Championship round-up: West Brom suffer first loss as top sides struggle
League leaders West Brom suffered their first Championship loss of the season away at Sheffield Wednesday, while Sunderland, Burnley and Sheffield United also failed to pick up victories.
At the other end of the table, Coventry and Luton's struggles continued and Cardiff remain without a win after falling to a heavy 4-1 defeat against Hull.
In our weekly feature, Flashscore looks at the major talking points from the weekend's Championship action.
West Brom suffer first loss
West Brom were hit with their first league defeat of the season by Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, suffering a 3-2 loss despite mounting a second-half comeback from 2-0 down.
The Baggies had been largely perfect up until the weekend and had been on a run of four straight wins having conceded just once in that time.
Carlos Corberan's side had only shipped two league goals all season before facing Wednesday and on paper should have picked up another victory given their opposition's poor form this season - the Owls were without a Championship win in over a month.
That's the nature of this division though and West Brom conceded two early goals before hitting back in the second half through Josh Maja and Alex Mowatt (Maja with his seventh goal in as many games!).
It should have been enough to seal at least a point but all of the Baggies' hard work came undone just minutes later as Anthony Musaba netted a late winner, handing Corberan's side a shock defeat.
The game was unfortunately overshadowed by a medical emergency in the crowd which ultimately led to the death of West Brom supporter Mark Townsend; the club have since confirmed a minute's applause in their upcoming match against Middlesbrough on Tuesday.
West Brom's defeat kicked off a theme of the league's top sides failing to win as fellow current top-six sides Sunderland, Burnley and Sheffield United all struggled.
The Black Cats were beaten 2-1 by Watford while both Burnley and Sheffield United were held to 0-0 draws against Oxford and Portsmouth.
Coventry's struggles continue
Many casual viewers probably thought Coventry were on to something after their penalty shootout defeat to Manchester United in last season's FA Cup final, having initially come from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 in the second half.
That performance masked a pretty poor end to their last campaign though, and the bad form has continued this season with just one win from their last 13 Championship fixtures stretching back to April 2024.
Mark Robins' side find themselves above the relegation zone on goal difference following another heavy defeat, this time falling to a 3-0 loss at the hands of Leeds.
Goals from Wilfried Gnonto, Jayden Bogle and Joel Piroe were enough for Daniel Farke's side to cruise to victory without being troubled by their opponents.
Coventry's slow start isn't really any cause for concern and has been a pretty common theme for them over the last couple of seasons - they always seem to charge back up the table after finding their feet with a settled side.
The clear issue they need to sort out this time around is their defence, having constantly rotated their centre backs without finding a settled partnership.
Joel Latibeaudiere has been the regular choice but Robins has failed to find him a regular partner, swapping between Luis Binks, Liam Kitching and Bobby Thomas.
Once that gets sorted though it's hard not to see Coventry make a quick rise up the table considering the wide range of attacking talent they have including the likes of Ellis Simms, Haji Wright, Jack Rudoni and young star Norman Bassette.
Sainz's controversial hat-trick
Refereeing controversy struck again during Saturday's early fixture between Derby and Norwich, with the Canaries' Borja Sainz netting a hat-trick in a 3-2 victory.
On paper that sounds great - and for Norwich fans it is - but it exposed a wider issue of refereeing standards in the Championship after two goals were allowed to stand despite the ball seemingly going out of play in the build-up.
Take nothing away from Sainz; he netted an excellent hat-trick featuring two particularly standout goals - the first a superb flick from close range and the second a brilliant low drive from the edge of the area.
The same goes for Norwich who were excellent and now have an impressive three wins from their last four games.
But it brings more attention to an issue that has plagued the division for some time now and the fact is that officials in the second tier need help, whether that be VAR or something different entirely.
Ask a fan from any of the 24 clubs in the league and they can likely tell you multiple major decisions that have incorrectly gone against them as well as some that they've unfairly benefitted from.
Had the goals on Saturday been ruled out then Derby - tipped for relegation before the season began - could have recorded a huge win for their campaign.
Unfortunately, though, it's something every club has had to deal with and will continue to suffer from without proper help for the refereeing teams.
Norwich ultimately (and rightly) won't care and will continue their push for a play-off spot after what was in the end a really good performance and win for them, but it's hard not to feel that Derby were hard done by.
Hackney nets a stunner
Middlesbrough midfielder Hayden Hackney got on the scoresheet in his side's 2-0 win over Stoke, sealing all three points by rifling an effort into the top corner.
The midfielder was allowed to glide past four or five players and pick his spot before smashing an effort past goalkeeper Viktor Johansson - securing a vital win for Middlesbrough and our Goal of the Week award!
There were plenty of good strikes over the weekend, including Ibrahim Cissoko's pinpoint effort for Plymouth and Gnonto's excellent first-time finish, but Hackney's stood out over the rest.
Cissoko propels Plymouth
Plymouth picked up their second win of the season at home to Luton on Friday evening, beating the Hatters 3-1 in what was a very promising performance by Wayne Rooney's side.
Tipped by many for relegation before the season began, Plymouth seem to be finding their feet under the often unfairly criticised Rooney - with mercurial winger Cissoko playing a starring role.
The Dutchman found the net twice in Friday's win despite starting on the bench; earning himself a 9.8 Flashscore player rating, which makes him our Player of the Week.
Full results:
Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 West Brom
Portsmouth 0-0 Sheffield United
