Championship leaders Leeds thumped Cardiff 7-0 to claim their biggest win of the season and extend their unbeaten home run in all competitions to 14 games.
The Wales winger Dan James supplied Brenden Aaronson for a sixth-minute opener before crossing low for loanee Manor Solomon to tap home a second in the 13th minute. The outstanding James scored Leeds’s third five minutes into the second half to cap a fine performance as the visitors’ eight-match unbeaten run in all competitions was emphatically ended.
Joël Piroe added a second-half double and substitutes Wilfried Gnonto and Mateo Joseph also scored as Daniel Farke’s men claimed their 18th win from 30 Championship games this season. The 1-0 loss to Burnley on 14 September remains Leeds’s only home defeat in the league and their unbeaten run – since losing 1-0 at Blackburn on 30 November – has now stretched to 12 games.
Ben Brereton Díaz’s goal was enough to give promotion-chasing Sheffield United a narrow 1-0 win at Pride Park and increase the pressure on relegation-threatened Derby. Victory keeps the Blades two points behind Leeds and leaves County in deep trouble.
This was their seventh-straight league defeat – the club’s worst run since 2008. Kenzo Goudmijn and Matt Clarke headed over from good positions but Michael Cooper was not seriously tested. United would have expected to create more against a team in the relegation zone and made up for that four minutes after the restart. New signing Tom Cannon got in on the left and whipped in a low cross which Brereton Díaz turned in at the back post.
Quick GuideLeague One: Dodds to be named Wycombe manager
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Mike Dodds, an assistant head coach at Sunderland, is to be named the new manager of Wycombe. The 38-year-old is due to start on Tuesday as the replacement for Matt Bloomfield, who joined Luton.
Dodds worked as an academy coach at Birmingham, where his players included Jude Bellingham, before joining Sunderland, where he has coached Bellingham’s brother Jobe. He has taken interim charge of Sunderland on more than one occasion.
Wycombe are second, four points behind Birmingham, after being held to a 1-1 draw at struggling Cambridge, where they finished with 10 men. Cameron Humphreys put Wycombe in front but the defender Sonny Bradley was shown a red card after a melee at a corner just after the hour. Franco Ravizzoli saved the resulting penalty from Joshua Stokes but with seven minutes left Stokes secured a point for Cambridge, who drop to the bottom after Shrewsbury beat Mansfield 2-1 despite having the defender Toto Nsiala sent off in the 34th minute.
Jay Stansfield struck a late penalty as Birmingham came from behind to beat Rotherham 2-1 and maintain their unbeaten home record. Sam Nombe had put Rotherham in front with a header at the end of the first half but Stansfield pulled Blues level soon after the restart and kept his cool to convert a spot-kick with nine minutes left.
Wrexham kept up their promotion drive with a 2-1 win at Crawley after a stoppage-time header from Elliot Lee. Matty James’s early goal appeared to have set the Welsh side on course for victory but Bradley Ibrahim equalised in the 90th-minute before the dramatic finish.
Stockport are fourth after Kyle Wootton’s early goal gave them a 1-0 win at playoff rivals Leyton Orient. Playoff hopefuls Huddersfield lost more ground after a 3-2 defeat at Northampton, despite a late fightback from 3-0 down with 20 minutes left.
The new Bolton manager, Steven Schumacher, saw his side slip to a 1-0 defeat at Reading after Harvey Knibbs scored a late penalty. Barnsley were held to a goalless draw by Burton at Oakwell and Niall Ennis scored a late goal to give Blackpool a 2-2 draw against Charlton, who had been 2-0 up early in the second half.
Stevenage came from behind to beat Exeter 4-1 at the Lamex Stadium, Jordan Roberts scoring twice, and Lincoln snatched a 1-1 draw at Wigan with a late goal from James Collins, who scored the rebound after his 88th-minute penalty had been saved. Ben Fisher and PA Media
Burnley lost ground on the top two after being held to a goalless draw at Portsmouth. The Clarets maintained their remarkable defensive record, James Trafford’s 20th clean sheet of the season making it 770 minutes without conceding a league goal – the longest run in their history – but were unable to break down their struggling hosts and created few clear chances.
