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Frank Lampard insisted the title race was never over after his Coventry side were frustrated in a 1-1 draw at 10-man Preston as their Championship lead was reduced to five points.
After Andrew Hughes deflected Jack Rudoni’s shot into his own net, it seemed as if Coventry would bounce back strongly from their 3-0 defeat by Ipswich at the weekend.
But despite that, and the man advantage after Liam Lindsay was sent off for dragging back Haji Wright when he was through on goal, Daniel Jebbison struck late to help Middlesbrough to move to within five points of the top.
Lampard, the Coventry manager, said: “I am the first one to say that when we were 10 points clear and people don’t go 10 points clear in December and win this league.
“There is a lot to be done and it is important that the players stay level-headed and it is one game in which we played pretty well, and one moment was costly. I said to the players it shouldn’t feel like a loss but it does because of the standards and the way that we play.”
Middlesbrough extended Kim Hellberg’s perfect start as manager with a 2-1 victory at Charlton. Boro were 2-0 up at the break after goals by Riley McGree and Morgan Whittaker. The Charlton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski made a number of saves to prevent the visitors from being out of sight.
There was a frantic finish when George Edmundson headed into his own net from Rob Apter’s cross with nine minutes of normal time remaining.
Kieran Morgan struck with the last kick of the match to fire QPR up to sixth after a 2-1 win against Birmingham.
The Blues thought they had secured a point when Patrick Roberts cancelled out Jimmy Dunne’s first-half header in the third minute of stoppage time. But QPR went straight up the other end and Morgan, who only came on with four minutes of normal time remaining, crashed in a dramatic last-gasp winner.
It was a fourth win from their past five matches for QPR, while Birmingham have now lost seven matches on the road this season.
Tonda Eckert continued his impressive start as Southampton manager with a sixth victory in seven games as the Saints held off a West Brom fightback to win 3-2 at St Mary’s.
The Championship top scorer Adam Armstrong struck twice before half-time to take his tally to 11 after Leo Scienza set the hosts on their way with an early goal. The Baggies put up a second-half fight through goals from Karlan Grant and Nathaniel Phillips and went close to a late leveller but have now lost their past seven away games.
Sheffield United’s four-match winning run came to an end as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home against Norwich. The hosts – whose starting lineup featured eight changes from the weekend because of “illness and injuries” – took the lead early in the second half with a goal from Danny Ings. Norwich, though, hit back to equalise with Djibril Soumaré scoring an own goal.
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Todd Cantwell’s 78th-minute penalty earned Blackburn a point from a 1-1 draw against fellow strugglers Oxford but they failed to win at Ewood Park once again.
Ciaron Brown powered Oxford into the lead with a fierce strike in first-half stoppage time before Cantwell came off the bench to hit his fourth goal of an injury-hit season.
But a draw against another side battling just above the relegation zone left Blackburn still with only one home victory all season, having taken just six points from 10 games in front of their own fans.
Swansea secured their second win in four days to ease their relegation concerns thanks to Liam Cullen’s strike to seal a 1-0 win against Portsmouth.
The Wales international swept home a superb effort from 20 yards in the 78th minute for the only goal of a tight contest between two clubs who have been in poor recent form. But following Swansea’s victory against Oxford last weekend it means the new manager, Vítor Matos, has delivered back-to-back league victories for the first time since April.
Vivaldo Semedo’s equaliser in the seventh minute of stoppage time denied Sheffield Wednesday a second league win of the season.
Charlie McNeill’s third goal in two games appeared to have handed rock-bottom Wednesday a rare bit of cheer in a difficult campaign. But just when wasteful Watford, who missed a penalty through Imran Louza, seemed to have run out of ideas, Semedo squeezed a volley from Mamadou Doumbia’s cross under the goalkeeper Pierce Charles to salvage a point.
