Brentford’s late show stuns Fulham
Emiliano Marcondes laid on a tap-in for Said Benrahma and lashed home a goal for himself as Brentford’s late double stunned Fulham 2-0 at Craven Cottage.
Super sub Marcondes climbed off the bench on the Championship’s resumption, first teeing up Benrahma before lashing home a fine strike of his own.
Just when Fulham were expecting to play out a draw, up popped Marcondes with a cute ball for Benrahma’s facile finish with only two minutes on the clock.
And then the replacement midfielder added insult to injury by firing home three minutes later himself, with Benrahma returning the favour and this time applying the assist.
Fulham were left to rue Aleksandar Mitrovic’s chalked-off goal, with the Serbia striker’s smart finish ruled out for offside.
Bobby Decordova-Reid struck the woodwork for the hosts too, on a galling return to action for Scott Parker’s men.
All eyes were on the league’s top two leading scorers before kick-off with Mitrovic and Ollie Watkins squaring up for an exciting head-to-head.
But in the end neither man could influence the outcome, with Brentford’s late brace turning the tide.
Benrahma’s hot form has Chelsea and a host of other Premier League clubs keeping tabs on his progress, and an 11th league goal for the term will only bolster that interest.
Rhian Brewster sent out a powerful anti-racism message as he helped to fire Swansea to a comfortable Sky Bet Championship victory at Middlesbrough.
The 20-year-old Liverpool loanee struck twice inside three first-half minutes, unveiling a T-shirt bearing the message “Our colour is not a crime” while celebrating the first, as the Swans ran out 3-0 winners at the Riverside Stadium on their return to action.
Andre Ayew wrapped up a win which keeps the Welsh side firmly in the race for the play-offs with a 34th-minute penalty on a day when struggling Boro, who have won only twice in the league since the turn of the year, simply gave themselves too much to do with a dreadful start.
Teenager Louie Sibley’s superb hat-trick earned Derby a 3-2 Sky Bet Championship win over Millwall at the Den.
Eighteen-year-old Sibley, making only the second league start of his career, scored a magnificent solo goal to cancel out Matt Smith’s first-half opener.
The Rams academy product slotted home a second with 20 minutes to play and wrapped up the points in closing stages.
Sibley is the youngest player to score a league hat-trick in the top four tiers since Ryan Sessegnon did so in November 2017.
West Brom returned to the top of the Sky Bet Championship despite being held to a goalless draw by Birmingham.
The Baggies drew a blank as they made their comeback after the three-month enforced break due to the coronavirus pandemic.
They moved above Leeds on goal difference but will see it as a chance missed after dominating their local rivals at an empty Hawthorns.
Matheus Pereira fired wide in the closest Albion came but they failed to score for a third straight league game.
Title rivals Leeds travel to Cardiff on Sunday and will retake top spot if they avoid defeat in Wales.
Wigan carried on where they left off before the coronavirus-enforced hiatus with a 2-0 victory at Huddersfield to move three points clear of the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone.
Jamal Lowe celebrated by taking a knee in tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement when he opened the scoring with a close-range finish midway through the first half while former Town winger Anthony Pilkington’s deflected effort shortly after the interval extended Wigan’s unbeaten streak to seven matches.
The Latics had beaten automatic promotion favourites Leeds and West Brom prior to football’s shutdown and while it understandably took them time following the long lay-off to find their stride, they were worth the three points at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Nathan Jones picked up a point on his return as Luton manager as Callum McManaman earned the Hatters a 1-1 draw with Preston.
It looked like the hosts would suffer a demoralising defeat in their bid to stay up, falling behind early in the second half to Scott Sinclair’s strike but, with three minutes to go, McManaman powered home from 22 yards and earn his side a share of the spoils.
The fine goal gave Jones – asked to return to Luton after the departure of Graeme Jones during the season’s recess – something to smile about as he bids to stave off relegation
Charlton claimed a huge win in the battle for Sky Bet Championship survival as Hull dropped into the relegation zone on an afternoon when Angus MacDonald made his return from bowel cancer.
