Championship roundup: Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough drop points as Coventry City go eight points clear

Coventry City flexed their growing Championship advantage by moving eight points clear at the summit, while midweek twists saw both Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough drop vital points in the promotion race.

Boro were undone by Charlton Athletic, failing to make it three wins in a row as they chase the Sky Blues, who defeated Preston North End.

Despite coming back from 2-0 down, Ipswich were pegged back by Stoke City after conceding a late penalty to drop two points, while Hull City notched another win in a play-off scrap against Wrexham and Millwall added three more points to their promotion push.

Elsewhere, the battle to avoid relegation saw Oxford United and Leicester City secure wins, while West Bromwich Albion settled for a draw.

Here is a full roundup of the midweek Championship action.

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Coventry City 3-0 Preston North End

Goals from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Brandon Thomas-Asante in the first half were followed by Matt Grimes’ penalty after half-time to hand Coventry the three points in this contest.

The Sky Blues secured their sixth consecutive win, whilst a third defeat on the bounce left Preston with just one win in 11 games.

Sakamoto’s opener came in fortunate fashion. Frank Onkeya’s crossfield pass was headed into the path of the Japanese winger, who took aim from outside the box and saw his effort take a wicked deflection off Ben Whiteman, leaving Daniel Iverson wrong-footed in the Preston goal.

Frank Lampard’s men doubled their lead just past the half-hour mark through Thomas-Asante, as Liam Kitching’s back-post header fell to Ellis Simms, whose determination meant he was able to get a shot off, which was spectacularly pushed onto the bar by Iversen, and Thomas-Asante was on hand to bundle in from close range.

The Sky Blues extended their lead at the start of the second half when Pol Valentin was adjudged to have brought down Ephron Mason-Clark in the box.

Captain Grimes stepped up to send Iversen the wrong way to score his second goal of the season.

Stoke City 3-3 Ipswich Town

Ipswich’s automatic promotion hopes were dented after Milan Smit scored a very late equaliser from the penalty spot to earn Stoke a 3-3 draw in an enthralling Championship clash.

The result moves Kieran McKenna’s side to within four points of second-placed Middlesborough, who lost to Charlton.

As for Stoke, they now have just one win from their last 11 league matches, but a valuable point sees them remain in 15th.

The Potters went ahead in the 35th minute as Million Manhoef’s shot against the post bounced out to Tomas Rigo, who managed to work the ball to Smit for the on-loan Go Ahead Eagles striker to turn it home from close range and register his first goal for the club.

And Mark Robins’ side doubled their advantage just before half-time, when Bae Jun-ho Bae fired past Christian Walton after pressure from Rigo forced Jack Taylor into a poor pass backwards high up the pitch.

A fortunate deflection saw Ipswich halve the deficit shortly after the break as Wes Burns’ shot ricocheted off Eric Bocat and fizzed past Tommy Simkin for an own goal.

The visitors’ pressure continued to build, and it finally told in the 64th minute as Taylor’s first-time half-volley from the edge of the area found its way into the net after Stoke failed to properly clear a long throw into the box.

The comeback was complete when George Hirst latched onto Cedric Kipre’s through-ball to slot home in the 82nd minute.

But Smit was on hand to score from the penalty spot in the dying moments after Kipre fouled substitute Lamine Cisse in the area, ensuring the spoils were shared.

Middlesbrough 0-1 Charlton Athletic

Charlton continued their push for Championship safety with a 1-0 win over promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough at the Riverside.

A frustrating first half saw Boro control proceedings and their best opportunity arose just after the half-hour mark when Aidan Morris’ strike was pushed onto the crossbar by Will Mannion.

Although the Teessiders enjoyed plenty of chances, it was the Addicks who tasted victory to move them nine points clear of the relegation zone and put a dent in Boro’s bid for automatic promotion as they slumped to an eighth league defeat of the season.

The visitors scored the only goal of the game in the 59th minute when Harry Clarke’s long throw-in evaded everyone in the box to reach Conor Coady, who stuck a foot out to poke the ball home.

The Charlton defence held on under pressure from the Boro attack to clinch the three points.

Wrexham 1-2 Hull City

Hull took advantage of an FA Cup hangover for Wrexham to strengthen their grip on a Championship play-off place with a 2-1 win in north Wales that put them six points clear of the Red Dragons.

The hosts, with co-owner Ryan Reynolds watching on, threatened a late comeback, but their rally fell short as Hull made it eight wins from their last 10 league games on the road.

Wrexham’s run of three consecutive wins came to a halt, costing them a chance to go fifth themselves and leaving them only three points above Derby County, albeit with a game in hand.

