Championship roundup: Ten-man QPR edge thriller; Forest beaten again
QPR continued their unbeaten start to the Championship season with a 3-2 win at Middlesbrough despite falling behind and being reduced to 10 men.
Moses Odubajo was shown a second yellow card in the 50th minute. That formed part of a dramatic second half which caught fire when the Middlesbrough captain Jonny Howson turned Lee Wallace’s cross into his own net to cancel out Uche Ikpeazu’s seventhminute penalty for the hosts.
Six minutes after Odubajo was sent off, QPR took the lead when the Scotland international striker Lyndon Dykes hammered the ball low through his former teammate Joe Lumley’s legs and into the net.
It looked like Middlesbrough would still make the extra man count when Matt Crooks’ cool finish levelled things up again after 72 minutes. But less than four minutes later Chris Willock, who set up QPR’s second, found the net himself with a calm finish into the bottom corner to give his side seven points from nine.
Nottingham Forest suffered a third straight Championship defeat as Blackburn claimed a 2-1 win at the City Ground.
Philip Zinckernagel looked to have earned Chris Hughton’s side a point when he hammered Forest level in the 69th minute, to cancel out Daniel Ayala’s goal, which had come two minutes into the second half.
But Hughton will now find himself under pressure after Darragh Lenihan’s 86th-minute header piled on the misery for his side, with their situation compounded when Jordan Gabriel
collected a second yellow card in the 90th minute.
After the match Hughton addressed the growing disquiet among Forest’s fans at their dismal start to the season. “I can understand that. It comes with it. It’s a brilliant crowd here and a very vocal crowd. They’re a very passionate crowd,” he said.
“When things are going well and they are behind you, it’s the best thing. But when things are not going well, it’s a passionate crowd, and you have to accept that. You have to accept the difficult times and the rough with the smooth.”
Dominic Solanke and Jaidon Anthony showed the Bournemouth manager Scott Parker there is life without wantaway striker Arnaut Danjuma after hitting late goals to claim a 2-0 win at Birmingham.
With last season’s fellow joint-top Bournemouth scorer Danjuma reportedly on the verge of sealing a move to Europa League winners Villarreal, Solanke’s classy 77th-minute finish put the visitors ahead.
Former Arsenal trainee Anthony, 21, sealed the points by hooking home Bournemouth’s second after 87 minutes for his first professional goal.
Debutant Sam Baldock ended Derby’s nine-game winless run without a Championship victory by securing a 1-0 triumph at Hull. The 32-year-old forward, who did not manage to find the net in any of his 23 outings for Reading last season, settled the contest with a predatory 57th-minute finish.