Championship takeaways: Ipswich Town take control of promotion race, but Leicester City find themselves in trouble | Soccer News

Millwall slip up at the worst possible moment. Boro fall short, Ipswich gain capital

After Friday’s joy came Monday’s harsh reality.

For the first time in the promotion race, Millwall finished second, kicking off earlier than the other teams and having the chance to lay down their marker.

They also took the lead against Norwich, but fought back to earn a total of four points against their rivals, something they had not been able to do in previous games against Ipswich and Middlesbrough.

But things didn’t go well from there. Six minutes after Mihailo Ivanovic’s opener, Pelle Mattsson scored a stunning equalizer for Norwich. With 14 minutes remaining, Oskar Schwartau sealed the victory for the Canaries with a brilliant counter-attack.

“It was a disappointing day,” manager Alex Neil admitted after the game. “I don’t think we did enough to win the game and we didn’t defend the two moments well enough.”

Middlesbrough also fell.

They took the lead against Swansea but gave away two penalties, which Zan Vipotnik happily saved. Tommy Conway’s spot-kick gave them a point, but it was a huge advantage for Ipswich in the battle for second place.

“Ipswich are in an overwhelming pole position,” admitted Boro manager Kim Helberg. 「我々は勝利とポイントを見つけなければならない。たとえこの期間が不調だったとしても、我々が喫した敗北は数えるほどだ。我々をダメにしたのは引き分けだ。

“We’ll probably have to win all five remaining games to get past them. Those wins will be very difficult to get, but we’ll try to get as many points as possible and then we’ll see where we end up.”

Ipswich made their first comeback of the season, defeating Birmingham 2-1.

“The first come-from-behind win of the season is really important and I think we’re getting close to it,” said Kieran McKenna. “I’ve been saying that for weeks and months.

“Each time we had a setback, our reactions got better and better, and I think today was the best because the group took some big body blows in the first half.”

They have rarely made a real impression this season, but McKenna’s side appear intent on doing enough to get the job done.

All three teams have 72 points, but Ipswich are far ahead on goal difference with two games remaining. They were 12 points behind Coventry and drew 0-0 with Hull in the evening kick-off, moving them within four points of the Premier League.

Derby do their job and continue to ratchet up the pressure in the play-off race

Derby 2-0 Stoke

Wrexham and Southampton don’t play a game until Tuesday night when they meet at the Racecourse Ground, so it was an opportunity for Derby to put pressure on the play-off battle.

They remain outsiders but all they could do on Easter Monday was get the job done and they did so when they saw off Stoke with a comfortable win at Pride Park.

“We deserved the win,” Rams manager John Eustace said. “From the first moment we were ahead, the football we played today was great and the second goal was a great goal.

“We didn’t convert a lot of chances in the first period.”

They are one point behind Wrexham and one point behind Southampton on goal difference, but have played more games than both. A tie between the two would be advantageous for the Rams.

Portsmouth hit back at Oxford as Leicester committed a cardinal sin in the Championship

Portsmouth 2-2 Oxford |Sheff Wed 1-1 Leicester

All things considered, it was a good point for Portsmouth, who held relegation rivals Oxford to a draw.

Keshi Anderson’s opening goal at Fratton Park gave them a dream start, but a controversial red card for Conor Ogilvie moments later left them with a mountain to climb.

Oxford looked headed for victory as Brodie Spencer and Will Lankshear turned the game around, but Andre Dozell equalized with three minutes remaining. This point kept Portsmouth above the dotted line.

Pompey manager John Musinho said: “What we were thinking about in real time about the deficit was that no one, including Oxford, expected it to be a deficit.”

“I’m not going to hide from Ogilvie, who doesn’t have to challenge, but if it’s a red card, there’s going to be quite a few red cards next year.

“It’s still very close at the bottom of the table. I don’t know if it would have helped either team because it was a must-win for both teams. In these circumstances, we would have taken the points.”

For Oxford, a golden opportunity to climb out of the bottom three was taken away. But Matt Bloomfield knows there’s still time to get out of trouble.

“We could have won,” he said. “We had the advantage in the final minutes of the game. We worked hard to move forward and we are very disappointed that we couldn’t get the three points.”

And although Leicester could have moved out of the bottom three, they were unable to secure a win against Sheffield Wednesday.

The home team will need a late goal from Jordan Ayew to regain a point in this season, where they have not yet won.

This was a huge and expensive missed opportunity for Leicester, even considering Pierce Charles’ excellent work in goal. He must have been a banker.

Leicester manager Gary Rowett said: “It’s obviously very frustrating overall and it’s very disappointing that we didn’t win the game when we had so many chances.” “I understand that we have to come here and win, but it wasn’t easy for a lot of teams this season against Sheffield Wednesday.

“What you don’t do is pick them up and we picked them up after a minute and a half. That allowed them to sit down and made it difficult for us to break them down. We had five or six great chances and their keeper made some great saves. I feel like we did more than enough to win the game.”

But they didn’t. Leicester have five games left to avoid the humiliation of consecutive relegation.

Championship Easter Monday full results