Newcastle stumble at Wednesday

NEWCASTLE wasted a chance to seize pole position in the race to the Premier League as Sheffield Wednesday beat the Championship promotion chasers 2-1, while Norwich crushed playoff hopefuls Reading 7-1 yesterday.

Rafael Benitez’s side had been knocked off top spot by Brighton’s 2-1 win at QPR on Friday and they were unable to reclaim first place after a limp display at Hillsborough.

Jonjo Shelvey almost gave Newcastle the lead with an audacious effort on the stroke of half-time, the former Liverpool midfielder striking the crossbar from inside his own half.

But Tom Lees broke the deadlock in the 59th minute as the Wednesday defender headed home from a Ross Wallace freekick for his first goal since March 2016.

Wednesday striker Steven Fletcher made amends for two earlier misses when he struck with a looping header from a 68th minute long throw.

Shelvey got one back in the 88th minute, but it was too late for a Newcastle escape act.

Newcastle remain in second place, two points behind Brighton with five games remaining, while sixth placed Wednesday hold onto the final playoff spot.

At Carrow Road, Norwich’s Nelson Oliveira opened the floodgates with a third minute penalty and Wes Hoolahan, Russell Martin and Alex Pritchard, who netted twice, were all on the scoresheet before halftime.

Yann Kermorgant got one back for fourth placed Reading, but Hoolahan added his second after the interval and Cameron Jerome made it seven to complete the visitors’ humiliation.

Huddersfield’s pursuit of automatic promotion suffered a major blow as they lost 2-0 at lowly Nottingham Forest.

Fifth placed Leeds consolidated their position in the playoffs with a 3-0 win against Preston at Elland Road.

Fulham remain seventh, two points behind Wednesday, after a 3-1 win against Craven Cottage.

Derby still have an outside chance of making the play-offs after their manager Gary Rowett enjoyed a 2-1 win on his return to his old club Birmingham.

Aston Villa drew 1-1 at Burton, while Cardiff beat Brentford 2-1. At the bottom of the table, Bristol City boosted their survival hopes with a 3-1 victory over Wolves.

Blackburn occupy the final spot in the bottom three and trail City by four points after losing 2-0 at home to Barnsley.

Rotherham are already relegated and Wigan could soon join them, but the Latics gave themselves a lifeline as they beat the Millers 3-2. – AFP Ipswich at