Championship Round-Up: West Ham Hit Six, Middlesbrough Win a Seven-Goal Thriller

Norwich City led at the Riverside inside a minute and lost anyway. Mohamed Toure ran on to a loose Aidan Morris pass for his fifth goal of the season, and for three minutes Philippe Clement's afternoon looked exactly as he had drawn it.

Middlesbrough turned it round in the time it takes to lose concentration. Tommy Conway squared for Sebastian Berhalter to score off the underside of the bar on four minutes, and three minutes later Conway set up Amario Cozier-Duberry, making his first league appearance since a deadline day loan move from Brighton, who changed feet and finished left-footed past Vladan Kovacevic. Berhalter added his second on 36, timing a run out of midfield on to Callum Brittain's ball across the face of goal. Half-time, 3-1.

Norwich emptied the bench and it nearly worked. Jovon Makama, back from a foot injury, scored his first since January on 70. Jacob Wright scored his first in 54 games for the club five minutes later. Then, in the first minute of added time, Ashley Phillips, a summer signing from Stoke City, turned in after Will Lankshear's effort had run across the box.

Boro are fourth with a game in hand, and that game, at home to Millwall on Tuesday night, is a chance to go top. Clement thought they were lucky and said his players threw away 30 minutes of the match. Kim Hellberg called it as good a game as the Championship gets and said the hair he has left will be grey. Both men were describing the same 90 minutes and neither of them was wrong.

West Ham United spent the first three weeks of the season being told what the Championship does to clubs like them. On Friday night they scored six, and they used six different players to do it.

Jarrod Bowen was denied by one good save before finishing Morato's pass on 28. Joel Piroe made it two on 37, moments after George Dobson had a Wrexham effort cleared off the line. Konstantinos Mavropanos headed in Bowen's corner three minutes after the break, Taty Castellanos curled in the fourth on 63, Mohamadou Kante ran through for the fifth on 76 and Manor Solomon struck the sixth on 82. Kyle Walker-Peters set up two of them.

Nineteen shots, nine on target, and a Wrexham side who managed one. It was the heaviest defeat of Phil Parkinson's time at the club and only their second league loss of the season, which is the detail that makes the night so odd. Parkinson said the first two goals were soft and that he needed to think long and hard. Iwan Roberts, watching for BBC Radio Wales, said that in a boxing match the coach would have thrown the towel in.

Nuno Espirito Santo talked afterwards about repetition and routines, which is what managers say when the thing they have been drilling since July finally turns up. Bowen was blunter. When it clicks, it clicks, he told Sky Sports. Four straight wins, 20 goals in seven league games, nine conceded, and a club that has no intention of staying here.

Bristol City had 21 shots at St Mary's and lost 4-1. Southampton had ten and won by three, because one of theirs is Cyle Larin.

Larin, the Championship's player of the month for August, held off four defenders and fired left-footed into the top corner on 38 after Finn Azaz put him through. He scored again on 61 from six yards, after Leo Scienza's cut-back and a blocked James Ward-Prowse shot. That is eight goals in nine games in all competitions this season.

Lorent Tolaj gave the visitors what the first hour deserved on 66, turning in Rio Cardines' wayward shot for his second goal since moving from Plymouth Argyle. It lasted 16 minutes. Kuryu Matsuki swept in the third on 82 and Azaz, provider for two of the goals, finished the fourth on 85 after Divin Mubama broke down the right. Dom Ballard had missed a series of chances before the break and Keven Schlotterbeck cleared one off the line. Michael Skubala said the scoreline flattered Southampton, and the shot count backs him.

Southampton are eighth. They have won four, drawn two, lost one, scored 18 and conceded eight, and the only club in the division with a better goal difference is the one top of it. The table carries a line underneath: Southampton were deducted four points for breaches of EFL regulations. Put those four back and they are level with West Ham. They are not getting them back.

Burnley were relegated from the Premier League in May and tipped by plenty to come straight back. They are bottom of the Championship, and they have not won a league game since February.

Swansea City did not have to work hard for the first two. Adam Idah chased Lawrence Vigouroux's clearance, Max Weiss took a clumsy touch, and the striker swept into an empty net on 14. On 33 Ugo Raghouber played a blind pass, Elijah Just picked it off and fed Moussa Yeo, who ran to the edge of the box and hit it low into the bottom corner for his first goal since a summer move from RB Salzburg.

Largie Ramazani beat the offside trap and guided a finish inside Vigouroux's near post on 58, and for ten minutes Burnley had a game to play for. Then Ronald ran through a gap in their defence and squared for Zan Vipotnik, whose first open-play goal of the season made it 3-1 on 68. Jamie Vardy, a new signing, came off the bench and had one ruled out for offside.

Burnley had 18 shots to Swansea's 13 and six on target apiece, the kind of symmetry that means nothing at all. Nicky Hayen said his side lost the game in the first half. He is right about the mechanism and wrong about the scale, because 19 league games without a win is not a first-half problem. Swansea are second on goal difference, four wins from seven, and Vitor Matos has them responding to their first defeat inside four days.

