Coventry 2-0 Huddersfield

Coventry City ended their rotten run of form with a fantastic 2-0 win against Huddersfield Town at the Coventry Building Society Arena. 

Coventry were coming into the game off the back of a six-game winless run (D3, L3) but had the first opportunity to take the lead.

The chance came from a fantastic run from Viktor Gyökeres, as the Swede beat his man before drilling a low cross across the box only for it to evade the Sky Blue bodies in the box. Huddersfield replied with a chance of their own shortly after, as Jordan Rhodes sent a powerful header towards goal only for it to be saved by Ben Wilson.

The Sky Blues hadn’t defeated the Terriers since 1972 prior to the game, but that record looked set to be broken.

Gustavo Hamer was the man who made the breakthrough shortly after HT, as the Dutchman dribbled into the box and shrugged off multiple defenders before bending a beautiful effort into the far corner, beyond the reach of Nicholas Bilokapic.

Things got worse for the Terriers with 20 minutes remaining as Coventry extended their lead through Kasey Palmer. The goal came courtesy of Gyökeres, as he worked space for himself down the right hand side before putting a cross in for Palmer to head home from close range.

Mark Fotheringham stated before the game he felt a busy transfer window had given his side ‘extra firepower’ in their fight to beat the drop, but that wasn’t the case in this contest, as Coventry held on comfortably to secure a first win in seven games.

Huddersfield still reside three points adrift inside the bottom three, however they do have a game in hand over those above them.

Flashscore Man of the Match: Viktor Gyökeres (Coventry City)

Hull 3-0 QPR

Hull City returned to winning ways, breezing past Queens Park Rangers at the MKM Stadium, having now lost just one of their last eight fixtures since the restart.

A bright start from the Tigers saw Aaron Connolly curl the ball narrowly wide on his 23rd birthday, however, just moments later, the Brighton & Hove Albion loanee had his first goal for Hull, sweeping in a deflected effort after a swift break from the hosts. The Tigers looked particularly dangerous after taking the lead, but QPR eventually played their way into the contest, gaining a foothold in proceedings.

Nevertheless, a solitary shot on goal - an Osman Kakay header that failed to really trouble Matt Ingram - was all the Hoops could muster heading into the break.

Having scored multiple goals in each of their last three visits to the MKM Stadium, QPR fans will have been hopeful of a second-half fightback.

With the hour mark approaching, Michael Beale’s side stepped up a gear, but a scrappy passage of play quickly killed off that momentum.

A turnover high up the pitch allowed Connolly to find Ozan Tufan, who played a searching ball into the area, causing Robert Dickie to inadvertently turn into his own net. Just two minutes later, the contest was all but over as Connolly latched onto a long ball from Jean Michaël Seri before finishing low past Seny Dieng.

The pair of quickfire goals seemingly knocked the stuffing out of the visitors, who played out the remaining minutes knowing the game was now beyond them. As a result, Liam Rosenior’s side continue their recent ascendancy, climbing to 15th, one point behind QPR, with the play-off spots now in sight.

Flashscore Man of the Match: Aaron Connolly (Hull City)

Middlesbrough 2-0 Watford

It was back to winning ways for Middlesbrough after last weekend’s North East Derby defeat to Sunderland, as they breezed past fellow promotion-chasers Watford 2-0, ending a 10 match winless H2H run.

After a fire alarm in the early hours of the morning interrupted Watford’s sleep, the Hornets were perhaps still half asleep in the opening stages at the Riverside. Boro almost gave them a scare inside five minutes, but a smart block from Craig Cathcart denied Championship top scorer Chuba Akpom an early goal.

Akpom was at the heart of all that was good for Boro, and he was again involved as Daniel Bachmann was worked for the first time in the Watford goal, getting down well to deny Marcus Forss, who fired the rebound into the side netting.

It took Watford nearly half an hour to muster a meaningful effort on goal, but when they did, they almost took the lead. Matheus Martins’ effort flew harmlessly over the bar and Watford were made to pay for that missed chance shortly after as a stroke of fortune for Boro saw the ball pop up nicely for Akpom to head home his 14th league goal of the season.

Things went from bad to worse for Watford before the break, who might’ve been wishing they had a lie in instead when Forss rounded Bachmann to double Boro’s advantage.

Watford must’ve been given a stripping down by Slaven Bilić because his triple change at the break almost paid immediate dividends when Henrique Araújo forced Zack Steffen into a smart stop to preserve Boro’s two-goal advantage.

In truth, it was hard to see Watford ever forcing a way back into the game, and despite Bilić using his fifth roll of the substitute dice with 20 minutes left to play, the Hornets looked equally feeble in front of goal.

So it proved, as Boro saw the game out with consummate ease to leapfrog the visitors into third place.

Flashscore Man of the Match: Chuba Akpom (Middlesbrough)