deflected strike followed an own goal from Michael Ihiekwe as Michael Carrick’s side extended their unbeaten run to six games and moved to within six points of sixthplaced Norwich, who lost earlier in the day to Leicester.
Wednesday’s defeat would have been even heavier had Boro’s Sam Greenwood not rolled a late penalty against a post, and Wednesday find themselves two points adrift of safety in 23rd position.
Two own goals from the defender Liam Kitching condemned Coventry to a 2-1 defeat at home by Cardiff that prevented them from closing the gap on the playoff places. Norwich’s lunchtime defeat at Leicester presented Coventry with a chance to close to within one point of the top six and they appeared to be on their way when Ellis Simms struck to extend his superb goalscoring run. However, the luckless Kitching twice put the ball into his own net to give Cardiff their first win in three games and keep the gap between Coventry and Norwich at four points.
Huddersfield remain in the relegation zone as they let the lead slip in a 1-1 draw with Stoke. Bojan Radulovic’s strike just before half-time handed the visitors the ascendancy. But an impressive Ki-Jana Hoever finish shortly after the restart levelled the proceedings. Stoke remain five points above the relegation zone.
QPR took a giant stride towards safety with a smash-and-grab 1-0 win over Swansea in south Wales.
A 71st-minute goal by the centreback Steve Cook was enough for QPR to secure their fifth win in eight games and move six points clear of relegation trouble. While Martí Cifuentes’ side struggled for a foothold in the game after a promising start, the result was all that mattered with just six matches left.