Blackburn Rovers could not name a striker in midweek. On Saturday they scored three, and Dapo Afolayan took two of them.

The first was a deflection he went looking for, diverting Sam Morsy's tame shot past Max Crocombe on 41. Lyndon Dykes levelled from the penalty spot on 51, after substitute Gady Beyuku, on for the injured Ryan Alebiosu, slid into Tairyk Arconte. Afolayan answered on 58 by carrying the ball from halfway, waiting for Todd Cantwell's diagonal run to drag the cover across, and shifting on to his left foot.

Millwall had 55% of the ball, 16 shots and two on target. Arconte had a goal disallowed at the near post and another effort brilliantly blocked by Hayden Carter, and Dykes headed narrowly wide. In the last of three added minutes Jayden Fevrier led a counter-attack and Andri Gudjohnsen, back from injury and on from the bench, finished into the bottom corner.

That is four consecutive wins over Millwall for Blackburn, their best run in the fixture since 1990, and Millwall have not won at Ewood Park in 11 visits. Alex Neil called it a wasted opportunity and was specific about why: a cut-back they had worked on all week. Tony Mowbray, who has watched his side play better and lose, asked for consistency and admitted that a defeat here would have started the questions.

Derby County had 59.5% of the ball, ten corners and four shots on target, and lost a game that cost them more than three points.

Bobby Clark put them ahead on 40, slamming in from a tight angle past James Beadle at his near post after Carlton Morris knocked down and Sam Szmodics slipped the pass through. The lead lasted two minutes. Carlos Vicente beat Charlie Taylor to a searching Millar cross at the back post and headed Birmingham City level on 42.

Then Henrik Meister went down near the halfway line and Pride Park went quiet. The Denmark forward, on loan from Pisa and making his first home start, was carried off on a stretcher after lengthy treatment, and John Eustace said afterwards that he was going through concussion protocols. Paik Seung-ho, on as a substitute, headed in from point-blank range on 63 from a Millar corner that Jacob Widell Zetterstrom argued he had been fouled at. It was Paik's seventh goal in more than 120 appearances for the club.

Birmingham should have been out of sight. Luis Vazquez put an attempted finish from two yards over an unguarded net, and Christoph Klarer had to block a Szmodics shot on the line in stoppage time. Derby are winless at home and in the bottom three, with Meister joining Patrick Agyemang, Matt Clarke, Derry Murkin, Filip Bilbija, Rhian Brewster, Craig Forsyth and Lewis Travis on the list. Eustace said the effort was amazing and that he cannot pick a settled back four. Both of those things can be true, and only one of them shows up in the table.

Two clubs arrived at The Hawthorns able to finish the day top of the Championship. They drew 1-1, and for an hour neither looked like a side that would.

West Bromwich Albion had more than 70% of the ball in the first half and went behind. Toby Collyer, making his first start since a £3m move from Manchester United, gave it away; Kwame Poku broke and played in Rumarn Burrell, whose shot was saved by Max O'Leary, bounced off the face of the recalled Chris Mepham and went in on 38. Three minutes later Callum Styles, moved across to right-back with Nolan Galves injured and Brayann Pereira suspended, curled a low left-footed strike into the bottom corner from the edge of the box after Felix Myhre's pass.

Both sides made five changes after playing on Wednesday night, and it showed in everything except the effort. Isaac Price forced a save from his Northern Ireland team-mate Pierce Charles early in the second half, Jayson Molumby headed a corner wide unmarked, and O'Leary kept out Poku from 12 yards and then Burrell's back-post header. Paul Smyth went off with a back injury, which is where Queens Park Rangers' afternoon stopped improving.

Albion are third, level on 14 points with West Ham United and Swansea City and behind both on goal difference. QPR are fifth. James Morrison called seven points in a week a positive week, which it is. Julien Stephan said his side locked the main spaces with intelligence, which is a generous description of 36.5% possession and four shots, and an accurate one about the point they took home.

Stoke City had not won a league game away from home since 4 January. They went to Vicarage Road, had 18 shots to Watford's six, and left it late enough to be nervous.

Jack McGlynn, the United States international, made his first league start for the Potters and curled a right-footed shot into the top corner in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time. Federico Ravaglia had already saved from Ben Johnson, Ethan Galbraith and Lamine Cisse, and Cisse had a finish ruled out by a debatable offside flag. Early in the second half Cisse hit the crossbar, then set up Eric Bocat to half-volley into the bottom corner on 57.

Watford did not manage a shot until the 90th minute, when Luca Kjerrumgaard forced Viktor Johansson into his first save. From the corner that followed, substitute Amin Nabizada whipped in his third goal of the season. George Hirst had headed over from six yards before that, which is the margin between a nervous finish and a comfortable one.

