Category: Championship League

• Wrexham roar back to win 5-3; Coventry stretch lead

• Ipswich and Millwall draw; Bristol City beat Albion

Kieffer Moore struck twice against his old club as Wrexham recovered from 3-1 down to beat Sheffield United 5-3 in a late afternoon Boxing Day thriller at STōK Cae Ras. Patrick Bamford had looked like stealing the headlines with a well-taken early double for the visitors but Wrexham powered back to claim their first win in six league outings.

With his short-term contract due to expire on New Year’s Day, Bamford put himself in the shop window as he scored either side of a Tyler Bindon own goal. Callum O’Hare added a third for Chris Wilder’s side but Wrexham responded through Moore and levelled through Ryan Longman. Moore put them ahead for the first time and a Josh Windass penalty completed the fightback.

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⚽ Coventry win as Ipswich, Middlesbrough and Hull are held
⚽ Mo Salah strikes from the spot as Egypt beat South Africa

• Match report: Middlesbrough 0-0 Blackburn Rovers

• Championship round-up: Coventry go eight points clear

Championship: Despite failing to properly get his head to a free-kick aimed towards the far post, Jack Robinson somehow manages to take advantage of some slapstick defending to bundle the ball over the line anyway and equalise for Birmingham City against 10-man Derby County. It’s as scruffy a goal as you’ll ever see but the home fans at St Andrew’s won’t care.

Millwall 0-0 Ipswich Town: It’s half-time at the Den, where the deadlock between Millwall and Ipswich remains resolutely unbroken.

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• Rowett leaves after a year with club two points from safety

• Oxford have one win from their past 10 matches

Oxford have sacked Gary Rowett with the club 22nd in the Championship, two points from safety. The former Birmingham, Derby, Stoke and Millwall manager was appointed on 20 December 2024 and kept the club in the second tier last season.

Oxford’s chairman, Grant Ferguson, told the club’s website: “Gary joined during a challenging period and deserves immense credit for the hard work and leadership that saw us retain our Championship status last season. However, following a disappointing run of results, we have had to take this difficult decision in the best interests of the club.”

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• Coventry manager reacted to Southampton fans’ taunts

• ‘Their fans gave me a bit … I gave them a bit back’

Frank Lampard admitted he was “out of order” after he sparked a post-match melee following Coventry’s 1-1 draw at Southampton. The home supporters had targeted the visitors’ manager with abuse in the latter stages of the match and, after the full-time whistle, Lampard went on to the pitch and repeatedly gestured to them, which led to players reacting.

“I was probably emotional,” said Lampard of his reaction to being called “a shit Steven Gerrard”. “The fans had given me a bit in the last 10 minutes and I went on the pitch to give them a bit back. It was really out of order but I wouldn’t have had as long in this game if I wasn’t sometimes emotional on the pitch, and not a bad bloke off it.

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• Winger’s 65-yard lob helps Foxes to 3-1 win

• Coventry stay top; Boro tighten grip on second

Abdul Fatawu scored from inside his own half as Leicester cruised to a 3-1 win against Ipswich at the King Power Stadium. Fatawu’s remarkable lob from about 65 yards doubled Leicester’s lead two minutes before half-time, after Bobby De Cordova-Reid lashed home from distance on eight minutes.

Leicester sealed the points on 52 minutes when Jordan Ayew converted Ricardo Pereira’s cutback before substitute Jens Cajuste scored for the visitors after an error from goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk.

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With the arrival of US hedge funders at Wrexham, there is no pretence any more. This is just another project, as it always was

Tea and cake. Cobble-close streets. Collectivism. Sugar rush. Hollywood fairytales. And also, as of this week, a minority owner with historical links to celebrity paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Wait! Welsh cakes! Welsh tea! Aggregated tourism benefits. The sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. And also, at one remove, historical links to deceased celebrity paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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• Lampard tells Coventry players to stay ‘level-headed’

• Boro win at Charlton; Millwall denied by late own goal

Frank Lampard insisted the title race was never over after his Coventry side were frustrated in a 1-1 draw at 10-man Preston as their Championship lead was reduced to five points.

After Andrew Hughes deflected Jack Rudoni’s shot into his own net, it seemed as if Coventry would bounce back strongly from their 3-0 defeat by Ipswich at the weekend. But despite that, and the man advantage after Liam Lindsay was sent off for dragging back Haji Wright when he was through on goal, Daniel Jebbison struck late to help Middlesbrough to move to within five points of the top.

