EFL WEEKEND ROUND-UP

NEIL WARNOCK could not deny a touch of jealousy as he watched his HUDDERSFIELD TOWN side beaten out of sight at runaway Championship leaders BURNLEY.

It led the veteran manager, 74, to suggest he might have been tempted out of retirement sooner had the call come from Turf Moor before Vincent Kompany’s appointment last summer. Kompany has helped Burnley open up a 12-point lead at the top of the Championship with promotion to the Premier League an inevitability, and he has done it by building a team who play with panache. Ashley Barnes, Connor Roberts, Josh Brownhill and Michael Obafemi scored in a 4-0 win that could have been even more emphatic. ‘I wish I managed a team like that,’ said

Warnock. ‘But unfortunately I’ve not been able to get one like that. The two wide players — Anass Zaroury and Nathan Tella — are as good as anything in the country, let alone the Championship, and you have got Ashley Barnes playing like Pele.’ Gareth Ainsworth was soundly beaten in his

first match as QPR manager, losing 3-1 at home to BLACKBURN. Sam Gallagher’s double and a Sammie Szmodics strike kept the visitors fourth, while the Rs are 18th.

‘It was a big education for me and I’m not going to rose-tint things,’ said Ainsworth, who replaced Neil Critchley last week after 12 years at Wycombe. ‘We have things to work on.’

In League One, OXFORD UNITED sacked manager Karl Robinson yesterday after almost five years in charge, following Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat by

BRISTOL ROVERS. Robinson, whose tenure as Oxford manager was the sixth longest in England’s top four divisions, was relieved of his duties after a seventh defeat in eight matches. It leaves Oxford 17th in the table and sucked into a relegation battle despite having been 10th only a month ago. Liam Palmer’s ninth-minute goal sealed a club-record 20th league match unbeaten for SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY as they won 1-0 at Charlton to go three points clear at the top with a game in hand. ‘It was a dominant display,’ said boss Darren Moore. ‘High praise and accolades to the players, it’s excellent to achieve that in the history of the club. We’re really, really pleased.’ The Owls took advantage of PLYMOUTH being thrashed 5-2 at PETERBOROUGH, but Argyle boss Steven Schumacher said: ‘We’re five points ahead of Ipswich, six points clear of Bolton with a game in hand. It’s not the end of the world.’

In League Two, CARLISLE UNITED thumped CRAWLEY 5-2 to leapfrog STEVENAGE into

second. Paul Simpson’s side were 4-0 up at half-time on their longest away day of the season, a 700-mile round trip.

‘It was an emphatic result and an emphatic win,’ said Simpson. ‘The standard we set in the first half was outstanding, and that was without having real control. We scored the goals because we were just ruthless.’ HARTLEPOOL struck twice in stoppage time to rescue a 3-3 draw at home to WALSALL and move two points clear of the relegation zone. In John Askey’s first game in charge, the hosts trailed 3-1 in the 91st minute before Dan Kemp, on loan from MK Dons, converted his second penalty of the match to halve the deficit.

Seconds later, Connor Jennings headed in to salvage a point for Hartlepool and make it six consecutive draws for Walsall.