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Championship early KOs: Derby 0-3 Swansea, M’boro 3-1 West Brom, Wolves 4-1 Stoke

The Championship early KOs have played out with some big wins… Derby 0-3 Swansea, M’boro 3-1 West Brom, Wolves 4-1 Stoke.

Boro went one up on 48 minutes with Will Lankshear tapping home after Morgan Whittaker’s effort hit the post, then West Brom Jimmy-Jay Morgan levelled midway through the second half.

Middlesbrough went 2-1 up on 73 minutes when Will Lankshear the grabbed his sixth in five games, before Alfie Jones sealed the win.

Wolves, had fell behind to a screamer from Stoke’s Sam Gallagher two minutes in, but then hit back and comfortably won 4-1 thanks to a Rodrigo Gomes double and one each from Raul Jimenez and Jordan James.

Stoke had a busy summer spending big, but they have lost all three of their opening league games of the season, putting more pressure on Mark Robins’ future.

Swansea thrashed Derby 3-0 and it could have been an even bigger scoreline. Joseph Opoku making it 1-0 after two minutes, Eom Ji-sung doubled their lead before half time, then Ronald added a third.

Middlesbrough’s Luke Ayling said: “Yeah, it’s a really tough game today. I don’t think many teams will come here and play like that against us.

“I think they played really well today. They had spells in the game where they were in top. So first time it was about riding it out, sorting a few things out, then out at half time.

“Then when we’ve got a striker like him who has two touches all game and scores two goals, it’s great. So it’s brilliant.”

On Lankshear: “I know he’s top he’s top, he’s a young lad but so hungry then oh that comes in every day scores goals in training celebrates like it’s on a Saturday so top top lad proper goal scorer proper lad.”

Interviewer: “How challenging are games like this Will where you’re not necessarily so involved as you wanted to be but you just have to be ready when you get the chances and you were?”

Lankshear: “Absolutely yeah I was really really impressed with the way West Brom played today I thought they were very very good. I didn’t think we were very good first half, be totally honest, not ourselves.

“But yeah, as you said, it’s really, really important to be patient and stay in the game. When times get tough, you have to stay in the game. And I thought we did that. I thought we defended really, really well.

“And second half, we came and did a job.”

On six goals this season and his confidence? “No, I’m human of course. I just love to score goals. As Luke said, I come in every single day and I want to improve, I want to learn and I want to score goals. It’s what I want to do. I go home and I think about goals, goals, goals.

“Every single time I step onto a pitch I try to do that and try to help the team as much as possible and get the win which is most important thing.”

Middlesbrough’s Kim Hellberg said, as per Sky Sports:

I am very happy with the win. How we turned the game around in the second half is absolutely brilliant – intense pressing, creating loads of opportunities.

“That’s what I want this football side to look like. The second half, against a very good side, I thought was brilliant.

“The first half, I have to be honest, we were terrible, to be fair. In the first half, there was a lack of intensity to how we were pressing and our pressing structure was not right. We gave them a lot of time with the ball.

“They are a very good side, very similar to us, but while they played well, they only really had one or two chances. They had the ball and frustrated us though, and were very good at it.

“We lacked intensity in how we pressed, and then we were tired when we did get the ball so we did a lot of basic things wrong.

“Sometimes, football is about pressing and winning your duels, and we didn’t do that well enough in the first half. Second half, we turned it around and over 90 minutes we won fair and square.”

West Brom’s James Morrison: “We talk a lot about managing momentum and starts to halves. The goal [Middlesbrough’s opener] is offside, but I’m not going to complain too much, hopefully we’ll get a few ourselves this year.

“I thought we were comfortable, but I don’t want to be that team that concedes silly goals. I don’t want to be that.

“We’re a new team and we’re trying to build something so there’s going to be little knocks along the way. It’s probably part of our learning curve, and we’ll get stronger as we go along and won’t make those mistakes.

“I’ve seen how far we’ve come. But it’s the timing of goals that is most frustrating at the moment – Newcastle scored against us [in the Carabao Cup] just after we had scored. That’s the disappointment.”

Derby’s John Eustace said, as per Sky Sports: “I can understand the fans’ frustrations 100 per cent because the performance was unacceptable and I’m really disappointed,” he said.

“We are lacking in confidence at the moment so conceding that first goal so early on didn’t help, and while we huffed and puffed and had some little moments, to then concede the second just before half-time was a kick in the teeth.

“We then made three changes at half-time. I didn’t want to because none of the players are fit yet and that showed with the way we dropped off the pace in the final 20 minutes, but we had to try and make something happen.

“We couldn’t really put together any sustained attacks or give their keeper any problems, though, and things just seemed to fizzle out a bit and we’re probably lacking a bit of quality in certain areas, which we are crying out for.

“The only thing that disappointed me in the second half was that the body language of some players wasn’t great. But I’ll take full responsibility for the performance and result. I pick the team, coach the players and give the tactics out.”

Boos from Derby fans:

Swansea’s Vitor Matos: “We started the game really well and scored. There were moments when Derby pushed us back but we coped with their threat, and after we scored the second goal that gave us the comfort to control the game how we like to.

“Derby made a really strong start to the second half and pushed us back again, but we stayed controlled and calm and then had a number of chances to score. We were maybe a bit too anxious to get a third to kill the game off but I’m really pleased with the maturity of the team, how the new players are fitting in and the desire and energy they are showing.

“We have a group of players who are enjoying playing together. We have the same mindset whether we’re playing home or away and we’re happy to have put on a good performance for our fans.

“We’re showing we can compete against teams with different styles of playing, but it’s only one game and we have a difficult run of fixtures coming up.”

Wolves’ Cesar Peixoto: “We conceded a goal but the reaction was very important for us. We showed personality and character to fight and after that, we scored four goals and could have scored more.

“We played well and were organised in terms of defensive organisation, and with offensive organisation we could have scored more.

“I talked to the players before the game to have the right shape and the right body language to bring our supporters to support us.

“We did that. The players showed character, personality and quality when we had the ball – they found the right spaces and we defended well, not conceding a lot of chances.”

Stoke’s Mark Robins: “We scored a brilliant goal then contrived to shoot ourselves in the foot. We started really well and scored a ‘worldie’ and got our noses in front.

“We then had some really decent play, from the goalkeeper’s close kick all the way to Gallagher, who won a header and we got runners off him into the box.

“We started to gather momentum but then we decided to do something different.

“Instead of doing those things that got us success, we played it to Eric Bocat, who tried to take on a man and lost the ball in a really dangerous area and they had the weight of numbers to score.

“That changed the whole momentum because we gave them a second one and they hadn’t had to work for it.

“We’ve been the authors of our own downfall for the second week running.”

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