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• For second time this season, rain ends Rovers match early

• Hosts were again leading match when referee halted play

Blackburn’s match against Sheffield Wednesday was abandoned with the hosts leading 1-0 due to a waterlogged pitch, the second time that has happened this season.

Blackburn came into the game four days after fulfilling the rearranged fixture against Ipswich, a game they were also originally on course to win 1-0. This time, Yuki Ohashi’s fifth goal of the campaign had given them the lead in the 33rd minute.

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• Supporter had been taken ill during first half at Valley

• Clubs pay tribute after fan passes away in hospital

A Charlton supporter has died after being taken ill during the club’s abandoned Championship fixture against Portsmouth. The fan was treated by medical staff in the stands before being taken to hospital, but it was later confirmed the person had died.

The 12.30pm kick-off was paused in the 12th minute, when the score was goalless, after the referee Matthew Donohue was made aware of the severity of the incident in the lower tier of the Covered End by supporters who shouted to attract his attention. The match official then took the players off the pitch six minutes later. It was announced at 1.30pm that play would not resume.

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• Under-21 coach has overseen improvement in form

• ‘We go all in’ for promotion, Eckert says

Southampton have appointed their under-21 coach Tonda Eckert as manager with a contract taking him through to 2027, the Championship club announced on Friday.

The 32-year-old German has changed the team’s fortunes since taking over as interim coach last month following Will Still’s dismissal, guiding them to four wins in five matches.

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Manchester City, Brentford and Sunderland all win, while Championship leaders Coventry City come from behind to record another victory

Manchester City v Leeds United: A lovely dank Mancunian afternoon with a low cloud and the whispers of bygone Manchester City matchdays in the east of town as Pep Guardiola sends out an XI in an hour or so that will not certainly show the same 10 changes as the dire Bayer Leverkusen defeat on Tuesday here at the Etihad Stadium.

Expect many of the manager’s big guns to be reinstated and intent on downing Leeds and arresting the two-game run of losses. Think Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku etc, and so on …

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• Coventry stay 10 points clear with win over Charlton

• Gelhardt’s Hull winner sparks mass confrontation

Coventry maintained their 10-point lead at the top of the Championship with a 3-1 victory over Charlton. Harvey Knibbs put the visitors ahead before Josh Eccles and Ellis Simms completed a first-half turnaround for the hosts. Simms added his second with 15 minutes to go to make it five goals in three games.

“I’m really pleased,” said their manager, Frank Lampard. “Tough match to go 1-0 down, from a set-piece, the first threat that they had. But I thought the attitude of the players to keep playing in the first half was good, they moved the ball well. We’re a positive team, we try to create chances, we try to play with speed and with a good pre-season the players understand what we want to be, how we want to train and we’ve managed to score a lot of goals.”

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• Blades beat Portsmouth after owners’ merger statement

• Wednesday rock bottom following defeat at Millwall

Sheffield United lifted themselves out of the Championship’s relegation zone on the day their owners reiterated their desire to take the club to the Premier League with a 3-0 win against 10-man Portsmouth.

Patrick Bamford scored on his full United debut, turning home a scrappy rebound early in the second half for his first goal in 19 months, after Sydie Peck’s penalty had given the Blades a 1-0 interval lead. Peck converted his first senior goal for the club after the Pompey defender Terry Devlin had been shown a straight red card for handling on the goalline shortly before half-time.

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• Kitching and Sims strike late for league leaders

• Southampton’s Eckert makes it four out of four

Late goals from Liam Kitching and Ellis Simms helped Coventry to extend their advantage at the top of the Championship table with a 4-2 win against Middlesbrough.

The Sky Blues landed two early blows in the opening 15 minutes, going ahead through Simms’s stunning top-corner strike and Kitching’s header.

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• Boro pay £250,000 to bring him from Hammarby

• Swansea appoint Matos after missing out on Hellberg

Kim Hellberg has completed his managerial move to Middlesbrough from Hammarby. The 37-year-old Swede, who appeared poised to take charge at Swansea until Boro’s hijacking of that mooted deal, will aim to reinforce a reputation as one of Europe’s brightest emerging coaches.

After securing two consecutive second-place finishes in Sweden’s top tier at Hammarby, Hellberg has become something of a hot property and is tasked with leading second-placed Boro back into the Premier League.

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