Championship wrap: Leicester regain top spot as Southampton slip to defeat

admin admin | 04-21 08:16

Leicester bounced back from successive defeats and returned to the top of the Championship with a 2-1 victory over West Brom.

West Brom looked the more likely to score an opener but against the run of play Wilfred Ndidi scored on the rebound after Alex Palmer kept out Jamie Vardy's close-range header.

Vardy struck a post from a second-half penalty but made amends shortly after when he headed home.

The Foxes were made to sweat for the three points when Jed Wallace pulled a goal back but they hung on to move two points ahead of Ipswich and four clear of Leeds.

Southampton’s hopes of making it a four-way fight for automatic promotion took a huge hit after Cian Ashford’s stoppage-time strike consigned the Saints to a 2-1 defeat at Cardiff.

Russell Martin’s side, who were without the injured Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, appeared to be on their way to a fourth successive win when Joe Aribo gave them a 12th-minute lead.

But Cardiff hit back with an equaliser through Famara Diedhiou in the 68th minute and won it six minutes into added time when Ashford’s 30-yard strike was deflected past Alex McCarthy.

One-cap England international Alex McCarthy stepped in for Ireland stopper Gavin Bazunu

Stoke earned a crucial three points in their fight for survival with a crushing 3-0 win over fellow strugglers Plymouth.

Ki-Jana Hoever and Million Manhoef gave the Potters a comfortable half-time lead and substitute Wouter Burger swept home in stoppage time to seal all three points for Steven Schumacher’s team against his old side.

Huddersfield’s hopes of staying up took a damaging blow as they were thrashed 4-0 by Swansea at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Swansea hit the front in the 73rd minute through Jamal Lowe and that opened the floodgates as Ronald, Jerry Yates and Liam Walsh added further goals to leave Huddersfield two points adrift of safety.

Birmingham edged further clear of the Terriers with a 0-0 draw at already-relegated Rotherham in a match that was delayed for over 30 minutes due to a medical emergency in the crowd.

Borja Sainz’s equaliser for Norwich was not enough to seal their Championship play-off spot as they drew 1-1 with Bristol City following Haydon Roberts’ opener.

QPR all but secured their safety as they ran out 1-0 winners over Preston thanks to Lyndon Dykes’ strike on the 20-minute mark.

Former Sunderland striker Duncan Watmore scored against his old side to edge Millwall further away from the relegation zone with a 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light while Hull missed the chance to close the gap on the play-offs as they drew 0-0 with Watford.

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