Championship round-up

Duff nets equaliser for Newcastle

Click below for individual match facts and reports:
Cardiff City 4 Scunthorpe 0
Crystal Palace 1 Plymouth 1
Derby 2 Peterborough 1
Leicester 2 Swansea City 1
Preston 2 Bristol City 2
QPR 1 Blackpool 1
Reading 0 Nottm Forest 0
Sheff Wednesday 2 Barnsley 2
Watford 1 Doncaster 1
West Brom 1 Newcastle 1

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Teams

• Barnsley
• Blackpool

• More teams +

  • Bristol City
  • Cardiff City
  • Crystal Palace
  • Derby County
  • Doncaster
  • Leicester City
  • Newcastle United
  • Nottingham Forest
  • Peterborough United
  • Plymouth Argyle
  • Preston North End
  • Queens Park Rangers
  • Reading
  • Scunthorpe United
  • Sheffield Wednesday
  • Swansea City
  • Watford
  • West Bromwich Albion

Also see

• Championship fixtures
• Championship table
• Championship stats

Newcastle United hit back to draw at West Bromwich Albion as Leicester beat Swansea on the opening Saturday of the Championship season.

The 2009/10 campaign kicked off with a goalless draw between Middlesbrough and Sheffield United on Friday night and there was another stalemate between two highly-fancied teams as big-spending Nottingham Forest held Brendan Rodgers' Reading at the Madejski Stadium, with Luke Chambers sent off late on for the home side.

Damien Duff earned Newcastle a point against West Brom as the relegated duo had to settle for a 1-1 draw at The Hawthorns.

Shelton Martis put the Baggies ahead on 39 minutes before Duff equalised, and the Baggies were denied a late winner when Jonas Olsson's header was ruled out for offside.

Newly appointed Blackpool boss Ian Holloway had to settle for a 1-1 draw on his return to Queens Park Rangers as Peter Ramage netted a late leveller to cancel out Ben Burgess' opener.

Swansea have been tipped to slide down the table following the departures of Roberto Martinez and Jason Scotland, and they were unable to protect an early lead against 2008/9 League One champions Leicester as they went down 2-1 at the Walkers Stadium.

Peterborough battled hard against Derby at Pride Park and briefly looked set to emerge with a draw until Gary Teale found the target with just three minutes remaining to seal a dramatic 2-1 success for the Rams.

Cardiff, who missed out on a place in the play-offs on the final day of last term, made a winning start to life in their new stadium as they hammered Scunthorpe 4-0 thanks to a brace from Michael Chopra, a Jay Bothroyd strike and a Peter Whittingham penalty.

Sheffield Wednesday were denied the local bragging rights in the South Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough as Barnsley hit back from 2-0 down to claim a 2-2 draw.

Malky Mackay's first game in charge of Watford ended in a 1-1 draw against Doncaster as summer signing Danny Graham's effort was cancelled out by James Hayter.

It was also 1-1 at Selhurst Park where substitute Alan Lee equalised for Crystal Palace after Krisztian Timar had opened the scoring for Plymouth.

Preston, who suffered play-off heartache in May, rescued a point at home to Bristol City as Callum Davidson scored a penalty deep into stoppage time to earn them a 2-2 draw.

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