Alessio Dionisi said his players were tired from the start, nine games in nine sets of three days, and that there were neither midfielders nor defenders left on his bench. Michail Antonio watched from it and is not ready. Mark Robins said this looked more like the teams he has had in the past and asked his players to stay humble. Stoke are tenth and unbeaten in four. Watford have lost three of their last four and are 17th.

Preston North End took 16 corners at Deepdale. Lincoln City took three, and one long throw.

Freddie Draper met Andrei Coubis's throw and headed in on 81 for his first Championship goal for the club he helped out of League One. Before that Alfie Devine had hit the crossbar directly from a corner and Jordan Storey had his follow-up cleared off the line, a two-part let-off of the kind that decides seasons at this end of the table.

This was the first meeting between the two clubs in more than 27 years and for an hour it looked every one of them. Lincoln are the division's lowest scorers, Preston have found goals just as hard, and Conor McGrandles did not test Daniel Iversen until the 54th minute. Tom Shaw, Lincoln's joint head coach, said possession is the statistic they look at last, then explained at length why they wanted more of it.

Preston have lost six of their seven league games. They are 23rd, above Burnley on goal difference alone, and Paul Heckingbottom was left telling BBC Radio Lancashire that the only way to stop the booing is to win. There is no lack of effort, he said, and there probably is not. Effort is not what the bottom of this table is measuring.

Cardiff City had 59.3% of the ball, 17 shots, ten on target and ten corners at the Toughsheet Community Stadium. They lost in the 90th minute to a header from a substitute.

Gavin Bazunu kept Bolton Wanderers level for most of it. He clawed the ball off the line on 66 when Chris Willock's delivery found a diving Yousef Salech, denied Jack Moylan from close range, and tipped Callum Robinson's effort over the bar in the last minute. Steven Schumacher's summary was that in this division you need goalkeepers who win you points, and that his did.

The winner came from two half-time substitutes. Theo Bair, on loan from Auxerre, dug out a cross from the left to the back post, where Thierry Gale was unmarked and headed past Nathan Trott. Bolton had seven shots all afternoon. Referee Tom Parsons had already booked Kyliane Dong for simulation after the winger rounded Trott and went down, and booked Perry Ng for the same offence when Cardiff wanted a penalty.

Bolton have now won 13 of their last 14 home league meetings with Cardiff, a run that reaches back to 1974, and they beat them in almost this exact fashion in League One last season. Four consecutive defeats ended and they are out of the bottom three. Cardiff have played seven, won none, and Brian Barry-Murphy, who asked for more ruthlessness in the week, watched his side lead the division for shots and lose again.

Millenic Alli was six yards out with the goal in front of him and the Portsmouth supporters behind it. He put it over the bar.

That was the 32nd minute, and it was the clearest chance of a goalless afternoon at The Valley. Alli spent the second half of last season on loan at Portsmouth and joined Charlton Athletic from Luton Town for £1.5m in the summer, and the away end had been booing him without restraint long before Tyreece Campbell's cross arrived. Daniel Bielica saved from Miles Leaburn, Karlan Grant and Alli himself, while Campbell and Oliver Skipp missed chances of their own.

Portsmouth shaded possession and did little with it until half-time, when John Mousinho told them to press higher. Conor Shaughnessy headed at Arthur Okonkwo just before the break, Abu Kamara forced a save 18 seconds after it, and Adrian Segecic should have done better with a close-range chance late on.

Charlton have not lost a home league game since 22 April and they are sixth. They have also scored six goals in seven matches, fewer than anyone else in the top ten, and that is why a home point against a side in the bottom half feels like two dropped. Nathan Jones thought the performance was really good and the finishing frustrating. Mousinho took another clean sheet and a good away point. Both were describing the same absence of goals from different ends of the table.

Sheffield United did not win a corner. Not one, in 90 minutes at Bramall Lane, and they still went into the final minute level.

Wolverhampton Wanderers had 63.4% of the ball, nine corners and 17 shots, and Raul Jimenez settled it on 90. Kieran Trippier's cross took a deflection, Tommy Doyle chose to square it rather than shoot, and the 35-year-old turned it in from close range for his third goal of the season since returning to the club. Doyle, who spent a season on loan at Sheffield United, said Jimenez is always in the right place.

Chris Wilder's side limited a very attacking team to virtually nothing after the break, by his own account, and he was entitled to feel aggrieved. That is why they get paid what they get paid, he said of the winner. Wolves were the better team for most of it and made the sort of single moment that separates the top half from the rest.

Wolves are seventh with a game in hand and a first league clean sheet of the season, and Cesar Peixoto was already talking about rotating for Everton in the EFL Cup because the derby with West Bromwich Albion next Sunday matters more. Sheffield United are 14th and one point off the top eight, which is this division described in a single line. Wilder called the schedule ridiculous and said players are tapping out in the first month of the season. He was not the only manager saying it this weekend.