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We've experienced many twists, turns and plenty of goals this afternoon but the Championship isn't done for the weekend just yet.

Join us on Sunday for the Steel City derby to see if Sheffield United can convert their statistically good performances into a winning one, or if Hillsborough will hurl Wednesday into a victory.

We will have all the build up tomorrow before the 12:00 GMT kick-off so make sure not to miss it.

See you then!

QPR

QPR head coach Julien Stephan told BBC Radio London:

"Of course the win is very important but for me the performance is also very important because it means a lot to win a game like this with that level of play.

"I think offensively it was our best performance since the start of the season. Very good movement, a great number of opportunities — 26 shots, 3.5 xG, so it's a lot without a penalty and credit to the players; they deserve this win.

"Another reason I enjoyed this game was the mental reaction after we conceded the first and second goals, because they shot only once in the first half and scored.

"But we stayed focused, the players stuck to the plan, and continued to play how we wanted."

Hull City

Hull City defender Ryan Giles told BBC Radio Humberside:

"Obviously I'm really disappointed. I felt like we started really well but at times it can be a theme where we go in front and then concede a sloppy goal, and that was the case today.

"There are things leading up to it — it's not just the back four. Chas [Charlie Hughes] is putting his body on the line to try and stop it, and they get a lucky deflection that goes in.

"We've got to look back and see how we can stop the opposition having so many opportunities at our goal."

Derby County

Derby County manager John Eustace spoke to BBC Radio Derby after the Rams squandered a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to Watford.

He also gave an early update on the injury to leading scorer Carlton Morris.

“I’m really disappointed," Eustace said of the defeat. "At 2-0 I thought we were comfortable.

"They had a lot of possession and are a really good team, and we switched off for that for that first goal they scored, that lack of concentration, and for the second game in a row we’ve given away a penalty where it was needless.

“At 2-2 we’d have taken a point with them on the front foot, and the way we conceded the third goal just wasn’t like us, that lack of organisation and leadership.”

On Morris injury: “It looks pretty bad. For the big man to come off it’s got to be bad. At first glance it doesn’t look bad so he’ll get assessed tomorrow by the medical team and we’ll take it from there.”

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough are now seven points behind the Championship leaders Coventry after drawing at Oxford.

Interim boss Adi Viveash told BBC Radio Tees:

"A fair word is frustrating - we did enough to win, I'm disappointed not to win - we had enough territory but not enough quality when we got there.

"In the Championship you need things to go your way, especially away from home - they worked very hard and it was a typical Championship away game I suppose.

"We had one good shout for a penalty and another one we didn't get and we're feeling on the wrong side of decisions at the moment, probably over the last four or five games, they say it evens itself out, hopefully it does."

On the managerial situation:

"At the moment I was asked to prepare the team and take the game at Oxford - we'll have a conversation I'm sure and then we'll see what that brings.

"24 hours is a long time in football and especially when you're going through this situation and we'll see what happens."

Leicester City

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Leicester City boss Marti Cifuentes spoke to BBC Radio Leicester after the Foxes hung on for a 2-1 victory against high-flying Stoke.

“It’s an important win, especially because it makes it back-to-back wins," he said.

“To start back after the international break with three points is always a positive for building momentum and trying to build some confidence.

“I’m happy for the fans and for the players, because I know how hard they worked today in a game that was not easy.

“What I’ve seen in the last three games is a team that is working really hard. We need to be humble, the Championship is a difficult league and you need to grind it out sometimes.”

Watford

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Watford head coach Javi Gracia was unsurprisingly ecstatic when talking to BBC Three Counties Radio after his side battled back from 2-0 down to beat Derby County 3-2.

“The game was tough. To win away after a long time not winning away, around 270 days, we are really happy. To do it after conceding two goals and keep doing our job, following the plan, with the reward of three points, is something amazing for us," he said.

“My players showed great attitude until the end and I’m happy for the supporters who enjoyed winning with the team.

“If you analyse their goals today, one is from a rebound and the second from a very good free-kick and good header, and we didn’t deserve it in that moment to be losing the game 2-0.

“We had more possession, and more shots on target and played a good game, knowing Derby were coming from five wins in a row and that it would be very tough.”

Millwall

It's four games without a win for Millwall after their 3-1 defeat by Portsmouth and they have dropped to seventh place.

Head coach Alex Neil has been speaking to the media:

"You're disappointed when you lose any game but losing players like we did, having to patch a team up, taking players off because they've missed a lot of minutes and the nature of the goals we've conceded.

"The second and third (goals) we should have done a lot better with both.

"When you are depleted in so many areas, and you're missing your captain (Jake Cooper), it's really difficult to win games at this level and that was a hard day for us."

Norwich City

Clement on how hard he feels his job is:

"You can look at all the games on video, and I saw all the games before I came, and you see things.

"But now you get to know people also, and that's also very important in football.

"Also their physical state at the moment that you cannot see on the video.

"We know we have a lot of things to work on, but we need to do it step by step.

"You cannot do everything in four or five days or four or five weeks."

Norwich City

Norwich City head coach Philippe Clement told BBC Radio Norfolk:

"It was by far not good enough in the first half, lacking in intensity, lacking confidence on the ball and not doing the right things in our structure defensively.

"We were not doing the things that we trained, maybe out of nervousness or whatever, so there's things to talk about.

"When we could show things at half-time it was much better, a much better structure creating chances and better on the ball and even getting more chances than Birmingham in the second half.

