Category: Championship League

• Vardy a free agent after departing Cremonese

• Plans to play on despite burgeoning media career

Jamie Vardy has returned to English football after signing for Burnley in the Championship as a free agent.

Vardy, who will be 40 in January, has signed a contract until the end of the season, having spent last season at Cremonese in Italy. A return to Leicester, where he spent 13 years and was a Premier League champion in 2016 and an FA Cup winner in 2021, was mooted in the summer, only for Vardy to rule out a reunion.

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• Burnley 1-2 Bristol City, West Ham 3-0 Derby

• Middlesbrough defeat QPR, Norwich and West Brom win

Nicky Hayen has told his under-fire Burnley players they need to dig deep to come through “a really difficult situation” after a 2-1 defeat at home by Bristol City left them rock bottom of the Championship.

The Turf Moor crowd vented their anger – most vehemently towards the owner, Alan Pace – after Aaron Ramsey’s 56th-minute opener for the Clarets was overturned by an 82nd-minute header from Rob Dickie and a brilliant stoppage-time strike from City substitute Yu Hirakawa.

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Erling Haaland scored his 300th club goal while Crystal Palace’s left wing-backs grabbed the glory at Craven Cottage

Iliman Ndiaye starts for City after joining from Everton in the week. Phil Foden drops out and will be joined on the bench by City’s other big signing, Enzo Fernandez.

Coventry bring in Ethan Pinnock and Frank Onyeka for Caleb Yirenki and Loum Tchaouna.

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From Maynor Figueroa’s son Keyrol at Wigan to Spurs’s Irish forward Melia at Lincoln and Stockport keeper Whatmuff, we look at nine to keep an eye on

Goalkeepers are supposed to peak at about 30, which makes one wonder how good the 18-year-old Whatmuff will be at that point. He spent last season playing professionally, earning promotion from the National League with Rochdale under the tutelage of Jimmy McNulty. When the manager jumped two divisions to Stockport, Whatmuff was the first person he wanted to take with him. City showed how highly they think of Whatmuff by incorporating him within their pre-season tour travelling party, where he worked closely with Gianluigi Donnarumma. Whatmuff is extremely composed with the ball at his feet, unfazed by pressure and his surroundings. Those who have worked with him are confident he will spend his career in the Premier League and win full international honours.

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• Charlton beat Preston to maintain 100% record

• Millwall take lead at St Mary’s but Southampton win 5-1

Charlton moved to the top of the table with a 1-0 victory against struggling Preston. Karlan Grant’s first goal for Charlton since rejoining on a free transfer from West Brom ensured that the south Londoners are the only side in the division still boasting a 100% record.

It is the first time that Charlton have won their opening three matches in the second tier since the 1992-93 campaign.

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West Brom’s head coach, James Morrison, insisted his side must “stay humble” after Isaac Price inspired them to a 3-1 comeback win against promotion favourites Burnley in the Championship at the Hawthorns. The Northern Ireland international scored twice in the second half after setting up Harry Whitwell’s equaliser to cancel out Callum Styles’s early own goal.

“I felt it was a top performance. I enjoyed it at times for the intensity with the lads willing to run for each other,” Morrison said. “We did the basics really well – we won tackles, and when we lost the ball, we ran back and when the opportunities were given to us, we took advantage.

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• Wolves sink teeth into Preston; Blackburn stun Boro

• Southampton’s late show leaves Stoke pointless

Charlton maintained their perfect start to the Championship season with a 2-1 victory at West Ham in a pulsating London derby to pile more pressure on the Hammers manager, Nuno Espírito Santo.

Lloyd Jones and Tyreece Campbell put Charlton 2-0 ahead before Joel Piroe, signed on loan from Leeds, marked his first appearance for the home side with a goal that set up a frantic finish. Taty Castellanos then missed a stoppage-time penalty for West Ham that would have salvaged a point.

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Rubin Colwill scored a ferocious equaliser with almost the final kick of the match to earn Cardiff a 1-1 Championship draw with Wrexham.

Wrexham appeared to have the Welsh derby bragging rights sewn up as the contest ticked into the eighth minute of added time at Cardiff City Stadium.

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• Live updates from the 4pm kick-off at Turf Moor

• Seven Championship players to watch | Mail Tim

The colour scheme. Burnley are in claret and blue, naturally. West Ham are in their third strip, which is pale, swirly and makes each player look like a box of washing powder.

