Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Cardiff City’s Kenneth Zohore celebrates scoring his side’s fifth goal against Rotherham United with Aron Gunnarsson.
Cardiff City’s Kenneth Zohore celebrates scoring his side’s fifth goal against Rotherham United with Aron Gunnarsson. Photograph: Athena Pictures/Getty Images
Cardiff City’s Kenneth Zohore celebrates scoring his side’s fifth goal against Rotherham United with Aron Gunnarsson. Photograph: Athena Pictures/Getty Images

Football League your thoughts: Cardiff continue mean streak under Warnock

This article is more than 7 years old

QPR humble Gianfranco Zola’s Birmingham, Norwich slip up at Burton, Lee Clark savours late Bury win and Newport County come undone

Championship

Neil Warnock continues to rise to the challenge, with Cardiff City steamrollering past Rotherham United 5-0, to keep their immaculate record this calendar year in check. Since taking over in October, when the club were second-bottom and already scanning League One stadia, Cardiff have climbed the league table and finished Saturday firmly in mid-table. Warnock himself said this week that his five-month spell in south Wales has left him refreshed. The feeling is surely mutual among his players, who racked up a third straight league win in convincing style. No team has won more points in the Championship (21) in 2017 than the Bluebirds. The only sour note for Warnock was the first-half injury sustained to striker Rhys Healey – on his first home start for the club.

Brighton and Hove Albion returned top of the table, with Newcastle not in action until Monday, after a 2-0 away win at Barnsley, thanks to Sam Baldock’s first double for the club on Chris Hughton’s 100th league game in charge of the Seagulls. Leeds United’s faint hopes of gatecrashing the top two hit a stumbling block at Ipswich Town, who claimed a point against Garry Monk’s side after frustrating Brighton in a draw on Tuesday. Mick McCarthy’s side upset the odds early on at Portman Road, racing into a ninth-minute lead through Freddie Sears before Stuart Dallas scored Leeds’ equaliser just before half-time. “If we can’t win, it is important we don’t lose, it is another point on the board for what we are trying to achieve,” Monk said, with his team fifth in the table, before meeting Sheffield Wednesday next weekend.

Jonas Knudsen pulls at the shirt of Leeds’ Mo Barrow, the on-loan Swansea City winger. Photograph: Joe Toth/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock

Carlos Carvahal’s Wednesday kept pace with Leeds, winning 2-1 at Nottingham Forest and opened up a seven-point cushion between them and seventh-placed Norwich City after the Canaries slipped up at relegation-threatened Burton Albion. Nigel Clough labelled it an “outstanding victory” after two loanees got the job done for lowly Albion, with Michael Kightly and Cauley Woodrow, on loan from Burnley and Fulham respectively, scoring after either side of Cameron Jerome’s strike. The win lifts Burton above Bristol City while Wigan Athletic’s goalless home draw against Preston North End moves them to within two points from safety.

Queens Park Rangers soared seven points clear of danger after humbling Birmingham City 4-1 at St Andrew’s, with the decision to replace Gary Rowett with Gianfranco Zola looking odder with every match. “Sometimes you’re on top of the world but sometimes it feels as if the world is on top of you,” a philosophical Zola said after another crushing defeat. Birmingham are going nowhere fast while QPR’s first win in seven games sees them jump ahead of Forest and Aston Villa.

League One

Four crazy second-half minutes encapsulated Sheffield United’s 1-1 draw at home to Scunthorpe. After Paddy Madden struck immediately after the break, Billy Sharp replied with his 21st goal of the season two minutes later. And two minutes after that, Harry Toffolo picked up his second yellow card and was sent marching down the Bramall Lane tunnel. “It would have been easy for us to feel sorry for ourselves after going down to 10 men but you could see the players were committed,” the Scunthorpe manager, Graham Alexander, said.