Relegation-threatened Plymouth came from behind to upset promotion hopefuls West Brom with a 2-1 win at Home Park. The substitute striker Ryan Hardie’s late double snatched a first victory under their new manager, Miron Muslic, and ended a 15-match winless league streak stretching back to 1 November. The substitute Jayson Molumby’s first meaningful contribution was to open the scoring after 74 minutes. But Callum Styles handled Hardie’s shot from inside the box at close range and the referee, Dean Whitestone, pointed to the spot. Hardie sent Alex Palmer the wrong way to equalise. The Scot doubled his tally in the 88th minute after latching on to a brilliant curling pass from Tymoteusz Puchacz.
Josh Sargent hit the winner as Norwich kept their playoff hopes on track with a 1-0 victory at 10-man Watford, turning up the pressure on Tom Cleverley. The first-half strike by the American was enough against opponents who had Vakoun Bayo dismissed in the first half. The Ivorian forward was given a straight red card after 34 minutes, when he appeared to shove Emiliano Marcondes in the throat at a corner. Norwich scored four minutes before the interval, when a Marcondes free-kick deflected to Lucien Mahovo, who forced a save before Sargent drove home from close range.
Coventry were unable to parade new signing Matt Grimes at his forming stamping ground but they were still far too strong for Swansea as they made it four wins in a row with a 2-0 victory. Grimes was formally announced as a Sky Blues player on Friday and left south Wales after a decade of service. Having not missed a game since March 2023, his former teammates looked lost without him. First-half goals from Ellis Simms and Brandon Thomas-Asante took Coventry up to 11th, three points adrift of the playoffs. Swansea are without a win in seven games this year and have lost their past four Championship matches to stay in 17th.
The substitute Andrew Moran’s second-half goal earned Stoke a 2-1 win at fellow strugglers Hull. Moran controlled and smartly followed up Lewis Koumas’s misdirected 74th-minute effort on goal to give Mark Robins a first league win since joining in January. Eliot Matazo opened the scoring on his first start for the hosts but his sixth-minute strike was cancelled out by the debutant Ali Al-Hamadi just before half-time.
Quick GuideLeague Two: Walsall rescue late draw from 2-0 down
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Danny Johnson scored twice in the final 12 minutes as the leaders Walsall fought back to draw 2-2 against Salford. Doncaster made it four successive league wins after beating MK Dons 2-1, leaving them seven points behind Walsall having played a match more.
Notts County had earlier won 2-1 at Gillingham to make it five games unbeaten while AFC Wimbledon beat Bradford 1-0 with an early goal from James Tilley to sit fourth.
Crewe had to settle for a point after a 1-1 draw at Harrogate and Port Vale overcame an early red card for the defender Tom Sang to beat Accrington 2-1. Morecambe secured bragging rights over derby rivals Fleetwood with a 4-2 win at the Globe Arena, where Andy Dallas scored twice to lift them off the bottom.
Swindon romped to a 5-1 win at Carlisle, who had their midfielder Jordan Jones sent off in the second half and now sit bottom. Arkell Jude-Boyd’s stoppage-time strike gave Cheltenham a 1-0 home win over Chesterfield. Grimsby won 2-0 at Bromley, where they finished with 10 men after a red card for the substitute Lewis Cass in stoppage time.
Connor Mahoney struck in added time as Barrow fought back to draw 1-1 at Newport while Lyle Taylor scored twice to give Colchester a 3-1 win at Tranmere. PA Media
Mark Sykes struck a superb equaliser to earn a Bristol City team who finished with nine men a 1-1 draw at Oxford in Liam Manning’s first return to the Kassam Stadium. The former Oxford midfielder finished a brilliantly worked free-kick with a 20-yard shot into the top corner. The draw is a morale boost to the Robins’ playoff hopes because they had to play for more than an hour with 10 men after Joe Williams was shown a straight red in the 31st minute for a bad foul on Will Vaulks. Ross McCrorie was then dismissed in the 86th minute for a second yellow card. Greg Leigh put Oxford in front in the 59th minute.
Sheffield Wednesday kept up their playoff push after coming from behind to draw 1-1 with relegation-threatened Luton. Alfie Doughty gave the visitors a first-half lead before the substitute Michael Smith levelled from the penalty spot. Luke Cundle struck the winner on his debut as Millwall claimed a third successive league victory, 2-1 at home to QPR. Millwall were ahead after only 29 seconds through Aaron Connolly before Alfie Lloyd equalised. However, Cundle’s header after 25 minutes proved the difference as Millwall enjoyed a first league win at the Den under boss Alex Neil, having claimed back-to-back victories on the road during the previous week.
