The endless drudgery of scoring work
Nottingham Forest’s Lewis Grabban celebrates after scoring against Brentford during their English Championship League football match at City Ground. Forest outscored bottom-half side Brentford 2-1 thanks to two goals apiece from Grabban and Molla Wague as they put their recent goal-scoring problems firmly behind them.
Meanwhile, Graham Potter hailed the better connection between their supporters and his young squad. George Byers fired Swans into Play-off place hunt position in the Championship. A promising Swansea faced struggling Millwall, buoyed by a stunning 3-2 win over Everton in FA cup fourth round.
Elsewhere, QPR looked to be heading for their frantic league draw of the season at Loftus Road but Birmingham’s four goals in 42 minutes succumbed Steve McClaren’s men a heartbroken 3-4 defeat. Just when it seemed they would run out of time, Matt Smith scored in both half immediately in reply to their 4-0 slump. Jordan Cousin’s 80th minute strike cannot earned London side a hard-fought comeback.
Billy Sharp deserved some praise after his hat-trick and his 100th goal for Sheffield United. The leading scorer put on a man-of-the-match performance to add three goals to his tally to 22 this season to celebrate his 33rd birthday. Sheffield United looked set to see out their opponent before a frenetic finale in which Aston Villa edged in front only for Andre Green to equalise for the hosts deep into 90th-minute. Finally, Aston Villa fought back to salvage a point in a deft fashion on Friday night.
Kalvin Phillips opened his scoring account this season by heading home an equaliser in the 11th minute of injury time against Middlesbrough after Boro’s Lewis Wing taking the lead just after the break.
A set-piece separated both side when Callum O’Dowda placed a pin-point corner towards Eros Pisano to score the single goal of the game from close range for Bristol City.
Derby County are still in search their Play-off place although they defeated Hull City in their 2-0 victory. Moreover, Martin Waghorn’s double is enough to help the Rams to tie their points on 50-mark with Bristol City.
The 1-0 triumph came courtesy of the closed-ranged finish in set-play achieved by on-loan Newcastle striker, Dwight Gayle, as WBA bounced back from a home defeat to Middlesbrough last week.
An entertaining encounter down University of Bolton Stadium which seen Preston North End’s side dominate most of the game and create much more chances than Bolton. Phil Parkinson was disappointed to see Clayton Donaldson only scored his team a consolation goal after Browne and Barkhuizen finding the net in either side of half time.
Josh Windass smashed in an equaliser for Wigan to draw 1-1 which extends his goal-scoring run in a third successive game to undo all Rotherham United’s good work.
Reading’s draw in Sheffield moves them 1 point behind fourth-bottom Rotherham United and from safety, with none of the bottom-six sides winning except Ipswich Town, while the Tractor boys will play the Old Farm derby on Sunday.