Championship: Wrexham beat Ipswich in eight-goal thriller as championship race intensifies
Wrexham Association Football Club moved into the top six after a 5-3 win over Ipswich in a game that has reshaped parts of the championship play-off race. The weekend also featured key results for Portsmouth, Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke and Watford.
Championship: Wrexham enter top six
Wrexham beat Ipswich 5-3 in an eight-goal thriller that lifted Wrexham into the top six. Ipswich led 3-2 during the match but managed to throw it all away with a second-half collapse, conceding five goals in the away fixture. Two of the goals conceded came from ex-Blues Kieffer Moore and Nathan Broadhead. The result followed an FA Cup defeat to the same opponent at the Racecourse Ground, a 1-0 loss in which Town failed to register a single shot on target and used 10 changes in that cup tie.
Ipswich collapse and response
Ipswich Town are back on the road this evening, facing Watford at Vicarage Road (7: 45pm). Alex Jones previews the action and notes this is the last of four successive away days for Town: what was supposed to be five away games in a row became four when the trip to Portsmouth was postponed for a second time, though players still travelled to the South Coast. Price Park came next, a 2-1 win at Derby County described as a brave display, but form did not last; the FA Cup defeat at the Racecourse Ground was followed eight days later by the 5-3 reversal at Wrexham that left Ipswich having conceded five away at Wrexham over the weekend.
Observers say the performance was "really, really poor" and that all goals conceded were "totally avoidable. " Ipswich have racked up significant mileage this month and will return to Portman Road after the Watford trip to face Swansea City.
Watford, Ed Still on win
Watford beat Derby 2-0. Ed Still, the new man in charge of the Hornets, spoke following his side's win and said: "It was to be able to start the game in the way that we did, to be able to score early and not step back too much after that.
"There was a phase in the first half where we were maybe a little bit too passive, but we managed to keep stepping forwards.
"Everybody had to make changes early in the game [after Giorgi Chakvetadze came on for injured Maamma], but seeing that the subs who came on stuck to the game plan was also great to see.
"It was special to be able to give the fans something to cheer about. We felt the energy and the support from kick-off all the way to the end so to be able to send everyone home happy and hopeful for the coming weeks is great. "
Watford sit ninth in the table, three points off the play-offs, and have been through managerial change this season: former player Tom Cleverley was sacked at the end of last season after just over a year in charge; Paulo Pezzolano replaced him but was axed in October; the club then turned back to Javi Gracia, who had previously taken charge in the Premier League and guided the side to the 2019 FA Cup final, though he found himself out of a job at the start of February.
Round-up of other results
Portsmouth climbed six points clear of the drop zone with a 3-1 win at third-placed Millwall. Birmingham won 2-1 at Norwich, with the Blues boss Chris Davies speaking following what was described as a "big win" at Norwich. Middlesbrough were held to a goalless draw by Oxford, and Charlton held Southampton.
League leaders Coventry beat struggling West Brom 2-0 with strikes from Ephron Mason-Clark and Jack Rudoni, a result that pulled Coventry further away from Middlesbrough at the top. Stoke scored in the 89th minute to draw 2-2 with Leicester, a late goal that robbed Leicester of an escape from the bottom three. QPR beat promotion-chasing Hull 3-1, and Swansea beat a stuttering Bristol City.
Tomorrow's Steel City derby
Commentators Ian Woodcock, Kate Holloway, Tom Rostance and Joe Boon noted: "We've had it all today but want a match with some finality to it?" Tomorrow Bramall Lane hosts the Steel City derby, giving Sheffield United the chance to doom Sheffield Wednesday to relegation once and for all (well, at least for next season). "It could be some miserable poetry... or it could be a victory the Owls will never forget. See you then!"
For Ipswich the immediate agenda is clear: respond after the collapse at Wrexham, recover on the road at Vicarage Road at 7: 45pm, then return to Portman Road to face Swansea City. The scale of the defeat, the prior FA Cup loss at the Racecourse Ground and the travel burden this month create a psychological challenge the club acknowledges.
