Championship round-up: Watford win big while Burnley drop points again
League leaders Sunderland were forced to hold out for a 0-0 draw against QPR after Jobe Bellingham was shown the first red card of his career.
Fellow promotion chasers Leeds and Sheffield United gained ground on the Black Cats after picking up routine wins, but there was no joy for Burnley who fell to a 1-0 defeat away at Millwall on Sunday.
Flashscore have looked at all they key talking points from across the weekend.
Watford hit six
Watford put Sheffield Wednesday to the sword on Saturday afternoon after hitting six past the Owls at Hillsborough.
Vakoun Bayo bagged four goals on his own in the second half as the Hornets ended a run of six consecutive losses away from home.
Ryan Porteous and Tom Ince also got on the scoresheet for the visitors while Michael Smith and Pol Valentin grabbed consolations for the hosts.
Watford have been one of the Championship’s surprise packages this season and find themselves in the play-off positions despite many tipping them for a relegation fight.
Unfortunately for Wednesday, they languish in 18th place just three points above the drop zone – failing to capitalise on the superb run of form overseen by Danny Rohl last season.
The German manager is still well-thought-of in the division but the potential play-off charge some had predicted just hasn’t come to fruition for the Owls so far.
Bristol City’s ‘Hand of God’
Bristol City are another side that have struggled for consistency this season with seven draws – the joint-most in the league.
The Robins visited Preston with the hopes of picking up an important three points and did just that with a resounding 3-1 victory.
Their win was unfortunately undermined by a terrible refereeing decision – a common theme in England’s second tier.
Japanese forward Yu Hirakawa was played through in the opening exchanges of the match and looked to be chasing a dead cause as Preston goalkeeper Freddie Woodman ran out to comfortably claim the hopeful ball.
Just before he could latch two hands on it, though, Hirakawa swiped a fist of his own and quite literally punched the ball out of his grasp before running through and dribbling into the empty net.
Shockingly, none of the four match officials picked up on the forward’s Diego Maradona impression and the goal was inexplicably allowed to stand.
Whether or not it would have mattered in the end is questionable as the Robins went on the secure a 3-1 win – but it certainly brings more unwanted questions surrounding the ability of Championship referees.
James sets Elland Road alight
This week’s ‘Goal of the Week’ was a tough decision with plenty of contenders but we’ve opted to give it to Leeds’ Dan James for his opener against Plymouth.
The winger picked up the ball on the edge of the area after a corner made its way out to him and fired a superb effort into the top corner – managing to get his powerful striker through a sea of bodies to open the scoring at Elland Road.
James’ strike stood out among a couple of superb goals, and just to note, Borja Sainz scored another ridiculous effort for Norwich (obviously).
Bayo gets a perfect 10
No real surprises here, Watford’s Bayo gets our Player of the Week award after hitting four goals in their thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday.
The striker earned himself a perfect Flashscore rating of 10 – by far the highest of any player in the division over the weekend.
Take a look at who makes our weekly Top XI here:
Full results:
Blackburn 0-2 Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday 2-6 Watford
