Following an opening round of surprise results, our second helping of npower Championship action this past weekend brought about another thrilling helping. Chris Nokes rounds-up the past couple of days.
Perhaps the pick of the eleven Championship matches on Saturday was newly-promoted Millwall's 4-0 defeat of recently-relegated Hull City at the New Den. On the opening day of the season, the Lions demolished Bristol City 3-0 at Ashton Gate and continued this form against Nigel Pearson's Tigers thanks to goals from Kevin Lisbie, Liam Trotter and a brace from Welsh international Steve Morison.
Sharing pole position with Millwall at this formative stage is Queens Park Rangers, who won 3-0 at Sheffield United on Saturday. Bramall Lane was left stunned, as goals by Hogan Ephraim, Jamie Mackie and Adel Taarabt secured a comprehensive away win. The result ultimately condemned boss Kevin Blackwell, who left United immediately following the mauling and thus ended a two and a half year reign at Bramall Lane.
End of the road for Blades boss Blackwell
Unlike on the opening weekend, there were a fair amount of last minute goals on Saturday. These resulted in wins for Norwich City over Scunthorpe City and earned points for the likes of Doncaster Rovers at home to Bristol City and Portsmouth at home to Reading.
In fact, there were some games that confined nearly all of their significant action to the closing stages, such as the draw between Ipswich Town and Burnley at Portman Road. It had looked as if midfielder David Norris had earned all three points for the home side with an improvised close range flick with four minutes remaining, before defender Clarke Carlisle rescued a point for Brian Laws' men in the second minute of added time. Another game that was defined by its closing period was the 2-2 draw between Watford and Coventry City at Vicarage Road. Goals from Will Buckley and John Eustace looked to be sending the Hornets to a fine three points, however two goals in three minutes going into injury time for the away side meant that Aidy Boothroyd, making his first return to the club that he led to promotion just over four years ago, went away a contented man.
Bothroyd has started well as Sky Blues boss
There were impressive wins for Cardiff City and Barnsley, whodefeated Derby County and Crystal Palace respectively, whilst Swansea City demolished Preston North End 4-0 at the Liberty Stadium. Saturday also saw a first point of the season for both Leicester City and Middlesbrough as they played out a 0-0 draw at the Walkers Stadium.
There was just the one game on Sunday - the mouth-watering contest between sleeping giants Nottingham Forest and Leeds United. Both would have been disappointed with defeats on the opening day, and had to settle for a point each at the City Ground after Lloyd Sam's header cancelled out Dexter Blackstock's opener.
npower Championship results round-up:
Saturday 14th August
Barnsley 1-1 Crystal Palace
Derby County 1-2 Cardiff City
Doncaster Rovers 1-1 Bristol City
Ipswich Town 1-1 Burnley
Leicester City 0-0 Middlesbrough
Millwall 4-0 Hull City
Portsmouth 1-1 Reading
Scunthorpe United 0-1 Norwich City
Sheffield United 0-3 QPR
Swansea City 4-0 Preston North End
Watford 2-2 Coventry City
Sunday 15th August
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Leeds United
