Blades take Villa apart in brilliant win
Sheffield United demolished sorry Aston Villa as a devastating first- half performance set them on their way to a fourth successive victory.
Goals by Jack O’connell, Oliver Norwood, Mark Duffy and Billy Sharp earned Chris Wilder’s rampant team a 4-1 Championship win at Bramall Lane.
Anwar El Ghazi pulled one back for Villa in the 61st minute, slotting home after some neat play, but there was no cause for celebration for the visitors.
Birmingham failed dismally to drag themselves out of the doldrums after being held to a goalless home draw by QPR.
Although the early exchanges favoured Birmingham the home side were fortunate in the ninth minute when their skipper Michael Morrison became entangled with Nakhi Wells and brought down the Rangers’ striker in the penalty area, only to escape without any punishment.
Luke Freeman had a better opportunity of giving Rangers the lead only to fire straight at Camp from just inside the penalty area.
Brentford head coach Dean Smith believes his young squad moved up to “the next level” in their hard-fought win over Nottingham Forest.
Goals from Lewis Macleod and Ollie Watkins were enough to end Forest’s unbeaten start to the season, with Matty Cash managing a consolation for Aitor Karanka’s side.
Smith said: “It was a tough game to play in because Forest posed some very different questions, but we have problem-solvers all over the pitch now.”
Florian Jozefzoon’s late strike saw Derby inflict a fourth successive defeat on struggling Hull as Frank Lampard’s Rams claimed a 2-1 Sky Bet Championship win.
Martynwaghorn scored from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute after David Nugent was brought down by Jordy de Wijs to give Derby a well-deserved lead before Todd Kane equalised against the run of play for Hull.
Jozefzoon’s deflected shot beat David Marshall in the Hull goal with just two minutes left on the clock to pile the pressure on Tigers boss Nigel Adkins.
Reading remain winless in the Championship after six matches this season following a 2- 1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at Madejski Stadium.
Wednesday dominated much of the first half and went ahead early on when midfielder Adam Reach finished off an excellent team move.
They increased their lead just 15 seconds after half time when Lucas Joao drove in his third goal in two games.
Although Reading did reduce the gap in the 64th minute, through a Liam Moore header, Wednesday held on relatively comfortably.