Championship League News
Jack Rudoni came on to score twice and edge Coventry a little closer to a Premier League return
2 min: Van Ewijk looks long for Simms. Clarke intercepts. Then Esse hassles Ward down the left and forces the first corner of the match. Coventry have scored 24 goals from set pieces this season, the division’s best … but this one comes to nothing.
Derby get the ball rolling. The CBS Arena roaring.
Continue reading...Wrexham rally against West Brom to boost playoff push
Leicester earn precious point against Preston
Jack Rudoni came off the bench to score twice as Championship leaders Coventry moved 11 points clear of second-placed Millwall with a 3-2 victory against Derby.
The midfielder had been out of action since 28 February but returned to devastating effect as Coventry made it eight wins in nine league outings.
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The Championship – a league so chaotic it makes a piano falling down some stairs resemble a Zen garden – resumes with an old-fashioned Easter weekend double header. Automatic promotion, playoff places and the drop into the abyss all remain up for grabs, with only beleaguered Sheffield Wednesday’s relegation rubber-stamped as the contenders jockey for position on entering the home straight. Not a Stone Island jacket will go unworn as fans of all 24 clubs proudly get the badge in before heading off to support their teams over a hectic bank holiday schedule. At the top, Frank Lampard’s Coventry City are in the box seat for automatic promotion, with an 11-point cushion between them and Ipswich Town in third. They will fancy their chances of at least maintaining the gap in tomorrow night’s televised Geographically Quite Near Each Other But Not Really A Derby derby against, er, Derby County. With no Good Friday game due to Southampton’s weekend FA Cup appointment with Arsenal, Ipswich will have additional time to de-Farage Portman Road for Monday’s visit of Birmingham.
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Continue reading...Veteran returns to club 44 years after being sacked
‘It boils down to two words: energy and enthusiasm’
Roy Hodgson insisted he does not require “a crutch” after making a shock return to Bristol City at 78 years old and believes he is healthier than when last coaching two years ago, when he was taken ill at Crystal Palace. The former England manager, who took training at the Championship club for the first time on Monday, has taken interim charge for the final seven games of the season.
Hodgson left Palace in February 2024, four days after collapsing at training, but he was tempted out of retirement by Richard Scudamore, the former Premier League chief executive who joined City’s board last October. Hodgson was at home in Richmond, west London, when he received a message out of the blue from Scudamore, a lifelong City fan, asking if he could pick his brains.
Continue reading...Hodgson replaces Gerhard Struber for rest of season
He last managed second-tier club back in 1982
Roy Hodgson has made a sensational return to management at the age of 78 with Bristol City after Gerhard Struber was sacked by the Championship club.
Hodgson, who has been out of work since leaving Crystal Palace in February 2024, will take charge of City for the remaining seven games of the season. They are currently 16th in the Championship.
Continue reading...Reform’s use of the football club has shocked fans and left the ownership red faced but how did it happen?
When photographs of Nigel Farage’s visit to Portman Road went viral on Tuesday morning, a wave of shock quickly spread among Ipswich Town’s staff. Some were furious, others genuinely devastated by the carelessness that saw the club allow itself to be leveraged for Reform UK’s political gain. The anger was palpable and hardly assuaged by an email sent to employees by the chief executive, Mark Ashton, who sought to douse the fire by stating there had been no intention to endorse Farage nor his policies.
The problem for Ipswich is that the horse has bolted. At best, they were grievously naive in letting Farage and his social media team run amok after arriving for a pre-booked stadium tour; a less generous reading would be that they simply stood by and let it happen, fully aware of Reform’s propensity to create sensation from the smallest gulp of oxygen. A photo of Farage holding an Ipswich shirt aloft, seemingly in their press conference room, was swiftly emblazoned as the banner on his party’s X account. Before long Farage, ever the opportunist, was launching a video from the scene and cockily linking himself with the Ipswich manager’s job.
Continue reading...Wrexham owners Mac and Reynolds helped commentate
‘Buildup and coverage of the game left a lot to be desired’
Swansea’s chief executive has said the club will raise concerns over television coverage of their game against Wrexham with the English Football League (EFL), with Tom Gorringe saying the team owned by Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds “were given priority at every opportunity”.
Wrexham won the Championship match 2-0 on a night when Mac and Reynolds provided alternative commentary alongside the Sky presenter David Prutton, marketed as “Live from Wrexham with Rob & Ryan”. Sky Sports trailed the live commentary – which ran on one of its channels with the usual match coverage on its main platform – as “part of a first-of-its kind broadcast”.
