Championship round-up: Sellés sacked, Wrexham and Birmingham lose
Sheffield United lost their fifth league game on the bounce as big-spenders Wrexham and Birmingham City both tasted defeat in the Championship.
United were soundly beaten 5-0 by relegated Premier League side Ipswich Town on Friday night, a result that spelled the end of a torrid spell in south Yorkshire for Rubén Sellés who was sacked on Sunday.
Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds was in attendance as his side were beaten 3-1 by QPR thanks to a Conor Coady own-goal and strikes from Richard Kone and Rumarn Burell, leaving the Welsh side just outside the relegation zone as boss Phil Parkinson urged his team needs time.
Fellow Championship newcomers Birmingham City lost 1-0 at Stoke City courtesy of Bosun Lawal while Coventry vs. Ipswich and a fierce south London derby between Charlton Athletic and Millwall both ended 1-1.
The south coast derby made a league return for the first time in 12 years but the 30,000 in attendance at St. Mary’s didn’t see a goal as Portsmouth held Southampton to a 0-0 draw in a game that never really got going on the pitch the way it did between the two sets of fans.
Elsewhere, Sheffield Wednesday’s troubles showed no signs of letting up as they failed to do any better than their cross-city rivals going down 3-0 to Bristol City at Hillsborough.
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West Brom lost 1-0 to Derby County after a late Andreas Weimann strike, Leicester City were held to a 2-2 draw at Oxford City with former Aston Villa midfielder Aaron Ramsey seeing red and Watford fell 1-0 at home to Blackburn Rovers.
Rob Edwards’ Middlesbrough continued their unbeaten start to the season as Sontje Hansen struck in stoppage time to rescue a point against Preston North End.
There were similar circumstances at Swansea where Hull City’s John Egan waited until the 97th-minute to secure a point for his side and keep them out of the bottom three.