The players are out there and a lot of fists are being bumped.

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• Lankshear ends Lincoln’s nine-month unbeaten run

• Millwall start with 2-0 win over 10-man Bristol City

Will Lankshear scored a second-half double on his debut as Middlesbrough fought back to kick off their Championship campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 victory, ending promoted Lincoln’s remarkable nine-month unbeaten run.

The Imps – playing their first second-tier match in 65 years – made a strong start and opened the scoring in the 12th minute through Adam Reach. But the former Tottenham forward Lankshear marked his first league appearance since his move to the Riverside by equalising just after the hour and then stabbing in a stoppage-time winner.

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⚽ The EFL returns for a new season
⚽ Championship roundup | Wolves 2-2 Blackburn

FULL TIME: Notts County 1-1 Leicester City. No flying start for Russell Martin and his League One Foxes.

GOAL! Reading 3-4 Luton Town (Kodua 90+6). Gideon Kodua completes the comeback for Luton! He comes in from the left and crashes a shot off the crossbar. The ball rebounds and bagatelles awhile, before Kodua has a second go, and slots from six yards! Luton were 3-1 down at the break!

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Raúl Jiménez marked his return to Wolves with the stoppage-time equaliser that saved them from an embarrassing start to their return to the Championship. The Mexico striker, who scored against England during the World Cup, came off the bench to convert a penalty given for handball by Ryan Alebiosu that would have had VAR questioning whether the defender was in the area when Jackson Tchatchoua’s cross struck his arm.

One minor consolation from Wolves’ relegation is that the video assistant referee is no longer their problem. Jiménez, who had bought scarves for all supporters in the South Bank in gratitude for their welcome home, tucked away his first goal in this second spell for the club he graced during their recent heyday before leaving for Fulham.

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Lincoln’s joint head coaches, Tom Shaw and Chris Cohen, hope Championship rivals underestimate ‘amazing squad’

The last thing the Championship needs is another spying scandal, so when a lorry emblazoned with KGB parked up alongside Lincoln City’s training ground on Tuesday lunchtime there was laughter as staff pondered whether the Soviet Union was examining their set pieces. It shows the relaxed atmosphere at one of the second tier’s newest clubs, one that has had a summer of change yet maintained continuity by appointing joint head coaches.

Tom Shaw and Chris Cohen have replaced Michael Skubala, who led the Imps to 103 points and promotion back to this level after 65 years away before leaving for Bristol City. It was a symbiotic appointment because while the former assistants were devising a sales pitch to the club’s hierarchy, the wheels were already in motion to promote from within. Their plan is to banish English football’s memories of Liverpool’s ill-fated pairing of Roy Evans and Gérard Houllier. The duo are doing final preparations for Saturday’s season opener at the Riverside against Middlesbrough, who have spent more than £20m on summer signings – Lincoln have spent a quarter of that across their 142-year history, indicating the task ahead.

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The former England full-back is back in the Championship after 12 years away, hoping to lead Wolves out of it

When the question inevitably comes, Kieran Trippier is happy to set the record straight. Fresh from training, head to toe in Wolves kit – vest, shorts and club-branded sliders – he walks into a suite at their Compton Park base, conversation soon shifting to an episode that rocked supporters and stopped outsiders in their tracks: three days after signing, the manager Trippier cited as a significant driver behind his decision to drop into the second tier, Rob Edwards, had been sacked. All the while, a deal for his replacement, César Peixoto, was being accelerated.

“I’m not going to sit here and lie, I wasn’t expecting it,” Trippier says. “But it’s the club’s decision. I had good chats with Rob, of course, but I’m here to play for Wolves. There are many surprises in football and that certainly was a surprise, I’m not going to deny that. But I just cracked on, I was with my kids on holiday, training in Mallorca and just looking forward to day one in pre-season.”

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A mixed picture at the clubs coming down, more playoff places to encourage the pack – and the long shadow of spygate at Southampton

The relegated teams, naturally, will be the favourites to go back up but two have endured confusing summers. Jarrod Bowen committing to West Ham was a bonus and the quality available to Nuno Espírito Santo should make bouncing back straightforward for the calmest of the clubs to have dropped down. They brought in huge fees for Crysencio Summerville and Mateus Fernandes but incoming activity has been pedestrian, which is the only minor cause of concern.

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