Championship
• Ipswich have thus far escaped too many headlines even though Mick McCarthy’s side, defeated in last season’s play-offs, look like a potent force this time around. They stayed top on goal difference with a 2-1 win at Preston, goals from two players who won promotion last season with Bournemouth doing the trick. Brett Pitman – signed for free in the summer – headed home Freddie Sears’ cross after 24 minutes and, although Daniel Johnson equalised after a slick counterattack, Ryan Fraser curled in a sublime 20-yard winner on 65. The 21-year-old winger is on a season-long loan from the Cherries and looks an outstanding prospect. “I’m delighted with that because it was a hard-fought game,” said McCarthy. “[When] Ryan scored it was the first time in a few minutes that we’d kept it up the pitch, and it was worthy of winning any game.” McCarthy will not mind if the division’s more decadent spenders keep taking the limelight; the very early signs are that anyone who finishes above his own team will have had a pretty good time of things.
• Saturday’s results mean that Brighton’s visit to Portman Road next weekend will be a meeting of the top two. Chris Hughton’s side won their third game in four against Blackburn Rovers at the Amex Stadium with a fine first-half finish from the in-form Kazenga LuaLua. David Stockdale saved well from the visitors’ Nathan Delfouneso but Brighton look well organised and in the 24-year-old LuaLua they have a winger who might just be realising his potential.
• Middlesbrough have invested heavily in a bid to go one better than May’s play-off final defeat and a home defeat to newly-promoted Bristol City was not part of the plan for Stewart Downing, David Nugent and company. It was a deserved win for the visitors, whose goal was a superb eighth-minute curled finish from Joe Bryan. They could have extended their lead in the first half but had to field a predictable late storm before confirming their first win since promotion. “I expected much more from us this afternoon,” said the Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka. “We are not a surprise for anyone this season because everyone wants to beat us. We have to know we are better than other sides, but we have to play with our intensity.”
• Charlton are unbeaten and took third place – two points behind the leaders – with a dramatic late win over Hull. Simon Makienok used his towering frame to head in a 52nd-minute opener, but the visitors seemed to have grabbed a point when Abel Hernández bundled home a rebound from Nick Pope’s fumble. But the Addicks snatched it in the eighth minute of added time when Makienok headed on for Johann Berg Gudmundsson to score a fine diving header. “If we play like we did against Charlton for an hour then there won’t be many teams who won’t beat us,” said a despondent Steve Bruce.
• QPR celebrated ‘Stan Bowles Day’ by playing with an élan that the old master, watching from the stands, would have appreciated. They went 3-0 up against Rotherham through a Tjaronn Chery double and Charlie Austin; the visitors replied twice through Jonson Clarke-Harris and Tom Thorpe, but a late Austin penalty sealed things for a team that might just be purring into gear.
• Leeds 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday – match report
League One
• Gillingham lead the pack after a fine 2-0 home win over Wigan, who are finding life back in the third tier to be a challenge. Bradley Dack scored after 37 minutes and doubled the lead with a penalty eight minutes from the end; Wigan were bereft of ideas and finished well beaten. “We didn’t really get started in the game and caused ourselves too many problems in the first-half, we knew exactly what they were about and we let them score the first goal,” said the Wigan manager Gary Caldwell. “We have to put a string of results together and that’s the challenge for this group; it’s no good doing it once and then not building on it – we have to do it over a number of weeks.”
• The Gills are joined in 10 points by Walsall, who beat previous leaders Coventry in an exciting match at the Bescot Stadium. Anthony Forde broke the deadlock five minutes before half-time and the lead was doubled on 52 minutes by Tom Bradshaw, the in-demand striker who has now scored five times already this season. Jacob Murphy, on loan from Norwich, scored a superb consolation from 25 yards but Dean Smith’s side held on for what could be a big win. “We conceded some poor goals,” said Smith’s counterpart, Tony Mowbray. “The first one we tried to hold a line and we didn’t track the runner. That’s disappointing.”
• The game of the day took place at Gresty Road, where Crewe and Bury’s 3-3 draw confirmed the latter’s status as the league’s entertainers. Their four games have brought 22 goals; the first of today’s was scored by Adam King of Crewe, but Danny Mayor equalised in the 23rd minute. Ryan Colclough put the home side 2-1 up before Tom Soares equalised on the stroke of half-time. It seemed Bury had stolen it when Danny Rose scored 12 minutes after the break but an outstanding solo goal by Bradden Inman 10 minutes from time ensured the spoils were shared.
League Two
• Leyton Orient look the team to beat after bringing up the Football League’s only 100% record with a 3-2 win at Newport. They almost threw it away; Paul McCallum and Jay Simpson put them two up within seven minutes but Orient eased off the gas and Scott Bowden and Mark Byrne scored within a minute of each other to make the score 2-2 at half-time. Dean Cox rectified the situation with a winner for the visitors just before the hour. “We had to dig in,” said the Orient manager Ian Hendon – but then that’s what promotion favourites do.
• It was a day of comebacks, and two of them were more successful. The most remarkable came at Fratton Park, where Portsmouth improbably found themselves 3-0 down to Morecambe after 38 minutes. Gary Roberts, the skilful midfielder who followed manager Paul Cook from Chesterfield in the summer, pulled two goals back but Enda Stevens’ red card swung the initiative back to Morecambe. Substitute Jayden Stockley had other ideas, heading home deep into injury time to complete an unlikely turnaround in front of 16,052 fans.
• Almost as impressive was Yeovil’s reversal of fortunes against Luton. The Hatters were another away team to come out of the blocks quickly and went 2-0 up through Craig Mackail-Smith and Paul Benson before 20 minutes had elapsed. Stephen Arthurworrey, who is on loan from Fulham, headed home seven minutes before the break and Ryan Bird equalised in the 62nd minute. Nine minutes later, Bird scored from long range to get Yeovil – relegated two seasons in a row – off the mark at the fourth time of asking.