The opening goal of the game came when Callum Doyle charged into Charlie Hughes to concede a free-kick and Joe Gelhardt whipped it into the top corner despite a hand from Arthur Okonkwo.

Two minutes later, Hull had a penalty as Gelhardt went down under Doyle’s challenge after a neat one-two with Oliver McBurnie, but Gelhardt could not capitalise as Okonkwo was down smartly to his left to keep Wrexham in the game.

Wrexham improved after going behind, but Hull doubled their lead just after the hour following a swift counter-attack.

Lewis Koumas led a charge downfield, which ended with Okonkwo keeping out Liam Millar’s shot. From the resulting corner, Millar whipped in a cross and Koumas nodded in.

Wrexham got back in the game with 14 minutes left when substitute Issa Kabore sent in a looping cross and Nathan Broadhead arrived on cue to turn it home, but it was too little too late for the Welsh side.

Millwall 1-0 Derby County

Josh Coburn’s header earned promotion-chasing Millwall a fourth straight win in the Championship as they ground out a 1-0 victory against Derby at The Den.

The Lions rode their luck during a nervy end in which the Rams passed up a succession of chances as their play-off push took a blow.

Millwall – who have won seven of their last nine games – find themselves one point behind second-placed Middlesbrough.

The breakthrough for the hosts arrived in the 43rd minute when Barry Bannan’s free-kick was headed up by a Derby defender, with Tristan Crama doing well to hook the ball back in for Coburn to head in from close range.

Leicester City 2-0 Bristol City

Leicester moved out of the Championship relegation places after first-half goals from Ben Nelson and Abdul Fatawu earned a 2-0 win at home to Bristol City.

Gary Rowett’s side stopped a run of four straight home defeats, as well as ending a winless league run dating back to January 5.

The Foxes’ success doubled as a third straight league loss for Bristol City, who were also knocked out of the FA Cup by Port Vale this month and are seeing play-off hopes fade fast.

Leicester took the lead in the 13th minute through Nelson’s header from a free-kick to the back post delivered by Jordan James. Defender Nelson outjumped a cluster of challengers to power past Radek Vitek.

Mavididi hit a post in the 24th minute after Neto Borges had let Fatawu get away from him on the right, but Leicester doubled their lead four minutes later.

Bobby De Cordova-Reid attempted an acrobatic shot from Mavididi’s cross from the right – and succeeded in setting Fatawu up for a volley of his own from beyond the back post that went in off Vitek’s arm.

The Robins were awarded a penalty in the 63rd minute when Emil Riis was brought down by Nelson chasing Tomi Horvat’s pass into the box.

Riis took the spot-kick himself, but Leicester goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk dived to his left to make an excellent save.

Oxford United 1-0 Blackburn Rovers

Jamie Donley’s first Oxford goal brought Matt Bloomfield’s men a 1-0 victory over Blackburn in a crunch relegation battle at the Kassam Stadium – and a third straight win for the first time since they returned to the Championship in 2024.

On-loan Tottenham forward Donley fired them in front in the 34th minute, following up after Rovers keeper Balazs Toth could only parry Myles Peart-Harris’ header from a right-wing cross by Stan Mills, for the only goal of the game.

The win was not enough to lift Oxford out of the bottom three, but they moved to within a point of Blackburn in a fierce battle at the bottom of the table.

West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Southampton

A last-minute equaliser rescued a point for Southampton from a 1-1 draw at West Brom and denied the relegation-threatened Baggies a first Championship victory of 2026.

West Brom have not triumphed in the league since beating Queens Park Rangers on December 28 as their winless run extended to 13 matches, keeping them in the relegation zone.

Leicester’s win on Tuesday meant the home side needed to respond after they started the night in the bottom three.

Whilst the Saints’ unbeaten run extended to nine matches, they missed the chance to close the gap on the Championship play-off places to just a point.

West Brom hit the front in the last minute of the first period. Daryl Dike showed great hunger to get his head to a pair of headers in the box.

His first one was stopped by Daniel Peretz before the second one bounced the way of Jayson Molumby, who bundled home from inside the six-yard box.

As the rare win was looking more realistic, West Brom sat deeper and Southampton punished them.

Just as Tonda Eckert’s men were running out of time, substitute Samuel Edozie flung in a teasing ball which Cyle Larin nodded goalwards, and it bounced off the bar and post before trickling past Max O’Leary.

Norwich City 2-1 Sheffield United

Amankwah Forson struck a late winner as Norwich City came from behind to maintain their impressive Championship form with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Sheffield United at Carrow Road.

