Championship
• Steve Cotterill was in the stands at the KCom Stadium to see the enormity of his task as the new Birmingham City manager, having been appointed on Friday to take charge of the struggling Blues. He watched them receive a 6-1 thumping from Hull City sparked by Fraizer Campbell’s seventh-minute opener, in a rout that keeps Birmingham in the bottom three. Cotterill will need all his 20 years of managerial experience to reinvigorate a piecemeal squad patched together by three different managers who have accrued only one win in their past nine Championship games. The result brought timely relief for the Hull manager Leonid Slutsky, ending the Tigers’ five-match winless run.
• Wolves’ Portuguese revolution is back on track. They had been in brilliant form until losing to Sheffield United in midweek but returned to winning ways in style at the Pirelli Stadium, where they crushed Burton Albion 4-0 to move within a point of the Championship leaders, Cardiff City, who drew a blank with Derby County. Wolves, who started the game with six players from Portugal, got off the mark quickly through Diogo Jota’s fired finish and Romain Saïss’s tap-in before Ruben Vinagre and Leo Bonatini wrapped up the points. Aston Villa recorded the same result in midweek at Burton, who have failed to score in the three games since losing 4-1 to Manchester United in the EFL Cup.
• This was no vintage performance by Aston Villa and on another day Bolton might have taken something from the West Midlands, but a slightly improved Wanderers performance will be little solace for manager Phil Parkinson. Bolton lost 1-0 after Jonathan Kodjia held his nerve to score a decisive 39th-minute penalty. These are desperate times for Bolton – they remain bottom without a win, or goal, in eight matches. Villa’s resurgence continues, however, and Steve Bruce’s side are now only a point outside the play-offs and are the Championship’s form team after collecting 12 points from their past four games.
• Sheffield United continue to blow hot and cold and on Saturday it was the latter, beaten 2-1 by Nottingham Forest at the City Ground despite John Lundstram handing the Blades a lead within three minutes; Jason Cummings and Kieran Dowell turned the match around. Preston drew 2-2 with Sunderland after a helter-skelter second half at Deepdale, and Bristol City took advantage to climb fifth with an impressive 3-1 away win at Ipswich.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cardiff | 11 | 8 | 24 |
| 2 | Wolverhampton | 11 | 8 | 23 |
| 3 | Sheff Utd | 11 | 5 | 21 |
| 4 | Leeds | 10 | 10 | 20 |
| 5 | Bristol City | 11 | 9 | 20 |
Results: Aston Villa 1-0 Bolton, Burton 0-4 Wolves, Cardiff 0-0 Derby, Hull 6-1 Birmingham, Ipswich 1-3 Bristol City, Middlesbrough 2-2 Brentford, Millwall 1-3 Barnsley, Nottingham Forest 2-1 Sheffield United, Preston 2-2 Sunderland.
League One
• Shrewsbury Town are beginning to enter the sort of territory where winning is simply expected of them. The side who Paul Hurst dragged off the bottom of the table last season to finish 18th remain on top of League One by four points following a 2-0 win over Scunthorpe, and their astonishing form is showing no signs of slowing. Stefan Payne delivered again with his fifth goal of the season – he has scored every 94 League One minutes – when he pounced on a rebound before Carlton Morris wrapped up the points.
• This was a day of relief for Pep Clotet’s Oxford United, who had been on a terrible run of form and looked set for their fourth successive defeat when they reached the break 1-0 down at Peterborough. But the Spaniard obviously chose the right words as a rampant second-half performance delivered a 4-1 win, rounded off by Agon Mehmeti’s first goal for the club.
• Eoin Doyle returned to Fratton Park to down his former club with both goals for Oldham in a 2-1 victory which hauls them out of the bottom four. Portsmouth’s top scorer, Brett Pitman, struck with his ninth of the season in the 90th minute but Pompey could not find an equaliser.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shrewsbury | 11 | 10 | 29 |
| 2 | Wigan | 11 | 14 | 25 |
| 3 | Bradford | 11 | 6 | 23 |
| 4 | Peterborough | 11 | 5 | 20 |
| 5 | Charlton | 11 | 4 | 20 |
Results: Blackburn 1-0 Gillingham, Bradford 2-0 Doncaster, Bristol Rovers 2-1 Plymouth, Bury 0-2 MK Dons, Fleetwood 1-3 Charlton, Peterborough 1-4 Oxford, Portsmouth 1-2 Oldham, Rotherham 1-0 Northampton, Shrewsbury 2-0 Scunthorpe, Southend 2-1 Blackpool, Wigan 2-0 Walsall, Wimbledon 0-0 Rochdale.
League Two
• The leaders, Notts County, had their impressive run emphatically ended by Mansfield at Field Mill. Two Danny Rose strikes and a Richard Duffy own goal put Town 3-0 in front before Carl Dickinson notched a consolation in added time. Kevin Nolan’s side remain top on goal difference but Exeter took the chance to make up ground with a 4-1 win over Morecambe. Jayden Stockley scored twice including a fine strike at the end of a slick team move.
• All of the current top nine – other than Notts County – won, including Coventry who kept up the pressure at the top with a 1-0 victory over Crewe thanks to Duckens Nazon’s hammer inside 10 minutes, and Accrington who had their captain Seamus Conneely to thank when he broke the deadlock against a stubborn Forest Green with a brilliant strike off the post just before the hour.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Notts County | 11 | 10 | 25 |
| 2 | Exeter | 11 | 8 | 25 |
| 3 | Accrington Stanley | 11 | 7 | 23 |
| 4 | Coventry | 11 | 8 | 22 |
| 5 | Luton | 11 | 11 | 21 |
Results: Grimsby 0-0 Lincoln, Mansfield 3-1 Notts County, Chesterfield 0-2 Cheltenham, Coventry 1-0 Crewe, Crawley 0-1 Crewe, Exeter 4-1 Morecambe, Forest Green 0-1 Accrington, Luton 3-1 Newport, Stevenage 2-0 Port Vale, Swindon 2-0 Cambridge, Wycombe 3-1 Barnet, Yeovil 0-1 Colchester.
