Skip to content

Championship roundup: Leeds close in on West Brom with overdue win

Alex Dodd - CameraSport / CameraSport / Getty

London, Feb 15, 2020 (AFP) - Luke Ayling's goal against his former club was good enough to give Leeds a 1-0 win over Bristol City on Saturday that saw the fallen English giants revive their bid for automatic promotion to the Premier League.

This was just Leeds' second win in seven league matches and saw them move to within four points of Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion.

Victory was made all the better for Leeds by the fact it helped them open up a three-point lead over third-placed Fulham, who suffered a shock 3-0 loss at home to bottom-of-the-table Barnsley.

Cauley Woodrow opened the scoring against former club Fulham with a 24th-minute penalty before Jacob Brown and Woodrow again were on target at Craven Cottage as Barnsley secured a first win in five league matches.

Only the top two at the end of the regular season are guaranteed promotion to English football's lucrative top flight and West Brom saw their lead trimmed after they were held to a 2-2 draw by Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest.

Matty Cash's added-time equaliser saw Forest secure a draw at The Hawthorns after West Brom had twice led through Callum Robinson and a Tobias Figueiredo own-goal.

But Kyle Bartley's own-goal and Cash's late effort saw Forest to a draw.

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic, however, refused to be downhearted after seeing his side drop two points.

"I told the guys I'm going to be disappointed and they're frustrated, but if we continue like this, with the same patterns, focus, energy and quality, then we really have a good chance to do what we want to do," he said.

Brentford moved above Forest into fourth place on goal difference a 1-1 draw at Birmingham.

Blackburn closed to within three points of the play-offs thanks a 2-0 win over Charlton

Elsewhere, Queens Park Rangers came from 2-0 down to win 4-2 at home to Stoke.

Goals from Sam Clucas and Tyrese Campbell gave Stoke a first-half lead at Loftus Road but QPR were level by the break through Jordan Hugill and Ebere Eze as four goals were scored in 11 minutes.

Bright Osayi-Samuel and Ilias Chair were on target after the interval as QPR completed a fine comeback.

Derby were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Huddersfield while Millwall won 1-0 at Preston.

But Sheffield Wednesday remained without a win since Christmas after going down 3-0 at home to Reading in a match where the beaten Owls finished with 10 men after Osaze Urhoghide collected their fifth red card of the season for two bookable offences.

Meanwhile Ryan Tunnicliffe's first goal of the season was enough for Luton to win 1-0 at Middlesbrough.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox