Championship round-up: Aston Villa win six-goal thriller
Saturday 24 February 2018 23:35, UK
Aston Villa ramped up the pressure on second-placed Cardiff with a 4-2 comeback victory at Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship.
With Cardiff not playing until Sunday, at home to play-off hopefuls Bristol City, Villa knew a win would close the gap to one point.
They were trailing at half-time to goals from Sean Clare and Lucas Joao either side of Lewis Grabban's leveller. But Glenn Whelan's 67th-minute equaliser was added to late on by Conor Hourihane and Robert Snodgrass, who scored from the penalty spot, to give Villa the win.
Fourth-placed Derby drew 3-3 at Reading after Jon Dadi Bodvarsson netted a late equaliser for the hosts. Callum McManaman denied Middlesbrough the chance to leapfrog Bristol City into sixth place as Sunderland drew an ill-tempered thriller 3-3 at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland remain rooted to the bottom of the table, four points adrift of safety, while fellow strugglers Birmingham and Burton also lost.
Oli McBurnie scored twice and missed a penalty as Barnsley moved out of the drop zone with a 2-0 victory at Birmingham. Ben Marshall's second-half goal condemned Burton to a 1-0 defeat at home to Millwall.
Mustapha Carayol netted the winner as Preston's play-off push stuttered with a 1-0 defeat to Ipswich at Deepdale.
Liam Cooper's first-half header gave Leeds a 1-0 home win over Brentford, earning Paul Heckingbottom his first victory as head coach, while Norwich and Bolton drew 0-0 at Carrow Road.
Lee Tomlin netted twice as Nottingham Forest won 5-2 away at QPR, while Hull eased their relegation fears with a 1-0 win over Sheffield United on Friday night.
Fulham beat leaders Wolves 2-0 in the late game on Saturday.
