Championship roundup: Chaplin strikes early at Blackburn to send Ipswich top
Ipswich kept their automatic promotion bid on track after Conor Chaplin’s 13th goal of the season gave them a 1-0 win at Blackburn – and they ended Good Friday top of the Championship after Leeds’ draw at Watford in the late game.
Kieran McKenna, Ipswich’s manager, was delighted with the result, but less so with his side’s showing at Ewood Park. “You have to enjoy every win you get in the Championship,” he said. “The performance was mixed. I thought first half we started ever so well, especially after international duty – we imposed ourselves really well on the game. Blackburn had a counterthreat and they set up to give us problems through the middle of the pitch so we didn’t have it all our way.”
The struggling hosts, still looking for their first win under John Eustace, will feel aggrieved that they had goals in either half contentiously ruled out. The league’s top scorer, Sammie Szmodics, missed a glorious chance for Blackburn 11 minutes from time, but Ipswich dug in admirably to manage their eighth win in nine.
They hit the front in the ninth minute when Chaplin sprayed the ball out wide for Leif Davis and ran into the box to meet the defender’s low cross before letting fly with a firsttime shot that found the bottom corner, but Aynsley Pears somehow let the ball squirm beyond him. They should have had an early penalty when Callum Brittain tugged Nathan Broadhead back but referee Stuart Atwell waved play on.
Rovers thought they had equalised on the half hour when a flowing move ended with Tyrhys Dolan’s cut-back finding Joe Rankin-Costello who slotted home via a deflection but Szmodics was either adjudged to be obstructing the goalkeeper or deemed to be the one who deflected the ball.
Ipswich came out after the break with renewed purpose and Chaplin hammered a shot into the side netting within 20 seconds of the restart before Pears parried his curling effort a minute later.
Blackburn showed signs of life on the hour when Vaclav Hladky parried a cross into the path of Ben Chrisene but Chaplin got a vital touch before he could pull the trigger, and moments later, Szmodics whipped a first-time shot goalwards that Hladky tipped over the bar.
The home fans were incensed again in the 74th minute when Andrew Moran smashed in off the underside of the bar after Hladcky dropped a cross under pressure from Scott Wharton but the referee deemed it a foul from the Rovers defender.
“As the second half went on, it became tough,” McKenna added. “We knew there’d be tiredness in the group, and it became a challenging last 30 minutes. We didn’t control the game as we would have liked but sometimes you have to show that other side and I thought we did that really well.”
Emmanuel Latte Lath’s 90thminute equaliser secured a 1-1 draw for Middlesbrough to dent Southampton’s automatic promotion ambitions.
Adam Armstrong had seemingly fired Saints towards a 23rd victory of the season with his 30th goal contribution in the Championship this season – more than any other player. But the Ivorian Latte Lath nodded in his 10th goal of the campaign late on to extend Boro’s unbeaten run to five matches.
Sixth-placed Norwich came from behind to beat lowly Plymouth 2-1. Arygle had led through Morgan Whittaker’s 10th-minute opener but Josh Sargent equalised before an own goal from Ashley Phillips in the 74th minute.
Coventry and Preston both kept alive their hopes of snatching a playoff spot with victories. Ellis Simms continued his hot streak in front of goal with an early double in Coventry’s 3-1 win over struggling Huddersfield while Emil Riis struck twice to add to Duane Holmes’ opener in North End’s 3-0 victory against the bottom side, Rotherham.
Jimmy Dunne’s superb volley gave in added time QPR a dramatic 2-1 victory in the big battle at the bottom against Birmingham. Juninho Bacuna gave City the lead in the 62nd minute but Steve Cook equalised with a deflected effort three minutes later before Dunne fired in the winner from the edge of the box.
Birmingham remain just outside the bottom three after Sheffield Wednesday were pegged back in a 1-1 draw with Swansea. Bailey Cadamarteri gave the hosts the lead at Hillsborough four minutes before half-time but Jamal Lowe levelled in the 76th minute.
Second-half goals from Josh Laurent and Ki-Jana Hoever gave Stoke a precious 2-0 win at playoff chasing Hull to move the visitors five points clear of the bottom three.
Adil Aouchiche and Jobe Bellingham were on target for Sunderland in the first half in a 2-0 win at Cardiff while John Swift’s penalty rescued a point for West Brom in a 1-1 draw at Millwall.
The Lions were a goal ahead at the break thanks to a fine finish from Duncan Watmore but Swift converted from the spot in the 67th minute after Grady Diangana was fouled.