Win Over Town Bigger Than Win Over Brighton

Last updated : 05 March 2017 By Footy Mad - Editor

Blackburn 1-0 Wigan
Bristol City 0-0 Burton
Derby 2-1 Barnsley
Fulham 3-1 Preston
Ipswich 1-1 Brentford
Nottingham Forest 3-0 Brighton
QPR 2-1 Cardiff
Reading 2-1 Wolves
Rotherham 0-2 Aston Villa
Sheffield Wednesday 5-1 Norwich
Huddersfield 1-3 Newcastle

Newcastle took a giant step towards automatic promotion to the Premier League with a 3-1 victory over third-placed Huddersfield on Saturday evening.

Image result for Huddersfield 1 Newcastle 3The victory over Huddersfield was probably more important than Tuesday's victory at Brighton because it pushes the play-off hopefulls further behind.

An early penalty from Matt Ritchie - awarded after he had gone down under the challenge of Nahki Wells - put the Sky Bet Championship leaders ahead in the 10th minute, and Murphy doubled their advantage on 33 minutes.

Aaron Mooy gave Town hope with a spot-kick 18 minutes from time before Dwight Gayle sealed the triumph in stoppage-time to send Rafael Benitez's side 11 points clear of the third-placed hosts.

Brighton suffered a second blow to their promotion chances in a week as they lost 3-0 at Nottingham Forest.

With 10 minutes to go against Newcastle on Tuesday, Albion were 1-0 up on Newcastle and going four points clear at the top of the Sky Bet Championship table.

They went on to lose 2-1 and today went down at Forest thanks to Zach Clough's first two goals for the home side and another from Ben Osborn.

Sheffield Wednesday returned to form after two straight losses with a crushing 5-1 win over Norwich.

Ross Wallace got the Owls going after a John Ruddy error and then Jordan Rhodes atoned for his penalty miss a week ago when he netted.

Cameron Jerome got Norwich back in it, nodding in on the line, but Morgan Fox and Rhodes put them out of sight before Fernando Forestieri added a fifth.

Reading also maintained their place amongst the top six thanks to a 2-1 win over Wolves.

Yann Kermorgant opened things up for the Royals (48) but they barely had time to celebrate as Ben Marshall levelled (50).

Paul McShane won it for Jaap Stam's men with a 78th-minute header, though.

Fulham remain in pursuit of the play-off pack and won 3-1 at home to Preston to remind those above them of their presence.

Sone Aluko put Fulham ahead, converting first time with a Neeskens Kebano cross, and then Chris Martin added a second on the hour.

Tom Barkhuizen pulled one back for North End before Kebano sealed it.

Derby came from behind to beat Barnsley 2-1, Tom Ince and David Nugent – with his first goal since joining at the start of January – overturning Matty James' opener.

Emyr Huws and Nico Yennari traded strikes as Ipswich and Brentford drew 1-1 and Neil Warnock lost on his return to QPR as Cardiff were beaten 2-1.

Sol Bamba put the Bluebirds ahead but substitute Yeni Ngbakoto and a Jazz Richards own goal turned things around.

Blackburn emerged victorious from their basement battle with Wigan, Tony Mowbray registering a second win in a week in charge as Marvin Emnes secured a 1-0 victory and a move out of the drop zone.

Lee Tomlin missed a penalty as Bristol City drew 0-0 with Burton to fall into the bottom three and Will Vaulks put through his own net and Jonathan Kodija added a second as Aston Villa won 2-0 at Rotherham.