The Canaries secured an eighth win in 10 league games. From being mired in a relegation fight at the turn of the year, Phillippe Clement’s in-form side are now comfortably ensconced in mid-table, just nine points off the play-off zone, a point behind the Blades.

The visitors, however, opened the scoring in the 21st minute.

When Kenny McLean was beaten to a high ball on the left, it was worked to Callum O’Hare, who darted inside before squaring for Jairo Riedewald to calmly side-foot home from some 10 yards out.

Blades goalkeeper Adam Davies could do nothing as the hosts scored a deserved equaliser from a corner on 68 minutes, with Jack Stacey heading home to level the scores.

The Canaries continued to press and got their noses in front in the 84th minute as two substitutes combined in explosive fashion.

Paris Maghoma was the architect with a break from midfield and an inch-perfect pass to the left, where Forson, who had only been on the pitch for a couple of minutes, found the top corner with a sublime finish.

Birmingham City 1-0 QPR

Birmingham City breathed life back into their Championship play-off push with a narrow but deserved 1-0 victory over QPR at St Andrew’s on Wednesday night.

Patrick Roberts scored the only goal of the game in the sixth minute and that earned Chris Davies’ side all three points to move them to within five points of the top six.

The Blues broke the deadlock quickly. Brighton loanee Ibrahim Osman skilfully gave Amadou Mbengue the slip on the left-hand side and guided the ball into the path of Roberts, who coolly finished first time beyond Hoops goalkeeper Joe Walsh.

A host of Birmingham players were adamant that defender Ronnie Edwards had handled the ball in the penalty area when he sought to repel the onrushing Paik Seung-ho from meeting Jay Stansfield’s pull-back, but referee Anthony Backhouse overlooked those appeals.

Ultimately, one goal proved to be enough for Birmingham to move up to 10th and leave QPR down in 18th after four-straight defeats.

Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 Watford

Vivaldo Semedo’s 90th-minute equaliser denied Sheffield Wednesday their first win in 31 games as Watford earned a barely-deserved 1-1 draw at Hillsborough.

Wednesday was minutes away from ending a wretched winless run going back to September before the visitors grabbed a late equaliser.

However, the draw does see the Owls register their first point of 2026, ending a 13-game losing streak in the Championship.

In a season of endless pain for Wednesday’s fans, this will sting on a day it was revealed that Mike Ashley has submitted a bid to buy the crisis club.

Watford got away with it and the draw says more about their failings as their faint play-off hopes took a hit.

Hornets keeper Egil Selvik was picking the ball out of the net in the 54th minute as the Owls took a shock lead.

A nice move saw Sean Fusire cross for Jerry Yates, who powered home his third goal in three games.

However, there was a sting in the tale for the battle-weary Owls as Semedo bundled home after his initial shot had been palmed away by Pierce Charles.

Portsmouth 1-2 Swansea City

Ethan Galbraith and Josh Key’s goals pushed Portsmouth towards the Championship relegation fight as Swansea City boosted their play-off hopes with a 2-1 away victory.

Galbraith and Key both scored eye-catching goals from the edge of the area as the Swans belied their away-day woes with their first league victory at Fratton Park since 1959 to move within five points of the play-off places.

Pompey sit four points ahead of the relegation zone, and could be closer after Wednesday’s fixtures.

In the 26th minute, the visitors claimed the lead through a wonderful Galbraith finish, but it owed much to a fantastic build-up.

Lawrence Vigouroux’s stunning 70-yard diagonal picked out Eom Ji-sung before Josh Tymon recovered from a blocked shot to lay off to Galbraith – who curled home for his fourth goal of the season.

It took just 13 minutes for the Swans to double their advantage when Key was given plenty of time and space on the edge of the box to loop over Nicolas Schmid, with the aid of a deflection.

The home fans were disapproving of the first-half performance and booed the players off at the interval.

Pompey had lost their previous two home matches without scoring, with three blanks in a row not seen at Fratton Park since 2008.

And the barren run was finally beaten in the 66th minute when Jacob Brown headed in Zak Swanson’s cross, but Pompey could not salvage a point.

Championship – Midweek results

Birmingham City 1–0 Queens Park Rangers
Coventry City 3–0 Preston North End
Leicester City 2–0 Bristol City
Middlesbrough 0–1 Charlton Athletic
Millwall 1–0 Derby County
Norwich City 2–1 Sheffield United
Oxford United 1–0 Blackburn Rovers
Portsmouth 1–2 Swansea City
Sheffield Wednesday 1–1 Watford
Stoke City 3–3 Ipswich Town
West Bromwich Albion 1–1 Southampton
Wrexham 1–2 Hull City

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