Continue reading...Coventry win 3-0 at Swansea, Boro held by Blackburn
QPR put six past Portsmouth, Wrexham see off Blades
Kieran McKenna was left rueing missed chances after Ipswich’s promotion-rivals Millwall took a point home from a 1-1 draw at Portman Road.
Their opener came in the first half from Jack Clarke, with Millwall responding early in the second period through Josh Coburn. The result means Ipswich remain third, level on 69 points with their opponents in fourth, but Town have a game in hand.
Continue reading...Watford inflicted Wrexham’s first league defeat of the year with a 3-1 victory to maintain their Championship playoff push. Goals from Marc Bola and Edo Kayembe did the damage for the Hornets and, although Max Cleworth pulled a goal back, Edoardo Bove scored his first Watford goal in stoppage time.
The hosts made four changes from their defeat at Stoke, with Mattie Pollock, Luca Kjerrumgaard, Nestory Irankunda and Pierre Ekwah, for his full debut, coming in. Wrexham made one change from their Welsh derby victory against Swansea, with Ryan Longman replacing Issa Kaboré.
Continue reading...No one could find the net as Burnley and Bournemouth, while Brighton were fortunate to win at Sunderland
Wolves might have their four Gomeses but Sunderland are fighting back with a trio of Joneses.
Sunderland: Ellborg; Geertruida, Ballard, Alderete, Hume; Xhaka, Sadiki; Diarra, Rigg, Talbi; Brobbey
Continue reading...Coventry 1-2 Southampton
Bristol City equalise in sixth minute of added time at Boro
In-form Southampton ended Coventry’s six-match winning run with a 2-1 victory at the CBS Arena. Flynn Downes pounced on a rebound to open the scoring shortly after half-time before Kuryu Matsuki doubled Southampton’s lead with five minutes remaining.
Victor Torp’s stoppage-time penalty gave the leaders hope but they fell to their second home defeat of the season and Southampton extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 12.
Continue reading...Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds called the game in the commentary box as their team called the shots on the pitch
Wrexham get the ball rolling. “There’s going to be a lot of goals,” says Rob Mac. The first rule of football commentary, Do Not Tempt Fate, recklessly kicked to touch from the get-go.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac take to the mic on Sky Sports Football. They’ve got regular presenter David Prutton alongside them during the build-up, which seems a bit of a cop out, but presumably he’ll be taking a back seat soon enough. Meanwhile, the teams are out! Wrexham in red, Swansea in white. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes. “I wish Snoop Dogg all the best in his investment in Swansea City,” begins Peter Oh. “I hope he’ll simply appreciate the beauty and atmosphere of the game rather than get caught up in statistics and metrics. Nuthin’ but an xG Thang just wouldn’t be as good as the original.”
Continue reading...The Gillingham owner, Brad Galinson, issues warning and wants to find a fix as costs spiral amid ‘the Wrexham effect’
Brad Galinson has a warning for anyone looking to invest in English football’s lower leagues. “Almost every single club in the EFL is about seven days away from suffering the same fate as Sheffield Wednesday,” the Gillingham owner says. “Everyone is chasing dreams.”
Many have blamed the “Wrexham effect” for spiralling costs as investors from all over the world have flocked to buy clubs down the pyramid. Only two in League One have a playing budget of less than £3.5m this season compared with 13 two years ago, and several are thought to be operating on more than £10m.
Continue reading...Coventry beat Preston 3-0 to go eight points clear
Boro lose ground with 1-0 home defeat by Charlton
Coventry moved eight points clear at the top of the Championship with a 3-0 win over struggling Preston. Goals from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Brandon Thomas-Asante in the first half were followed by Matt Grimes’s penalty after half-time for their 23rd win of the season.
Coventry’s sixth consecutive win opened up an eight-point gap to second-placed Middlesbrough, who lost 1-0 at home to Charlton, and returned them nine points clear of third-placed Millwall.
Continue reading...Sakamoto and Wright give leaders victory at Bristol City
Lions close to within a point of Boro with 3-1 away win
First half goals from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Haji Wright strengthened Coventry’s position at the top of the Championship as they won 2-0 at Bristol City in a match that ended with both teams reduced to 10 men.
The visitors took a 37th minute lead when the former Robins player Jay Dasilva crossed from the left and Sakamoto outjumped his marker to net with a downward header. Coventry’s task was made more difficult when Joel Latibeaudiere was sent off in the 43rd minute for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, pulling back Emil Riis. But in first-half added time the Sky Blues doubled their advantage when Wright eluded a weak challenge before beating Radek Vitek with a low right-footed drive.
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