Championship round-up

By James Pearson  

Championship round-up

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Teams

  • Barnsley
  • Birmingham City

Players

  • Dion Dublin
  • Lee Hendrie

Cardiff City have moved six points clear at the top of the table after a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace while Burnley and Preston saw off Hull and Sunderland respectively.

Cardiff got off to a dream start at Selhurst Park with Michael Chopra lashing home from a tight angle, although Stuart Green levelled matters before the break.

Just when it looked like the Bluebirds might be held in South London, Ricardo Scimeca popped up late on to grab all three points.

Early goals from Michael Duff and Gifton Noel-Williams gave Burnley a 2-0 win over lowly Hull City, elevating them into second in the table.

Preston North End are hot on The Clarets' heels and they showed Sunderland no mercy at Deepdale with a 4-1 success over The Black Cats.

The Lilywhites were out of sight by the interval thanks to Danny Dichio's effort, a Graham Alexander penalty and a Dean Whitehead own goal.

Simon Whaley made it 4-0 after 55 minutes and while the visitors pulled one back from Stanislav Varga shortly after, it proved nothing more than a consolation.

Stoke City moved away from the relegation zone with a convincing 4-0 win over Leeds United at Elland Road, a result that leaves The Whites third from bottom.

Things began badly for Leeds with Lee Hendrie giving Stoke an early lead and two quick-fire second half efforts from Andy Griffin and Danny Higginbotham put the visitors in control.

Robbie Blake missed the chance to regain some sort of respectability when his penalty was saved by Steve Simonsen and things went from bad to worse when Ricardo Fuller added a fourth.

West Brom are a side on the up and they put Ipswich Town to the sword at Portman Road with a 5-1 success, thanks mainly to Kevin Phillips' hat-trick.

A Chris Perry own goal sandwiched goals from Diomansy Kamara and Phillips' first as The Baggies claimed a half-time lead.

However, it was one-way traffic after the interval with two more goals from Phillips before Kamara added his second of the game before the hour mark.

Birmingham are down to sixth in the table after slipping to a 3-2 loss to Luton Town at Kenilworth Road.

Things began well for the visitors with DJ Campbell putting Blues in front, only for goals from Rowan Vine to put The Hatters in front.

Neil Danns restored parity after 66 minutes, but with nine minutes left David Bell settled the contest with the fifth and final goal of the game.

Wolves have moved ahead of Birmingham after Jay Bothroyd's fourth goal of the season lifted the Molineux outfit to a win over Colchester.

Chris Brunt's injury-time strike secured bragging right in South Yorkshire for Sheffield Wednesday in a late 2-1 success over 10-man Barnsley.

Glenn Whelan gave The Owls an early lead and the visitors found themselves up against it when former Wednesday man Chris Heckingbottom got himself sent off for two quick bookings.

Brian Howard thought he had salvaged a point after 56 minutes, but Brunt had other ideas and gave Wednesday the points with a priceless late winner.

Leicester City secured just their third win of the campaign following a thrilling 3-2 success over Southampton at The Walkers Stadium.

John Viafara cancelled out Iain Hume's opener, but the Canadian striker restored The Foxes' advantage after 62 minutes.

However, The Saints hit back through Inigo Idiakez, but Richard Stearman's effort minutes later settled the contest in favour of the home side.

Martin Rowlands' last gasp strike secured a point for QPR in an entertaining 3-3 draw with Norwich at Loftus Road.

Both sides led during the contest with Darren Huckerby giving The Canaries an early lead with just four minutes on the clock.

Efforts from Jimmy Smith and Martin Rowlands put the home side ahead just before the break, however, Norwich, were not about to let the game slip through their fingers.

Dion Dublin levelled matters and Rob Earnshaw's late penalty looked to have given the visitors all three points before Rowlands snatched a late share of the spoils.

Click below for match summaries:
Burnley 2-0 Hull
Crystal Palace 1-2 Cardiff
Ipswich 1-5 West Brom
Leeds 0-4 Stoke
Leicester 3-2 Southampton
Luton 3-2 Birmingham
Preston 4-1 Sunderland
QPR 3-3 Norwich
Sheff Wed 2-1 Barnsley
Wolves 1-0 Colchester