Championship round-up: Norwich City run riot as Ipswich Town and Coventry City keep up the pace

It was another important night at both ends of the Championship table on Tuesday as Coventry City and Ipswich Town picked up key victories in the midweek action.

Haji Wright struck the decisive blow once again, after his winner against Leicester City at the weekend, as Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues saw off play-off hopefuls Millwall, but Ipswich kept pace at the top end of the table as Kieran McKenna’s side made it seven games unbeaten with a fifth straight win in all competitions.

Elsewhere, Norwich City handed fellow strugglers West Bromwich Albion a heavy defeat, scoring five to climb out of the relegation zone and drag the Baggies closer to trouble.

Here is the full round-up of Tuesday night’s Championship action.

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Coventry City 2-1 Millwall

League leaders Coventry beat Millwall 2-1 at the CBS Arena as Wright scored the winner for the second time in three days.

The USA International had been recalled to the starting line-up following his performance at the weekend, and he was heavily involved in the opener.

Ephron Mason-Clark’s cross to the back post picked out Wright, whose header was saved before on loan-Crystal Palace winger Romain Esse was on hand to prod home the rebound and open his account for the Sky Blues against his former side.

Mihailo Ivanovic equalised for Millwall in spectacular fashion as the Serbian found space between two Coventry defenders and stuck out his right leg to hook Femi Azeez’s inswinging cross into the far corner.

Coventry got their noses back in front with the help of substitutes Brandon Thomas-Asante and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.

Thomas-Asante got in front of Lions defender Jake Cooper as Sakamoto swung his cross in from the right and set the ball back for Wright, whose left-footed effort had too much power on it for Max Crocombe in the Millwall goal to notch his 10th goal of the season.

Ipswich Town 2-0 Bristol City

A brace from Jack Clarke helped move Ipswich up into second spot in the Championship table and made it four league wins on the trot after downing play-off chasers Bristol City 2-0 at Portman Road.

Town leapfrogged Middlesbrough by a point, who play on Wednesday, while they remain eight off table toppers Coventry, who won at home to Millwall 2-1, but have a game in hand on both Boro and the Sky Blues.

Town struck early on with Clarke’s low effort into the bottom corner of the goal, his ninth goal of the season.

Jens Cajuste spun in the City half and fed the winger, who darted inside and finished across City’s Czech goalkeeper Radek Vitek from inside the penalty area.

Vitek later miraculously tipped over a shot from Ivan Azon to prevent Ipswich from going 2-0 ahead.

Wes Burns pulled the ball back and Jens Cajuste’s shot was blocked, but the ball spun loose and Azon fired at goal from four yards out, but Vitek somehow reacted amazingly and tipped the ball over the bar.

Town stretched their lead, however, when Azon picked up a headed clearance from Dara O’Shea and squared the ball to Clarke, who fired past Vitek to seal the game for the home side.

West Bromwich Albion 0-5 Norwich City

West Brom were plunged into a Championship relegation battle as improving Norwich won 5-0 at The Hawthorns.

Oscar Schwartau scored the only goal of the first half, unleashing a sweet low drive from 25 yards into the bottom corner of the net, giving goalkeeper Josh Griffiths no chance.

Not surprisingly, Albion were booed off at the interval and new boss Eric Ramsay rang the changes.

However, it was the visitors’ substitutes who made the immediate impact, with Anis Ben Slimane teeing up Ali Ahmed for his first goal for the Canaries, side-footing into the far corner to make it 2-0.

The home side were made to pay for missed chances as Slimane bundled home the third after Griffiths tipped his first effort onto the post.

That was the cue for thousands of Albion fans to exit, accompanied by angry chants of “You’re not fit to wear the shirt”.

Ben Chrisene then lashed home Norwich’s fourth goal into the roof of the net after two defenders made a hash of clearing Kenny McLean’s free-kick.

Mathias Kvistgaarden completed the rout, tapping home the fifth after a jinking run by Papa Amadou Diallo.

Albion have now lost four Championship games in a row and have suffered eight losses in their last 10, Norwich moving to within a point of their hosts.

Preston 0-3 Hull City

Liam Millar scored against his former side before Oli McBurnie rounded off Hull City’s thumping 3-0 win over Preston North End in style.

Preston fell behind as a result of their own sloppiness, overcommitting on an experimental corner routine and allowing the counter to open up, with David Akintola blitzing down the field before squaring to Millar for a simple finish.

Hull doubled their advantage when defender Akin Famewo thumped his first for the club past a host of bodies having been teed up by McBurnie with Preston failing to clear their lines from a corner.

Lilywhites boss Paul Heckingbottom made changes at half time but it was Yu Hirakawa, coming on for his Tigers debut, who made the quickest impact – pinging the ball to McBurnie with just his second touch for the former Sheffield United forward to engineer a bicycle kick from close range that Jack Walton got a strong hand to but failed to keep out.

