It was a crazy afternoon in the Championship with surprise scorelines, howlers and comebacks that have to be seen.
Millwall came from behind to beat Middlesbrough and leapfrog them into 2nd place, Wrexham came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at West Brom and climbed up to 6th place and QPR kept their slim hopes of getting in the play-offs alive with a 2-1 victory to go level on points with opponents Watford. Southampton and Ipswich weren’t in league action on Good Friday.
Mid-table Bristol City came away with a 2-1 at Charlton to give Roy Hodgson a win on his debut as their manager. The Addicks sitting 8 points above the relegation zone.
Blackburn moved further away from the drop zone, 6 points above the drop with a 1-0 win at Birmingham.
Swansea fought back in an entertaining 3-3 draw with Sheffield United. Stoke also beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 to go 10 points from the playoff places.
Down at the bottom, all three threatened sides drew, Portsmouth 1-1 at Norwich, Leicester 2-2 with Preston and Oxford drew with Hull. A live blog of this afternoon’s action can be seen HERE.
Birmingham 0-1 Blackburn
Charlton 1-2 Bristol City
Bristol City interim manager Roy Hodgson said to BBC Radio Bristol: “I thought a lot of it was very good and even the bits I didn’t enjoy so much, you have to take your hat off to the players for surviving and dealing with that bombardment towards the end when there’s four or five forwards on the field and long throws and corners being hurled into your six-yard box.
“The performance in general and some of the football we played was good and if we could keep that up, I’d enjoy watching that and I think the fans will enjoy watching it and it will give us more success than failure.
[Did he sense a team low on confidence] “I would lie if I say I sensed anything. It’s totally new to me what they’ve done.
“Should I be surprised? To be surprised, I’d have to have an opinion about what they’re capable of doing and it’s a blank canvas for me.
“I’ve selected a team and a style of play in conjunction with the other staff members and I know a lot more now having seen them for 90 minutes.”
Charlton’s Nathan Jones to BBC Radio London: “At the start of both halves, we were poor and that’s cost us the game today.
“We work every single week on starting fast and being front-footed and in the first 50 seconds, we mess about it and give a corner away and that sets the tone.
“It was a game we could have drawn or won in the end but we didn’t show enough quality in the final third and some of our defending was so un-Charlton like, it was crazy.
“The start killed us. When we’re in the game, we know we’re going to be strong late on attacking that end, but we’re not giving ourselves a chance.
“It’s a carbon copy, the last three home games, we’re not learning from that and that’s tough to take.”
Leicester 2-2 Preston
Leicester boss Gary Rowett told to BBC Radio Leicester: “You have to look at the performance overall, and I would say for 99% of it the performance was outstanding, I really do think that.
“We were excellent, we didn’t give too many chances away, we score a very good goal and press nice and early and looked really comfortable first half.
“But of course I’ve said it many times before, and it’s been a bit of an Achilles heel where we can be playing fantastically well and we just give two goals out of nothing.
“The first one’s a throw in that breaks down and we let them break on us.
“Then the second one’s a set piece where we give the ball away in the run-up to it and then it’s a soft goal to concede.
“I know Preston will say they made two mistakes for our goals, but when you’ve had 28 shots and the keeper’s made countless saves, you would always feel as though you should have won the game.”
Middlesbrough 1-2 Millwall
Absolute scenes as Millwall come from behind to beat and leapfrog Middlesbrough into 2nd
Norwich 1-1 Portsmouth
Portsmouth boss John Mousinho said to BBC Radio Solent: “It feels like a big point, the biggest thing for me today was the performance.
“After the QPR loss we were searching for answers and that was the lowest point of the season, to then go a goal down and respond like we did was really pleasing.
“We defended well and dug in when we needed to, Norwich have some very good players and we had to deal with those tough moments when they were on top.
“We were in the game when behind which was the most important thing, we weren’t clinging on though and we were trying to be positive with the ball when we had it, I thought the subs did really well when they came on too.”
Norwich City boss Philippe Clement told BBC Radio Norfolk: “It’s frustrating indeed, we could have kept a clean sheet too which is an important thing.
“The reaction was good from the players as they went for the second goal but if you don’t score the second or third goal in this game then this can happen.
“It was a defensive game today, and we should have won more duels, we have more things to work on in the next few weeks in those situations.”
Oxford 1-1 Hull
Oxford’s Matt Bloomfield told BBC Radio Oxford: “We assess it by saying that we’ve created multiple opportunities to win the football match. It hasn’t gone our way today, but in terms of performance level and endeavour, the way the boys kept creating, kept pressing, kept at it, we can’t question them.
“It was obviously very disappointing to go one goal down so early and another team could have possibly wobbled, but our lads are made of sterner stuff, and they kept going.
“Cam [Cameron Brannagan] stuck the penalty away and we created multiple opportunities.
“I’m just really disappointed for the lads and for the crowd today because everyone was excellent. We played against a very good team who are five points off the automatic promotion places, and are going to end the season, probably in the play-offs at the very least.
“Yet we’ve gone toe to toe with them and created enough chances to win the game.”
QPR 2-1 Watford
Sheffield United 3-3 Swansea
Stoke 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday
Stoke’s Mark Robins spoke to BBC Radio Stoke: “It was hard. You’re on a hiding to nothing because people expect you to win and score a avalanche of goals. That hasn’t happened.
“They’ve got lots of good players. They’ve lost some and gained some. Sheffield Wednesday are young and they’ve been through the mill in the past few seasons.
“We’ve had eight players to work with whilst others are injured, coming back or on international duty. Logistically it is tough; to get the game won like that was pleasing.
“We were nowhere near fluid throughout the game. We were at times, but we looked laboured in movement and passing. We created good openings and should have had more chances on goal if we’d been more awake.
“We got the game done, a clean sheet and 54 points, more than the entirety of last season. You talk about incremental improvement, that is there for everyone to see.”
Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield: “I think we had two different halves. First half, we defended well.
“We knew the first 15-20 minutes would be tough because Stoke are a team that is very good on the ball.
“We were organised and didn’t concede any chances. We worked hard; we were not good enough or brave enough in transition.
“From the beginning of the second half we were brave, we played a really good game. We saw a lot of things that we did in training this week, but it was not enough.”
West Brom 2-2 Wrexham
Coventry v Derby
8PM KICK OFF