Blackburn leapfrog West Brom into third in the Sky Bet Championship table with a 4-0 win over Birmingham; Bournemouth extend winless run to six games after falling to 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough; also wins for Huddersfield, Blackpool and Nottingham Forest
Sunday 19 December 2021 07:07, UK
Blackburn climbed above West Brom into third in the Sky Bet Championship table after a crushing 4-0 win over Birmingham at Ewood Park.
Following on from the Baggies' disappointing 0-0 draw with struggling Barnsley on Friday night, Tony Mowbray's team knew what victory would do for their automatic promotion hopes and they were ahead after six minutes when John Buckley fired past Matija Sarkic.
Reda Khadra added a second less than 10 minutes into the second half, before Ben Brereton Diaz inevitably got in on the act, tucking home a penalty he had won on the hour mark - his 20th goal for club and country so far this season.
The Chile international then added a fourth when a cross from the left looped up off a sliding Kristian Pedersen, allowing him to cheekily head over the line to round off a successful afternoon.
In the day's early game, Bournemouth missed the chance to move above Fulham into top spot after falling to a 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.
Though the Cherries had multiple chances to hurt their hosts, the game was settled by an Andraz Sporar penalty, after Jaidon Anthony had brought down Isaiah Jones in the 18-yard box, leaving Scott Parker's side without a win in six.
Nottingham Forest continued their good form under Steve Cooper and extended their unbeaten run to nine games with a 2-1 comeback win against Hull.
Keane Lewis-Potter had given the upwardly-mobile Tigers the lead just before the break, but the hosts rallied and sunk their opponents after goals from Lewis Grabban and Brennan Johnson.
Blackpool also mounted an impressive fightback to beat Peterborough 3-1 at Bloomfield Road.
Peterborough - who had lost 10 of their 11 previous away games this season - took the lead when Siriki Dembele rounded goalkeeper Dan Grimshaw and rolled home, but Keshi Anderson killed their momentum when he levelled shortly afterwards.
In the final five minutes of the game, Sonny Carey and Jerry Yates made sure of a comfortable victory.
Meanwhile, Huddersfield edged a five-goal thriller against Bristol City at Ashton Gate.
Within 120 seconds of kick off, Nigel Pearson's Robins were ahead and they received a further boost when goalkeeper Daniel Bentley saved Danny Ward's penalty.
But Duane Holmes hit a superb solo equaliser before half-time, with Danel Sinani and Ward then scoring within nine second-half minutes to turn the game on its head. Weimann struck deep into second-half stoppage-time, but it was nothing more than a consolation.
Rotherham maintained a two-point lead at the top of Sky Bet League One after a 1-0 win over Cambridge at the Abbey Stadium.
It was a tightly-contested affair settled by just a single goal, with Dan Barlaser hitting the winner after 66 minutes.
Hot on their heels - and with a game in hand - are Wigan, who were forced to battle for a 3-2 win over fellow promotion-chasers Oxford.
Will Keane gave Leam Richardson's men the lead after just eight minutes, before Max Power doubled the advantage just after the half-hour. But Ryan Williams reduced the deficit within 60 seconds and it was 2-2 after 59 minutes when Matt Taylor found the net.
But the Latics rallied and finally earned all three points courtesy of James McClean inside the final few minutes at the Kassam.
Sunderland were denied the chance to move level on points with second-placed Wigan after being held to a 1-1 draw by Ipswich.
The Tractor Boys celebrated the appointment of new manager Kieran McKenna by taking the lead thanks to James Norwood, but Nathan Broadhead hit back to earn the Black Cats a share of the spoils.
Plymouth picked up their first league win since November 13, as Kieran Agard's first-half strike helped them to a 1-0 win over Charlton at Home Park.
Elsewhere, Shrewsbury - who ended the game with 10-man after a red card was shown to Tom Bloxham - beat Cheltenham 3-1, while Morecambe and Fleetwood played out a 0-0 draw at the Mazuma Stadium.
Donovan Wilson's first-half strike fired Sutton to a 1-0 win over Harrogate and into the Sky Bet League Two promotion places.
The U's striker scored the only goal of the game on the half-hour mark when Omar Bugiel slipped him in and he coolly slotted past keeper Dean Bouzanis.
Jake Beesley scored twice to help Rochdale end their run of six league games without defeat with a 3-0 win over Newport at the Crown Oil Arena.
The first goal came when Conor Grant provided the lay off and Beesley struck from the edge of the area and found the bottom corner.
He got his second from the penalty spot after Corey O'Keeffe was brought down in the box, and Liam Kelly got the third late on to wrap up all three points for Dale.
Tranmere made it four wins on the spin thanks to a Jay Spearing strike on the hour mark to beat Leyton Orient 1-0 at Prenton Park.
Josh Hawkes put it on a tee for Spearing on the edge of the box who rifled his effort into the top corner to condemn Orient to their second successive defeat.
Salford returned to winning ways with a 1-0 victory over lowly Stevenage at the Peninsula Stadium.
The goal came just after the half-hour mark when Ash Hunter found Jordan Turnbull at the back post and he nodded in from close range. Stevenage are now without a win in six games across all competitions.
Eight League Two Saturday matches were postponed as the Omricon variant of coronavirus played havoc with the fixture list.
