Championship Round-Up: Southampton Win and Stay Bottom

Southampton beat Stoke City 3-1 on Saturday, scoring twice in the closing minutes, and finished the weekend exactly where they started it, 24th and bottom, now on minus one point rather than minus four. They have a positive goal difference. They have won as many games as Blackburn Rovers. They are still four points worse off than the arithmetic of their results would suggest, because the EFL deducted four for breaches of its regulations, and no amount of good football in August makes that go away quickly.

The shape of the round

Thirty-five goals across twelve games, five of them drawn and two goalless, with no side scoring more than three. Four home wins, three away wins, and a table that has already sorted itself into three tiers after a fortnight.

At the top, three clubs have won both: Millwall, West Bromwich Albion and Charlton Athletic, in that order on goal difference. Millwall's is the most emphatic, five scored and none conceded. Six clubs sit on four points, and another two on three. At the other end, four clubs have yet to take a point at all: Lincoln City, Preston North End, Stoke City and Norwich City. Below them, on a technicality that will define their season, sit Southampton.

Southampton 3-1 Stoke City: the minus-one club

Cyle Larin gave Southampton the lead after eight minutes, running onto Flynn Downes' pass and finishing calmly in front of 29,185 at St Mary's. Ethan Galbraith levelled before the half hour, converting Sam Gallagher's cross from the right past Daniel Pertez, and for an hour it stayed that way.

Then it broke. Divin Mubama, on loan at Stoke not so long ago, put Saints ahead with a minute of normal time left. Svante Ingelsson fouled Sam Edozie in stoppage time, collected a second yellow, and Ryan Manning converted the penalty in the fourth added minute. Three points, a two-goal margin, and a home crowd that had spent the walk-out chanting for Tonda Eckert.

It moves them from minus four to minus one. Southampton's punishment for last season's Spygate affair means they will spend the early autumn beating teams and looking up at them, and the table will keep telling a story their results do not. Dragan Solak watched the whole thing from the stands.

Swansea City 0-0 Sheffield United: two games, no goals, and a court date behind it

Sheffield United have played two Championship matches, drawn both 0-0, and have yet to score a league goal this season. On the evidence of Swansea, that is a smaller problem than the one waiting off the pitch: the club could face a 12-point deduction after the company used to buy it in 2024 was placed into liquidation by the High Court on Wednesday.

What they produced in south Wales was a gritty performance in a game of few clear chances. Callum O'Hare came closest, his measured first-half effort coming back off the bar. Sam McCallum's header was saved by Lawrence Vigouroux and Sydie Peck's drive was smothered. Swansea played with endeavour and without a cutting edge, Moussa Yeo cutting inside dangerously and then miskicking, and took four points from their opening two league games in front of 17,710.

West Ham United 1-2 Charlton Athletic: 62,264 watch the fall continue

Charlton scored after seven minutes at the London Stadium, and they scored it from a long throw. Sonny Carey's delivery was allowed to bounce inside the West Ham area and captain Lloyd Jones hooked in an overhead kick. Jones headed the equaliser in Charlton's opening-day comeback against Derby County. He is developing a habit.

Tyreece Campbell dispossessed a dithering Konstantinos Mavropanos shortly after the break, carried the ball into the box and curled in the second. West Ham had most of the ball from there and pulled one back through debutant Joel Piroe's close-range finish, then had the chance to level in the 93rd minute when Conor Coventry was adjudged to have handled. Valentin Castellanos missed it.

An attendance of 62,264, more than 3,000 of them travelling fans in good voice, and Nuno Espirito Santo watching a second successive game slip after his side had drawn 2-2 at Burnley the week before. Charlton have won both.

Preston North End 1-3 Wolverhampton Wanderers: 489 days

Wolves had not won an away league game since April 2025, when they beat Manchester United in the Premier League. That is 489 days, a number the club will be glad to stop counting.

Fer Lopez ended it more or less on his own. The Spaniard, a £19m arrival from Celta Vigo last summer, picked the ball up in his own half after eight minutes, left Liam Lindsay behind and finished powerfully past Daniel Iversen. Adam Armstrong added a second on 71 minutes from Raul Jimenez's pass, and Lopez got his second on 82 minutes from Tommy Doyle's ball. Jordan Thompson's well-placed strike from outside the area, in the first minute of stoppage time, was a consolation and nothing more. Cesar Peixoto's side had 19,301 at Deepdale watching them look like the better team throughout. Preston have lost both.

Millwall 3-0 Norwich City: the perfect start

Tairyk Arconte, signed from French second-division side Rodez in June, scored twice at The Den to keep Millwall's record spotless. The first came when he reacted quickest after Vladan Kovacevic parried Josh Coburn's effort. The second arrived when Jake Cooper nodded down a cross from a quickly taken free-kick.

Norwich were finished off by their own discipline. Jose Cordoba, who had hacked Kyrell Lisbie's effort off the line just before the interval, collected a second yellow just past the hour, and substitute Luke Cundle added a third from Camiel Neghli's pass with six minutes left. Alex Neil's side, beaten play-off semi-finalists last season, have scored five and conceded none. The evening began with a minute's applause for former manager Kenny Jackett, who died in June, in front of 19,564.

West Bromwich Albion 3-1 Burnley: the round's last word

The round finished at The Hawthorns on Sunday afternoon, and it finished with West Brom's second win from two. It did not start that way. Callum Styles turned the ball into his own net after eight minutes to hand Burnley the lead, and Harry Whitwell needed ten minutes to cancel it out, levelling it.

Isaac Price settled it. His strike a minute into the second half put Albion ahead for the first time, and he added the third from the penalty spot on 65 minutes. Albion did it without Aune Heggebo, serving a two-match ban after scoring with his hand against Norwich; Burnley did it without the injured Zian Flemming, and are still waiting for a first win.

The rest of the round

Birmingham City 2-2 Bristol City

Both clubs scored their first goals of the season, and Birmingham needed the last of them. Scott Twine reacted quickest to his own blocked header on 33 minutes to put the Robins ahead. Carlos Vicente's goalbound shot then deflected off the post and in off goalkeeper Sam Tickle for an own goal three minutes before the break. Dom Ballard's backheel flick looked to have won it with five minutes left, until Rob Atkinson was penalised for handling and Demarai Gray converted the penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

Lincoln City 1-3 Portsmouth

Lincoln's first home game in the second tier since 1961 lasted seven minutes before Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, a teenage Chelsea loanee, scored the first senior goal of his career from Abu Kamara's pass. Adrian Segecic doubled it on 16 with a powerfully struck free-kick from the edge of the box. Reeco Hackett pulled one back from the spot after Zak Swanson was punished for handball blocking an Adam Reach shot, but Ebou Adams came off the bench to settle it from 25 yards. Rob Street's deflected effort looped off the crossbar in stoppage time. A 65-year wait, and a defeat, in front of 10,545.

Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Middlesbrough

Boro led inside 12 minutes, Morgan Whittaker threading a pinpoint pass to Jeremy Sarmiento, who found the bottom corner. They should have had more: Ryoya Morishita's volley beat Radek Vitek before Luke Ayling cleared off the line. Blackburn scored twice in six second-half minutes instead, Andri Gudjohnsen getting ahead of his marker to head home Harry Pickering's cross for his third goal in three games and captain Todd Cantwell putting them ahead, and a resolute home defence did the rest in front of 18,918 at Ewood Park.

Derby County 2-2 Cardiff City

Cardiff arrived at Pride Park without a recognised centre-back, full-backs Perry Ng and Joel Bagan filling in, and Bagan cleared off the line inside three minutes. They led anyway, Cian Ashford slotting past Jacob Widell Zetterstrom against the run of play. Carlton Morris raced onto a long ball, overpowered Ng and levelled, before Yousef Salech restored the lead before the break. Bobby Clark thumped past Nathan Trott early in the second half for Derby's second. Both clubs are still looking for a first league win of the season, watched by 28,926.

Queens Park Rangers 0-0 Bolton Wanderers

QPR had 17 shots, nine of them on target. Bolton had two, none of them. The difference was Jack Bonham, who denied Richard Kone and Harvey Vale four times each and then kept out Ilias Chair after the break. Julien Stephan made a quadruple change including debuts for Dennis Cirkin and Tariq Lamptey and still found no way through. Steven Schumacher's Bolton, back in the second tier after seven years and promoted through the League One play-offs, have four points from two and did not force Pierce Charles into a save all afternoon.

Wrexham 1-1 Watford

A second successive game in which Wrexham were the better side and did not win it. Luca Kjerrumgaard glanced home Omar Traore's clever cross early on, and Danny Imray levelled before the half hour with his first goal since a summer move from Crystal Palace, a deflected finish after good work from Kieffer Moore. Wrexham pressed through the second half without a clinical edge, Watford held on, and Alessio Dionisi's side remain unbeaten. Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac watched from the Racecourse Ground stands with 10,502 others.

What the table says now

Two rounds in, the Championship has already produced its defining oddity. Southampton have won a game, scored four, conceded three, and sit last. Sheffield United have scored nothing, drawn twice and sit 15th with a court case that could cost them a 12-point deduction. The league table is currently a document about legal proceedings as much as football.

Above all that, three clubs have won both. Millwall look the most convincing of them on goal difference alone, though a fortnight is a fortnight and Alex Neil will know it. Charlton, 19th in the division last season, have taken six points from a Derby side and a West Ham side who each expected better, which is the kind of start that changes what a season is for.

Matchweek three opens on Friday night, when Wrexham host Birmingham City. Wrexham have drawn both of theirs and deserved more from each. At some point that stops being bad luck and starts being a habit, and Friday is as good a night as any to find out which it is.

Sources: Match reporting by BBC Sport.