It was always going to be a day to remember for Bolton’s Phil Parkinson, away at his former club, Bradford City but even more so after watching his team turn the tide to savour a 2-2 draw at Valley Parade. David Wheater and Gary Madine scored after the hour mark to cancel out Charlie Wyke’s early double for the hosts. Elsewhere, high-flying Fleetwood extended their unbeaten league run to 16 games with Cian Bolger’s second-half winner at MK Dons enough to send them level on points with third-placed Bolton and four goals in 24 first-half minutes saw Southend United and Northampton Town draw 2-2 at Roots Hall.

Charlton and Rochdale played out a six-goal thriller of sorts at Spotland, with Jorge Teixeira’s late equaliser ensuring the Addicks did not travel back to London empty-handed. Rochdale remain on the periphery of the play-off pack, narrowly ahead of Peterborough, who lost 2-0 at Walsall, and Bristol Rovers who rallied for a point at Port Vale. Before kick-off at Vale Park, the Rovers owner, Wael Al-Qadi, confirmed that the club and neighbours Bristol City had come to a “gentleman’s agreement” not to transfer senior players between the two clubs, following Matty Taylor’s move last month.

Billy Bodin celebrates his equaliser for Bristol Rovers. Photograph: Stephenson/JMP/Rex/Shutterstock

And towards the foot of the table, Lee Clark, who swapped the Scottish Premiership for a League One relegation battle with Bury in midweek, clinched victory in the best manner possible, with a last-gasp away win at 10-man Chesterfield. Ishmael Miller struck his first goal of the season in timely fashion, with a 92nd-minute winner after Andrew Tutte bagged an equaliser. Bottom club Coventry recorded a 2-1 win over Gillingham, with Yakubu making his Sky Blues debut as a second-half substitute. Elsewhere, Shrewsbury beat AFC Wimbledon 2-1 while Swindon and Oldham drew blanks in a goalless draw.

League Two

The biggest losers in the fourth tier were arguably Mansfield Town, and not just because of their harrowing 3-0 defeat by Grimsby. Chris Clements opened the scoring against his former club and the Everton loanee, Calum Dyson, was at the double before the Stags were reduced to 10 men on a miserable afternoon for Steve Evans, who was also sent to the stands as his side lost for the first time this year. “There was no verbal, no foul language and he just said ‘I’m not being threatened, you’re going up [in the stands],” Evans said of an altercation with the fourth official. “I have to do that but we’ll see what the people say and I think there’ll be a little bit of empathy for me with those people.”

Barnet midfielder Mauro Vilhete, No32, is mobbed by his team-mates after opening the scoring against Portsmouth. Photograph: Frej/ProSports/REX/Shutterstock/Rex/Shutterstock

As Mansfield slipped up, they lost ground on Exeter City and Portsmouth, who – albeit – could only stutter to draws against Stevenage and Barnet respectively to retain their places in the play-offs. Wycombe Wanderers came undone 2-1 against high-flying Carlisle, but only after Adebayo Akinfenwa opened the scoring inside 120 seconds.

Alfie May scored his first Football League goal after his January switch to Doncaster Rovers from eighth-tier Hythe Town. The 23-year-old striker hit an equaliser ten minutes from time to deny Luton victory in Yorkshire. Plymouth Argyle missed the chance to close the gap to league leaders Doncaster, after leaving it late to snatch a draw at struggling Hartlepool. Elsewhere, Gary Johnson got one over on his former Yeovil midfielder, Darren Way, as Cheltenham ran out 2-0 winners, Morecambe coasted to a 3-1 win at Crawley and Notts County beat Leyton Orient 3-2 in east London. Blackpool drew 2-2 with Crewe while Accrington overcame Colchester 2-1.

Newport County’s six-match unbeaten run came to an abrupt end after a contentious injury-time penalty at Cambridge United. Newport, the division’s bottom club, were two goals to the good with a little more than half-hour to play but Shaun Derry’s side fought back to record a far from routine 3-2 victory. Goals from Barry Corr and Leon Legge got Cambridge back on level terms before Joe Day saved George Maris’s 93rd-minute penalty – only for Mark Roberts to bundle home the rebound.

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed