Category: Championship League

The 74-year-old who kept Town up last season is not finished despite his early exit and has been replaced by Darren Moore

In many ways, it ended how it started seven months earlier for Neil Warnock at Huddersfield Town. Few managers get the chance to leave a club as they arrived, a bona fide hero. Barely any get the chance to do that twice. But Warnock, as we have come to learn over the past four decades, is not a man cut from the same cloth as many of his contemporaries.

When he held court with the press for the first time after returning to Huddersfield in February on a short-term deal, it was hard not to feel this was the final act of an unforgettable managerial career. Sure, Warnock has promised each of his past three or four jobs would be his last but this, coming in to save from relegation a club with whom he won promotion in the 1990s, felt like a fairytale ending.

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Bristol City player-coach goes back on Saturday to club where he spent 16 years, rising from League One to a Premier League title

Andy King knows a cocktail of emotions awaits on Saturday at the King Power Stadium and that his first trip to Leicester City, the club which shaped him, as an opposition player is guaranteed to evoke memories. “It is going to be strange,” says the Bristol City midfielder, who this summer assumed a player-coach role. “I think it will be emotional. I had a lot of happiness in that ground, some sadness as well; Vichai’s helicopter [crash] was at that stadium and that guy changed my life. I’m looking forward to going out on to the pitch and in my mind, for a split-second, reliving all of those amazing memories that made me who I am. Maybe I’ll go back out there and have a moment with myself after the game.”

King’s 16-year association with Leicester, which began in digs on Aylestone Road after impressing on trial as a 15-year-old during February half term and culminated with him lifting the Premier League trophy, came to an abrupt end in July 2020. Coronavirus restrictions denied him the opportunity to say farewell to the familiar faces who helped him on his journey. “The advice was like ‘travel if absolutely necessary’, wasn’t it? So as much as I wanted to go back, me going back to say bye to the people behind the scenes – those who worked in the kitchen at the training ground for 10 years or the stadium staff – it was not essential.” This weekend though, he stresses, will not be akin to a testimonial. “It is not a sort of parade for me to go back to Leicester. I want Bristol City to win.”

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• Iheanacho and McAteer goals make it six wins from seven
• Leeds held at Hull after Rodon red, Sunderland go fourth

Leicester climbed to within a point of Championship leaders Preston with a 2-0 win at promotion rivals Norwich.

Kelechi Iheanacho fired Leicester in front from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time after Christian Fassnacht’s challenge on Stephy Mavididi and Kasey McAteer added his fifth goal of the season in the closing stages. The Foxes made it back-to-back victories after their recent home defeat to Hull and have won six of their first seven league matches.

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• Lyndon Dykes’s late equaliser for QPR denies Swansea
• Ipswich move up to second with win at Southampton

Milutin Osmajic’s first goal in English football fired the Championship leaders Preston to a 2-1 comeback win against Birmingham.

Jay Stansfield’s strike in the opening minute of the second half threatened to end Preston’s unbeaten start to the season but the league leaders were on level terms when Krystian Bielik headed into his own net in the 51st minute.

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• Preston beat Plymouth 2-1; Ipswich beat Wednesday 1-0
• Victories over 10 men for Sunderland and Watford

Preston’s fine start to the Championship continued with their fifth straight victory, a 2-1 home win against Plymouth. Duane Holmes was straight out the blocks for the Lilywhites, scoring in the first minute, with Liam Millar doubling their lead going into the break and Ryan Hardie pulled one back for the Pilgrims, but three points meant Ryan Lowe’s side went back to the top of the table, replacing Leicester, 4-1 winners at Southampton on Friday.

Lowe praised Argyle as well as his own side, saying: “We knew they were going to have large parts of the ball, we didn’t do as well as we would have liked in the second half. It could have been 4-4 or 5-5, there were that many chances, we both did the right thing and tried to win.”

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Jamie Vardy grabbed his first Championship goal of the season as Leicester climbed to the top of the table with a 4-1 thrashing of Southampton.

Vardy needed just 21 seconds to open the scoring before Kasey McAteer, Wilfred Ndidi and Stephy Mavididi made it a dominant display for the visitors despite Sam Edozie’s goal.

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Ryan Lowe faces former club Plymouth for the first time on Saturday with his North End side flying high

Thursday morning at Preston North End’s Euxton training ground and there is “an absolute buzz around the place”, according to the manager, Ryan Lowe. For good reason. A new signing is in the building, the Montenegro striker Milutin Osmajic, who Lowe describes as like hugging a brick wall, while players and staff are catching up after the international break. The Championship table, however, explains the main reason for Preston’s positivity.

Top of the pile following a five-game unbeaten start, Lowe’s team are relishing their role as surprise early pace-setters of a notoriously competitive division. Preston could make it five league wins in succession on Saturday against Plymouth, their manager’s previous club. No one is getting carried away, there is almost 90% of the season left to play after all, but having risen to the summit despite losing several key players in the summer, and being struck by injuries to several more, Lowe is adamant a proud and historic club should enjoy the view.

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