Grant McCann’s Tigers returned from the 15-week break directly above the drop zone, with Lee Bowyer’s visitors just inside it and knowing they would have been consigned to relegation on a points-per-game had the season not restarted.
Both sides endured challenging lockdown periods and it was Hull’s task that became tougher at an empty KCOM Stadium, where captain Jason Pearce’s bundled effort sealed a 1-0 win for relegation rivals Charlton.
Neither team could really afford defeat on Saturday, when City centre-back MacDonald made his first start in 662 days having missed most of the last campaign with deep vein thrombosis before being diagnosed with bowel cancer at the start of the 2019/20 season.
The defender performed well on his return but the Tigers – who this week saw four players refuse to extend their deals beyond the end of the month and were the most vociferous club in their opposition to the season’s restart – failed to recover from a first-half gut punch.
Skipper Pearce turned home from a corner and Charlton held out for a crucial victory, despite the backdrop of top scorer Lyle Taylor refusing to play, speculation about Bowyer’s future and being under a third owner of a troubled season.
Nick Powell pounced two minutes into stoppage time as relegation-threatened Stoke salvaged a 1-1 draw at Reading on their return to Sky Bet Championship action.
After a poor opening, Stoke went behind in the seventh minute when Reading striker Lucas Joao guided home smoothly from 10 yards.
Tom Ince wasted Stoke’s best chance of a first-half equaliser and Reading almost increased their lead when John Swift struck the crossbar early in the second period.
Tyrese Campbell nearly levelled for the visitors with 20 minutes left but his deflected effort glanced off a post.
However, Powell struck in the second minute of stoppage time to give Stoke a point.
Stoke manager Michael O’Neill tested positive for coronavirus earlier this month but spent a period in self-isolation and he returned to training on Friday and was present in the dugout at Madejski Stadium.
Corry Evans played a starring role as Blackburn came from behind to beat fellow promotion hopefuls Bristol City 3-1 and move to within a point of the Championship play-off places.
Evans suffered a fractured skull and shattered eye socket in a gruesome collision in January, but has recovered during lockdown and contributed a goal – his first in the league since November 2015 – and an assist as Rovers overhauled City in the table on their return to action.
The Northern Ireland international could hardly believe his luck as a cross intended for Sam Gallagher found its way into the net to cancel out Jamie Paterson’s 34th-minute header, before Blackburn took control after the break with goals from Tosin Adarabioyo and Adam Armstrong.
Connor Wickham’s injury-time equaliser earned Sheffield Wednesday a deserved point in a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest.
Forest had looked as if they were going to consolidate their position in the Sky Bet Championship play-offs after Joe Lolley’s sweet 69th-minute strike, which Wednesday were convinced should have been ruled out for offside.
It was particularly galling for the Owls as they had wasted a host of chances to go in front, but on-loan Wickham rescued them in the third minute of time added on when he headed home a corner.
Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi was celebrating signing a new contract on Friday, but he was left furious by his side’s inability to hold on for two extra points in a top-six race that looks like going down to the wire.
Wednesday are one of the few sides in the Championship with little to play for in the remaining games – barring any possible EFL points deduction for breaking financial fair play rules, which could plunge them into relegation danger.
Because of that lingering threat, boss Garry Monk will be keen on building as big a buffer over the bottom three as possible.
Elliot Simoes’ early goal gave Barnsley a 1-0 victory at QPR and moved them four points from safety in the Sky Bet Championship.
The young striker netted after just seven minutes and his tidy finish was enough to give the Reds a first win at Rangers since 1950, lifting the Tykes off the bottom of the table.
The goal came after Ben Williams dispossessed Bright Osayi-Samuel midway inside the QPR half.
Williams played the ball into the penalty area, where Cauley Woodrow’s dummy fooled the home defence and teed up Simoes, who calmly slotted past goalkeeper Liam Kelly.
Worse almost followed for the home side when Jacob Brown missed a great chance three minutes later. Brown shot wide after being found by Kilian Ludewig’s right-wing cross.
The result took Barnsley above Luton and left QPR seven points adrift of the play-off spots.
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