The Championship
• The Championship game of the day came at the DW Stadium where Wigan took on Fulham and there were thrills, spills and a lot more besides. The home team took the lead thanks to a penalty converted by Adam Forshaw before Scott Parker set up Lasse Vigen Christensen to draw the sides level with a close-range effort. Five minutes later Bryan Ruiz put Fulham in front but Wigan drew level eight minutes after the restart thanks to Roger Espinoza. After that the game seemed to be spiralling out of control for Fulham. Ross McCormack picked up two yellow cards in the space of five minutes and Shaun Maloney came off the bench to give Wigan the lead with eight minutes remaining. Leon Barnett, however, was on hand to help. He took down Hugo Rodallega in the box, gave away a penalty and was punished with an early bath. Bryan Ruiz tucked away the spot-kick to earn his side a point.
• Fans of Ipswich can smile again now that their side have picked up a win against Blackpool, having drawn four and lost one of their previous five games. The Tractor Boys sealed the win with a goal in either half. David McGoldrick got the first after Ted Bishop scuffed his effort and Daryl Murphy, set up by Bishop, struck the second one, half an hour from time. That result means Blackpool are rooted to the bottom of the table with just six points from 15 games; not looking good is an understatement.
• A 3-1 win for Watford over Millwall means Slavisa Jokanovic’s side leapfrog Derby and sit pretty at the top of the table. Derby could have clung on to top spot had they come away with a win against mid-table Brentford but a first-time shot from Stuart Dallas in the fourth minute of stoppage time meant it was the Bees who took all the points. Elsewhere at the top of the table, Middlesbrough hammered 10-man Rotherham 3-0 and Birmingham kept their second clean sheet of the season as they frustrated Wolves at Molineux.
League One
• Bristol City extended their unbeaten run to an impressive 21 games thanks to a solitary strike from Kieran Agard in the win against Oldham. The winger finished off a well-worked free-kick and he was unlucky not to double his and his side’s total for the day with a shot from some way out. Preston, who stand in second, were two points behind City before the games kicked off but are now five behind after they lost to Rochdale. Goals from Jack O’Connell, Ian Henderson and Matt Done brought an end to their run of eight games without defeat and moved Rochdale up to fourth in the table.
• In another top-of-the-table match, Antony Kay picked a good time to score his first goal of the season as he struck the winner for MK Dons against Swindon. The Robins had taken the lead just six minutes into the game via Jonathan Obika but Dele Alli drew the sides level just after half-time before Kay scored from close-range.
• Over in east London, there will be plenty of Orient fans coming away from their game with Coventry with clumps of their hair in their hands. Orient had gone a goal down but a header from Scott Cuthbert and another from Jay Simpson looked to have given them three points at home for the first time since they beat Tranmere in April (they did beat Peterborough 2-1 in the second leg of the play-offs in May). But with three minutes to go, Jim O’Brien’s right footed shot found the bottom left corner and the fans were left to rue what could have been.
• At the bottom of the table, an impressive 2-1 win for Scunthorpe over Peterborough was not enough to lift them out of the relegation zone but it does mean that they are no longer propping up the League One table. That unfortunate honour goes Crewe, who drew 1-1 with Crawley and who are tied on 14 points with Yeovil and Gillingham.
League Two
• Oxford took the lead against Wycombe through a Danny Hylton penalty but could not hold on for three points. Hogan Ephraim, formerly of West Ham and Queens Park Rangers, came off the bench to set up Paul Hayes for the equaliser and Josh Scowen did the same for Peter Murphy nine minutes later. Oxford had a late chance to take at least a point from the game but Danny Hylton shanked his penalty over the bar and into the car park. That win, combined with Luton’s 1-1 draw at Exeter, means Wycombe are the new league leaders.
• At the opposite end of the table, Hartlepool found themselves deep into the second half and 2-0 down to Newport County. Fans could have been forgiven for making an early exit but if they did they missed out on the action. Brad Walker’s effort from outside the box cut Newport’s lead in half and with just three minutes to go Sidney Schmeltz set up Michael Duckworth who found the back of the net. To compound County’s pain, they’ll be without Andy Sandell for a game or two after he saw red. Hartlepool’s relegation-zone companions, Tranmere, were also involved in a 2-2 draw and also had to rely on a late goal to earn them a point at home to Stevenage. The two sides are three points away from Carlisle and safety.
• Elsewhere, York had one of the more impressive results of the day in a 1-0 win over Cheltenham. Diego De Girolamo’s first-half goal was enough to separate the two sides and earn York only their second win of the season. Aleksander Cisak, however, was the real hero for the away side as pulled off one impressive save after another to keep his side in the game.
