Stu’s out of Luke on Parade return
STUART McCALL was denied victory in the first match of his third spell as
boss thanks to a stoppage-time equaliser in his side’s 1-1 match at home to
Lee Novak put the Bantams ahead with a debut goal when he tucked in a cross from Callum Cooke with 10 minutes remaining.
But former Bradford loanee Luke Hendrie struck two minutes into injury time for Ian Holloway’s side meaning McCall, who replaced the sacked Gary Bowyer at
Valley Parade last week, had to settle for a point.
Charlie Kirk scored in the seventh minute of injury time to ensure held on to second spot and cut Swindon’s lead to two points.
led through Jonny Smith but James Jones snaffled an equaliser before Kirk’s dramatic winner edged a 2-1 result.
automatic promotion hopes were dented by a 3-0 defeat at
who climbed up to fifth.
Ben Stevenson’s early strike and two goals in six minutes from Theo Robinson put the U’s three up at half-time. beat basementboys 2-1 to climb above their Devon rivals Argyle into third.
Randell Williams headed the Grecians ahead late in the first half and although Daniel Kemp levelled for Boro, substitute Matt Jay hit the winner two minutes later.
slipped to sixth after a 1-0 home defeat by David Worrall grabbing the only goal with a 72nd-minute header. were beaten by a solitary John McAtee goal at
and
fell further off the pace with a 2-1 home defeat by
Alex Kenyon earned second-bottom
a 1-1 draw at home to after Joe Riley had opened the scoring.
James Brophy put
ahead but Jacob Blyth levelled in stoppage time as fellow strugglers earned a 1-1 draw.
Liam O’Neil’s goal gave managerless first away win since September, 1-0 at
while and played out a goalless draw. a
CHRIS MAGUIRE rekindled Sunderland’s League One promotion hopes with a late winner.
After six victories in nine games and just one defeat – with five clean sheets – there’s a head of steam building around Sunderland’s recent revival.
Fresh from collecting the League One Manager of the Month award for January, Phil Parkinson has reorganised a side that failed to win for almost two months before the end of December.
They are now firmly in the frame to earn a play-off place come May.
Ipswich are heading in the opposite direction. They are out of the top six for the first time since August, having suffered three losses in a row and claimed just three wins since the end of November.
Forward Maguire now has 12 for the season and it keeps the momentum up after a hard-fought, tight game in which Sunderland also hit the woodwork twice.
Former chairman Bob Murray and MD John Fickling, who oversaw the glory days of a seventh-place finish in the top flight, watched and celebrated with under-fire owner Stewart Donald in the directors’ box.
These are not quite the heights of the good old days, but 32,726 were in the Stadium of Light that Murray built and they are making great strides.
Six weeks ago fans were demanding Donald and Parkinson clear off after it appeared the gamble to sack Jack Ross had not paid off.
But the emphasis is on the football again, especially when Maguire fired home from 20 yards after the bustling Charlie Wyke made room and laid the ball off on the edge of the area.
Parkinson said: “We grew into the first half and sped the game up in the second half and when we did that there was only one winner. It is a deserved win against a good team. Chris has a calmness to win tight games and he is clinical in those situations. We took points off our rivals here and I am pleased we got stronger.
“We can feel momentum building. I have pleased the lads responded to losing last week. No excuses. We ran them into the ground second half.” The home side took charge after the break, Lynden Gooch conjured a brilliant dribble cutting in from the right but his curling shot hit the post and Wyke failed to connect well with the rebound.
Sunderland hit the bar again when Bailey Wright smashed too high from eight yards out in the best chance of the game. Tractor Boys boss Paul Lambert said: “We were excellent in the first half and should have been two up.”
The former Aston Villa and Norwich added: “We were trying to walk it in to the net – we have to pull the trigger. You earn your corn at the top end of the pitch.
“We were winning games. “Now we have to hunt teams down and see if they can handle being chased.”