"But they scored the one goal where we made an individual mistake, so we need to look at the things that went wrong in the first half and build on the things that they did in the second half."

Birmingham City

Birmingham City manager Chris Davies told BBC WM:

"It was an important game today.

"After the international break this is a disjointed few weeks because players are away and you have to get back together a couple of days before the game and see what kind of intensity you can bring to the next match.

"I thought that was the key to it, i thought we had a real intensity about us, we started really aggressively, we created a chance in the first minute which just sets the tone for the match.

"We were deservedly up in the game at half-time with a cushion and I liked the way we played the second half, so for us it was a really important win."

Samantha Fletcher
Final Score

Birmingham are a force to be reckoned with at home, they’ve only lost once at St Andrew's since April and scored four goals in each of their past three home games.

For the first hour they looked almost like kids playing in the park, of course not in relation to skill or speed but in the way they play for fun, hungry for goals. Their string of confident home soil results appears to breed freedom and confidence to play within a well drilled team.

The other ingredient for success against Norwich was dog eared determination, they keep the play alive when many teams would relent. Demarai Gray stands out as a play maker, who puts ball after ball into the right place in the box.

Only Hull have beat Blues at home so far, the question is can anyone else stop their ongoing house party?

Image source, Getty Images

As is the weekly custom, here are some of the best stats from the Championship from Opta to put the day's action into perspective.

• Southampton were 4-0 ahead within 22 minutes against Charlton – the fastest any side in EFL Championship history (from 2004-05) has scored four goals from the start of a game in the competition.
• Anis Mehmeti assisted all three of Bristol City’s goals in their 3-0 win over Swansea, becoming the first Robins player with three assists in a league game since Andreas Weimann versus Middlesbrough in July 2020.
• Coventry City have scored 43 goals in 16 Championship matches this season, only the second side since 2004-05 to have that many at this stage, along with Fulham in 2021-22 (also 43).
• West Bromwich Albion lost 3-2 against Coventry, having 2-0 up after 32 minutes. It’s the first time in any competition the Baggies have lost after going two goals ahead since September 2015 in a Premier League match against Everton, also a 3-2 defeat.
• Hull City’s Joe Gelhardt has netted six goals in his last seven Championship appearances, while in 2025 only Josh Sargent (16) has scored more goals in the division than Gelhardt (13 in 36 games).

Portsmouth

Portsmouth ended a six-game winless run with a 3-1 victory over Millwall.

Boss John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent:

"We obviously needed it in terms of points but more importantly lifting the morale at the entire football club.

"It was important to come back to Fratton and it felt more like a Portsmouth performance.

"We did so many of the things we wanted to do properly - we committed to the press, committed to playing, to going long - whatever it was I thought we committed to it really well.

"We've got to capitalise on this win."

Ipswich Town

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Ipswich were held to a goalless draw by a Wrexham side who failed to produce a single shot on goal.

Boss Kieran McKenna has been speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk:

"A frustrating result - we feel the win was there for us.

"We started the game with a good tempo, got into the areas we wanted to and it's one where if you don't get the early goal it becomes more difficult and more frustrating.

"It's really difficult when a team defends that close to their goal but we didn't take the two big chances we created and in a game like that you're not going to get five or six big chances in every game.

Alrighty, that's what the bosses had to say following the 12:30 GMT games... reaction from the later matches is now starting to come in.

Let's start with the game that would be last on Match of the Day (if they covered the Championship)...

Charlton Athletic

Charlton manager Nathan Jones had a lot to reflect on when he spoke to BBC Radio London after the Addicks were thrashed 5-1 by Southampton earlier today.

"Give credit to them, for 20 minutes they were as good a side as we have seen at this level [but] could we have been a bit more aggressive? We did not do the things we normally do and that is basically what has cost us," he said.

"We do not defend the box well enough for the first goal, we allow certain things to happen for the second which kind of kills it, and then they go up and level and make it three and four very quickly.

"We showed a lot of character in the second half, we tweaked it defensively – we were probably a little more reserved than we normally are. Credit to Southampton they were much better than us but that is a learning curve for us."

Southampton

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Tonda Eckert oversaw his third - and most comprehensive - win as interim Southampton boss earlier today.

This is what he had to say to BBC Radio Solent after Saints' 5-1 win at Charlton Athletic.

"We knew that they would be coming for us and that obviously gives you space further up the pitch and I think we used them quite well," he said.

"We are very, very happy to have Adam [Armstrong] as a character, as a player on the team – with the quality he brings, it's very nice to have him up there and he recognises moments like nobody else.

"Those teams are tough to play against, when you know they are coming for you. You will have a little bit more space between the lines and if you get that one pass right, there is a whole pitch to open up.

"We worked on this [over] the last [few] days and it came off.

"After the break, you just have a couple more days to prepare and we did that well."

Swansea City

Swansea City interim boss Darren O'Dea speaking to BBC Radio Wales:

"It was difficult but there were circumstances, everyone knows that. There's obviously going to be a new direction. I think it's pretty imminent.

"These guys can't be questioned in terms of effort. It's been unsettled couple of weeks, that's what happens when you make these decisions in football.

"Ultimately, the messages stands. Stay together and these guys will be fine."

Bristol City

Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber speaking to BBC Radio Bristol:

"The result gives us a really good feeling. To win at home against a team who lost their manager during the international break, that don't need too much to come today - this is a dangerous moment.

"Today, the boys handled the situation really good, very efficiently."