Championship
• There was a tale of two streaks in the Championship, one of which came to an end and one that continues unabated. Newcastle United welcomed Blackburn Rovers to St James’ Park in expectation of a ninth straight league win but Charlie Mulgrew’s goal provided the shock of the day for a Rovers side who began the day in the bottom three. Somewhat less surprising was Norwich City’s fifth straight defeat. Bradley Johnson, who played over 150 games for the Canaries, scored Derby County’s goal in their 1-0 win and piled the pressure on the under-fire Alex Neil.
• Newcastle’s defeat allowed Brighton & Hove Albion to close the gap to two points at the top but they survived a scare against Fulham, who took a first-half lead at the Amex thanks to Kevin McDonald. Sam Baldock and Glenn Murray, though, scored second-half goals to extend Albion’s own unbeaten streak to 12 games.
• It was a good day for those chasing the top two with Reading (2-1 winners at home to Bristol City), Birmingham City (2-1 winners away at Brentford) and Sheffield Wednesday (2-0 winners at Wolves). The other side in the top six – Huddersfield Town – face Wigan Athletic on Monday.
• Before Cardiff City’s trip to Aston Villa, City’s manager, Neil Warnock, revealed he had been overlooked for the Villa job in the summer in favour of Roberto Di Matteo. Di Matteo lasted just 124 days but his replacement, Steve Bruce, is faring rather better. He’s now seven games unbeaten as Villa manager, thanks to a 3-1 win over Warnock’s Bluebirds. Ian Holloway, on the other hand, tasted defeat for the first time since returning to QPR, his team going down 3-0 at Ipswich Town. Town manager Mick McCarthy was in particularly prickly form post-match, defending his selection of a combative central midfield pairing with: “Yeah, we might lose a bit of that sexyness but who gives a fuck? I just want to win.”
League One
• It has not been easy being a Bury fan of late. They welcomed Millwall to Gigg Lane on the back of nine successive League One losses but were 2-0 up thanks to James Vaughan, who grabbed his second of the game after 67 minutes. The euphoria didn’t last long. A minute later Niall Maher was sent off and by the full-time whistle it was 3-2 to the visitors, with Aiden O’Brien getting an injury-time winner.
• At the other end of the table it was a mixed bag for the leading quartet of Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Bolton Wanderers and Bradford City. Scunthorpe were held at home by Oxford United, the Blades are now 14 games unbeaten but conceded a 93rd-minute equaliser at the Valley in a 1-1 draw against Charlton (whose fans bombarded the pitch with tiny foam taxis early on), and Bradford were surprisingly beaten away at Swindon Town.
The Taxis were thrown onto the pitch in protest against Roland Duchatelet's ownership of #cafc - he's just hired his 8th manager in 3 years pic.twitter.com/hVV4zPY5Fq
— Louis Mendez (@LouisMend) November 26, 2016
• The big winners, then, were Bolton, who leapfrogged Sheffield United into second thanks to a 1-0 away win at Northampton Town, Zach Clough scoring the only goal of the game and his seventh of the season. Indeed Wanderers were the only side in the top eight to win on Saturday.
• At the bottom, Chesterfield clawed their way up a place with their second successive 3-2 win, with Bristol Rovers this time the victims. Coventry City sink into the bottom four after defeat at the Ricoh against MK Dons – their fourth defeat on the bounce.
League Two
• The nailed-on result of the day seemed set to be at the Globe Arena. Morecambe had lost seven on the bounce at home and hosted the league leaders, Plymouth Argyle, who were on a club-record streak of seven straight away wins. But Morecambe proved coupon-busters with a 2-1 win, Peter Murphy’s winner coming after Jordan Slew had been sent off for the visitors. Such is the congested nature of the League Two table that Morecambe, who began the day two points of the relegation zone, end it four points from the play-off places.
• That result gave Carlisle United the chance to leapfrog Argyle at the summit and they duly did so with a comprehensive 5-2 win over Mansfield. Young striker Charlie Wyke helped himself to a hat-trick, condemning Steve Evans to his first defeat as Stags manager.
• There briefly appeared to be a bit of relief at the end of – yet another – very long week for suffering Leyton Orient fans when their side went 1-0 up away at Doncaster. But Jordan Houghton equalised just before half-time and two Liam Mandeville goals in the second half gave third-placed Rovers three points.