Milutin Osmajic received his marching orders at the end amid a scuffle between him and John Lundstram to cap off a bleak night for the play-off chasing hosts.

Charlton Athletic 1-2 Derby County

Derby County boosted their play-off ambitions with a rare win in London and a back-to-back away victory as John Eustace’s side won 2-1 at lowly Charlton Athletic.

The visitors’ preparations were hindered in the warm-up with goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterstrom pulling out of the team before kick-off with a virus.

Much-travelled 37-year-old Richard O’Donnell was promoted from the bench for his County debut and a first Championship appearance since May 2017.

Derby went ahead when Patrick Agyemang reached the byline and drilled in a low cross which Addicks defender Macaulay Gillesphey could only divert into his own net.

Bobby Clark made it 2-0 when he latched on to a neat Ben Brereton-Diaz through-ball and finished past Thomas Kaminski.

Charlton pulled one back when Tyreece Campbell, their liveliest player on the night, curled home from the edge of the box.

O’Donnell then came to Derby’s rescue with a superb late save from Gillesphey’s free-kick.

The Rams held out despite Matt Clarke’s dismissal, a second booking for a foul on Kayne Ramsay, five minutes from the end.

It was Derby’s seventh victory on the road this season, and their first in the capital since 2021.

Sheffield Wednesday 0-2 Birmingham City

Late goals from Marvin Ducksch and Kyogo Furuhashi halted Birmingham City’s away-day blues in a 2-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday, who set an unwanted club record.

Rock-bottom Wednesday’s winless league run was extended to 21 matches – the longest in the club’s history and also a record in the Championship era.

The Owls, destined for League One with just one win in the Championship this season, had a number of absentees as Henrik Pedersen’s threadbare squad was reduced to 14 in the build-up to the match.

Wednesday defended valiantly throughout the match as Birmingham chased a late breakthrough and the decisive goal came when Ducksch turned home Jay Stansfield’s cross at the far post.

Blues added a second late on when Furuhashi pounced on a back pass and slid the ball home after rounding Murphy Cooper as Chris Davies’ side won on the road for the first time since a 1-0 win at Preston on October 21.

Wrexham 1-1 Leicester City

Jannik Vestergaard’s 90th-minute equaliser denied Wrexham a win that would have put them within a whisker of the Championship play-off places as Leicester City held them to a 1-1 draw.

The breakthrough arrived when Liberato Cacace’s low cross towards Kieffer Moore was deflected by Caleb Okoli to wrong-foot Foxes keeper Jakub Stolarczyk, and as he failed to clear, Lewis O’Brien arrived to rifle into the unguarded net for his fourth league goal of the season.

Chances dried up as the game became scrappy, but Wrexham’s failure to add a second goal would cost them in the closing stages.

Just when it looked like it was all over, Jordan Ayew won a free-kick and chipped the ball into the box. Okoli flicked it on, and Vestergaard swept home.

The result leaves Wrexham ninth, two points from the top six, while Leicester – without a clean sheet in their last 22 Championship games – drop to 14th.

Swansea City 3-1 Blackburn Rovers

Zan Vipotnik’s double helped Swansea City to a 3-1 victory to pile more pressure on Blackburn Rovers manager Valerien Ismael.

The Swans took the lead when Rovers defender Tom Atcheson’s header from Ethan Galbraith’s cross went straight to Vipotnik and the Slovenian was left with a straightforward volley.

It was all too easy for Swansea, but they became complacent and were made to pay when Galbraith lost possession and Brandon Powell got behind the defence, squaring the ball for Mathias Jorgensen to slide in the equaliser for Blackburn.

However, the visitors conceded another soft goal to leave themselves trailing again as Jisung Eom’s low cross took two deflections off Blackburn players, the last of which struck Connor O’Riordan to fly past keeper Balazs Toth for a bizarre own goal.

Swansea made it 3-1 with a second for Vipotnik as Blackburn failed to mark the striker at a corner, which gave him all the space he needed to head home at the near post from Josh Tymon’s cross.

Vipotnik now has 15 goals in all competitions this season, 13 of them in the Championship.

Defeat leaves Blackburn with just one win in their last 13 matches under Ismael, winless in six league games and hovering above the relegation zone only on goal difference.

Oxford United 0-0 QPR

Matt Bloomfield is still looking for his first win as Oxford United manager after a second successive 0-0 draw, this time against Queens Park Rangers.

QPR held the relegation-threatened Us goalless in a game of few chances played in difficult conditions, and for Rangers too it was a second stalemate in succession after their battling draw at Stoke City last weekend.

The result does not help Oxford’s cause, although they did close the gap on Portsmouth and Blackburn above them to four points.

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