A crazy weekend of Championship action saw a new unbeaten leader in West Brom take the reins at the summit as the battle for promotion continues to tighten up.
Nottingham Forest first went top on Friday night as they took a 3-2 away win at rock-bottom Stoke, in which they came from behind to a tenth minute strike by Lee Gregory to lead 3-1 before James McLean’s 84th minute header reduced the Potters’ eventual deficit.
Forest were soon displaced at the summit by West Brom who snatched top spot on Saturday lunchtime through second-half goals from Nathan Ferguson and Mattheus Pereira against QPR, although the latter’s goal came from a free-kick after Yoann Barbet saw red for a rash challenge on Hal Robson-Kanu late on.
Leeds then suffered a shock defeat at sixth-placed Charlton through Macauley Bonne’s scrappy 32nd minute goal, dropping them to fourth, as Swansea earned a 1-1 home draw with Reading to take second from Forest.
Preston meanwhile slid to fifth after fighting their way through a six goal thriller to earn a point against Bristol City.
Taylor Moore and Andreas Weimann put the Robins two goals up shortly before half-time, only for penalties from Paul Gallagher and Daniel Johnson either side of the break to restore parity with 39 minutes left.
Preston soon lost the lead again when Ashley Williams set up Nathan Baker to put Bristol City back ahead on the hour mark, which only lasted ten minutes because Patrick Bauer then headed in a cross to restore parity in a 3-3 draw.
Embed from Getty ImagesDown at the bottom, Huddersfield stayed second-bottom as Kamil Grabara’s 41st minute dropped error allowed Matt Smith to cancel out Frazier Campbell’s opener as both teams shared the points, despite Shane Ferguson seeing red late on for a silly challenge on Adama Diakhaby.
Brentford came from behind through a headed hat-trick from Ollie Watkins to defeat third-bottom Barnsley, who had led from a first minute strike by Cauley Woodrow.
Elsewhere, Derby survived a Birmingham City fight-back from two goals down as Jamie Paterson’s 74th minute winner concluded a controversial week of off pitch drama on a positive note.
Matty Pearson’s header secured victory for Luton against his former team in Blackburn Rovers, who had initially equalised through a Lewis Travis strike to cancel out James Collins’ headed opener.
Sheffield Wednesday climbed to seventh as they ran riot in a 4-1 away win at Middlesbrough, who saw Adam Clayton open the scoring with a fifth minute headed own goal before Dominic Iorfa then added to the Owls’ lead a minute later until Paddy McNair then halved the deficit with 19 minutes gone.
Adam Reach then scored against his former club before turning provider for Steven Fletcher shortly afterwards as Wednesday secured a dominant win, despite Boro blowing decent second-half chances to get back into the game.
Fulham dispatched Wigan through second-half goals from Joe Bryan and Tom Cairney, as the Latics remain winless on their travels
Finally, Cardiff twice came from behind to snatch a 2-2 draw at Hull, who had twice led through Kamil Grosicki and Jordy de Wils but strikes from Robert Glatzel and Danny Ward resulted in both teams picking up a point.
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