It was a crazy afternoon in the Championship with surprise scorelines, howlers and comebacks that have to be seen.
Coventry edge closer to a return to the Premier League thanks to Jack Rudoni’s double in a 3-2 win against Derby.
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
Blackburn Rovers manager Michael O’Neill told BBC Radio Lancashire:
“I’m exhausted a little bit to be honest. It was one of those games, especially with seven additional minutes, where we put everything into the game.
“We had said to the players, we had to show that we wanted it more than the opposition, given the league position of the two teams.
We had to frustrate them at times, which we did well. We also had to carry a threat as well, and we did that well.
“I thought we had the better chances in the game, our goalkeeper made a couple of big saves when we needed him to, as did theirs.
“But obviously its a real moment of quality from Todd to win the game, and its a massive three points for us.”
Birmingham’s Chris Davies told BBC WM:
“A very disappointing result for us obviously. We can’t say we did enough to win it. You can see the confidence isn’t there.
“Everything that I want from our play – the intensity, the tempo – we don’t have enough of that attacking players really firing right now, where they have been earlier in the season.
“What I will say is I don’t think its for want of trying. The players are running and working, and giving everything they can which ois fundamental, but we’re lacking that fundamental confidence.
“After being in such good form after Christmas, we’ve really hit a period where we’re suffering right now, and its up to me to find the answers for it.”
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.”
Preston’s Paul Heckingbottom told BBC Radio Lancashire: “We created all four goals.
“Regardless of the position they’ve got some real good individual players and we defended our box well.
“They got in behind us once where Dan makes that save where we get things wrong, apart from that it’s shots from the edge of the box.
“For us to give them two goals the way we did, to get that point is really, really frustrating.”
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.”
Hull’s Sergej Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside: “We can be happy with this point because they had very good chances towards the end of this game.
“We began well and take the lead through a very nice goal and then mostly we controlled everything.
“Maybe they know how to use this wind because they played a lot of long balls behind our defence line. We struggled there sometimes and we made one mistake in midfield when we lost the ball and they used this immediately to win a penalty.
“After this, for me, it was a very ugly game because it was first ball, long ball, second ball, who will be successful there? I think we lacked creativity, especially on the ball. We must be comfortable on the ball.
“We didn’t use the wind in the first half because when you saw the second half, they used it. From 30, 35, 40 metres, they tried to shoot on goal. This is their home ground, so this is expected.”
QPR 2-1 Watford
QPR boss Julien Stephan on a second successive home win: “If I have to compare the two games, I prefer this one to the Portsmouth game [a 6-1 victory], even if the score is only 2-1.
“How we played today, defensively and offensively, no comparison for me. I prefer this game.
“We deserved to win the Portsmouth game, but probably not 6-1.
“If we continue to play like today, we will have a bigger chance of getting more points.”
Watford boss Ed Still told BBC Three Counties Radio:
“We’ve given ourselves too much to do in the last part of the game.
“We’ve not defended the box well enough and that’s one of the things we have done really well and been consistent with.
“But we’ve not done it today for both goals – and another chance they had. We showed a lack of quality.
“Clearly when you have to shuffle your back four game-to-game it weakens your team. That is one of the big explaining factors as to why we have struggled to defend the box.”
Sheffield United 3-3 Swansea
Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder: “Until we have that opportunity to change the culture around and get the recruitment right for next year, which we will do, and embed that steel in us, which possibly can only get done when the season’s finished.
“In terms of decisions by me, the players that I don’t think are going to be on the journey next year.
“Physically and the mentality. They’re going to suffer pre-season, because we’ll get it right.”
Swansea’s Vitor Matos: “It’s this kind of game that at least people can find a good use for the ticket, no? It was quite emotional. Coming from a 3-1 situation was massive.
“Jay (Fulton) and Adam just brought a complete different energy in the centre. Adam brought physicality, which is quite important, and energy in the last third.
“Jay brought, again, control, experience, he balanced the team on the counters and had two unbelievable tackles that allowed the team to stay up the pitch.
“Ji-sung played with South Korea (in Austria on Tuesday). Arrived Thursday, came here and came on for around 20 minutes. And it was just a proper effort.
“I think all of the substitutes had a big impact. We knew that we will need them, because that’s as well the importance of these games, so I’m really happy with the contribution of all the squad.”
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
West Brom interim boss James Morrison: “A game of two halves wasn’t it? I thought we were excellent in the first half, we had control.
“I talked about the importance of staying in the game and not giving too much away, 90 seconds into the second half the momentum changes.
“Wrexham have some good players and they’re a good team, we had to weather the storm.”
Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson: “Fantastic response after the break.
“We were a bit passive in the first half if we’re honest. However, the first goal is a deflection, it’s a bit unlucky.
“The second one, if you give a penalty for that, you’re giving three or four penalties every game.
“We come in at 2-0 down and we ask the lads for character first of all, an improvement in our quality of our play and take our whole game up five to 10 yards up the pitch, and we did that brilliantly in the second half.”
Coventry 3-2 Derby
Coventry’s Frank Lampard: “Enjoy it while it’s there because we don’t always get these nights and these results and we’ve had a lot of them this season.
“Now they can enjoy it, they’re a massive part of what we do here, the fans are incredible.
“Both teams took part in a great game of football and we’ve come out on top.
“It was a great night of football, I really enjoyed the game. Elements I didn’t love, elements I really liked.
“But we come away with a win. This team has got character.”
Derby’s John Eustace: “I thought we were excellent. It was really pleasing to come to the best team in the league and perform how we did.
“It showed good signs for us. We had two or three missing and we’ve certainly not let anyone down.
“We’d started well before they scored, then we showed great character to come back into it.
“I’m disappointed to lose. The three goals we conceded were all sloppy and we could have scored a couple more ourselves if we’d been more clinical.
“We’ve got six big games coming up now that we’ll be ready for.”
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