Championship roundup: Wright on time again for Coventry as Ipswich go second

Haji Wright scored the winner for the second time in three days as the league leaders Coventry beat Millwall 2-1 at the CBS Arena. Wright scored an 85th-minute goal against Leicester on Saturday and notched his 10th goal of the season as Coventry made it back-to-back victories.

The on-loan Crystal Palace winger Romain Esse opened his account for Coventry against his former club before Mihailo Ivanovic scored a brilliant equaliser just before the half-hour.

Frank Lampard, the Coventry manager, said: “I’m very happy, we’ve had two tough games. We said that after Leicester who are a strong team who played well here and we still won.

“I think Millwall played well enough, they’re in very good form, and are a strong team who have a good idea about what they’re doing. They have good players, very physical and aggressive team and they made it a tough game for us but I think we deserved to win.”

Two goals from Jack Clarke helped Ipswich to move into second and make it four league wins on the trot after defeating the playoff-chasing Bristol City 2-0 at Portman Road. Ipswich leapfrogged Middlesbrough by a point, before Boro play on Wednesday.

The hosts struck after eight minutes, with Clarke’s low effort into the bottom corner of the goal his ninth score of the season. Jens Cajuste spun in the City half and fed the winger who darted inside and finished across City’s Czech goalkeeper Radek Vitek from inside the penalty area. Ipswich stretched their lead in the 55th minute when Iván Azón picked up a headed clearance from Dara O’Shea and squared the ball to Clarke who fired past Vitek.

Jannik Vestergaard’s 90th-minute equaliser denied Wrexham a win that would have put them within a whisker of the playoff places as Leicester held them to a 1-1 draw. Lewis O’Brien had fired Wrexham in front in the 63rd minute, no less than they deserved for a dominant second-half display in which Leicester rarely managed to break out of their own half. However, Vestergaard scored at the end with only Leicester’s second shot after the break. The result leaves Wrexham ninth, two points from the top six, while Leicester – without a clean sheet in their past 22 Championship games – drop to 14th.

Liam Millar scored against his former side before Oli McBurnie rounded off Hull’s thumping 3-0 win against Preston in style. The 26-year-old Millar was on loan from Basel during the 2023-24 season and he opened the scoring with a 33rd-minute tap-in. The defender Akin Famewo doubled the lead just before half-time with a well-taken second before McBurnie acrobatically put the icing on the cake, scoring his 10th league goal of the season in the 53rd minute.

A late red card for Milutin Osmajic, following a scuffle with McBurnie, simply rubbed salt in the wounds for Paul Heckingbottom.

Derby boosted their playoff ambitions with a rare win in London, 2-1 at lowly Charlton. Macaulay Gillesphey’s own goal and Bobby Clark’s second-half strike made it back-to-back away wins for John Eustace’s side despite a goal for the hosts from Tyreece Campbell and a late red card for Matt Clarke. It was Derby’s seventh victory on the road this season, and their first in the capital since 2021.

West Brom were plunged into a relegation battle as the improving Norwich won 5-0 at the Hawthorns. Oscar Schwartau put Philippe Clement’s side ahead in the 16th minute, and a desperate first half for Eric Ramsay’s side was followed by second-half goals by Ali Ahmed (49), the half-time substitute Anis Ben Slimane (69), Ben Chrisene (73) and Mathias Kvistgaarden (90).

Albion have now lost four Championship games in a row and have endured eight defeats in their past 10, Norwich moving to within a point of their hosts.

Zan Vipotnik’s double helped Swansea to secure a 3-1 home victory to pile more pressure on the Blackburn manager, Valérien Ismaël. Vipotnik made it 15 goals in all competitions this season, with 13 of those coming in the Championship. But the Slovenian’s goals – together with an own goal by Rovers’ Connor O’Riordan – means it is just one win in 13 matches for Ismaël. The Frenchman has seen his team fail to win in six league games – seven including an FA Cup defeat – and they are above the relegation zone only on goal difference.

Salford secured an FA Cup fourth-round visit to the Etihad Stadium with a 3-2 home win against Swindon. The hosts took a 2-0 lead with goals in the 11th and 52nd minute from Ryan Graydon on debut. Ollie Palmer pulled one back for the visitors in the 55th minute before James Ball equalised with half an hour left. Luke Garbutt, the Salford captain, curled in the 68th-minute winner from a free-kick 25 yards out. Swindon’s Ryan Tafazolli thought he had made it 3-3 late on but his strike was disallowed for a foul.

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Late goals from Marvin Ducksch and Kyogo Furuhashi halted Birmingham’s away-day blues in a 2-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday, who set an unwanted club record. Ducksch broke the deadlock in the 83rd minute and Furuhashi sealed City’s first league win on the road since October with a second goal in stoppage time. The rock-bottom Wednesday hit a post through Bailey Cadamarteri early in the second half, but their winless league run was extended to 21 matches – the longest in the club’s history and also a record in the Championship era.

The Wednesday players are still waiting to learn who their new owners will be after being placed in administration in October and docked 18 points in total. Henrik Pedersen, the manager, said: “I think, for all human beings who don’t know what’s happening in the future, there is a question in your head. And when you have a question in your head, you’re thinking a lot, and we all know that the best performances are when you are in the moment.

“But how the players can put all this to the side and just perform, it’s amazing. But they are also really well trained in this, because there has been a lot.”

Matt Bloomfield is still looking for his first win as Oxford’s manager after a second successive 0-0 draw. QPR held their relegation-threatened opponents in a game of few chances played in difficult conditions. It was also a second stalemate in succession for Rangers after their draw at Stoke last weekend.

The result does not help Oxford’s cause, although they did close the gap on Portsmouth and Blackburn above them to four points.