Harrison Burrows scored with almost the last kick of the game as Sheffield United came from behind to snatch a 2-1 Championship victory over Bristol City at Ashton Gate.
The hosts took a 75th-minute lead when substitute Sinclair Armstrong raced onto Max Bird’s through-ball and was tripped as he rounded goalkeeper Michael Cooper. Another replacement, Anis Mehmeti, drilled the resulting spot-kick low to Cooper’s right and, although the keeper guessed correctly, he could not keep the shot out.
The Blades’ 86th-minute leveller came from a corner, unnecessarily conceded by City goalkeeper Max O’Leary’s mistimed punch. His defence failed to get a telling touch and yet another sub, Ryan Oné, rose to nod home. Rob Dickie was then dismissed for the hosts in injury time after denying a goalscoring opportunity.
The seven minutes of indicated stoppage time had been played when Burrows struck a sweet left-footed shot past O’Leary from inside the box to send the away fans behind the goal into rapturous celebrations. The result ended City’s eight-match unbeaten run, and United manager Chris Wilder was pleased with his side’s fightback.
“I didn’t think it was a smash-and-grab. It was a tight game against good opposition,” Wilder said. “After going one behind, we began to show all our character and we started to play in those last 20 minutes. Why it has taken that for us to play quickly with more drive, more intensity and more quality is beyond me.
“The players deserve an enormous amount of credit. It’s got nothing to do with myself or the coaching staff,” he added. “They put themselves in a hole with their decision-making and attention to detail and they got themselves out of it.”
Sheffield Wednesday, who host United in the season’s first Steel City derby on Sunday, bounced back from their 6-2 defeat to Watford on Saturday with a 2-0 home win over Norwich.
First-half goals from Josh Windass and Dominic Iorfa against the Canaries were enough to see them respond in style. Injury-hit Norwich have dropped to 12th in the table – level on 18 points with the Owls – after back-to-back defeats.
“It was a very tactically strong performance,” Wednesday manager Danny Röhl said.
“We can be proud of that. Now, recover and create energy for the big one on Sunday, of course. It will be an emotional game and we’re in a good position to go into it.”.”
Middlesbrough got back to winning ways with a dominant 4-1 victory over QPR at Loftus Road. After the weekend’s disappointing 3-0 collapse against Coventry, Boro bounced back with first-half goals from Riley McGree and Tommy Conway to extend Rangers’ winless run to 10 league games.
After Boro’s Anfernee Dijksteel scored an own goal in the second half, Emmanuel Latte Lath killed the game off in the 87th minute and Dan Barlaser added a fourth in stoppage time. “It’s good for the boys, they gave everything, their attitude and effort is top drawer,” said Boro manager Michael Carrick. “It was a test at 2-1 but we saw it out and the boys off the bench made a good impact for us.”
Dutch defender Hidde ter Avest scored on his debut to earn Oxford a first win in nine games, winning 1-0 against Hull at the Kassam Stadium. The Tigers enjoyed much the better of the first half but could not find the net, and Ter Avest converted Greg Leigh’s cross 10 minutes after the break following a cross-field pass by Tyler Goodrham.
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Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth claimed their first win in five Championship matches after beating fellow strugglers Portsmouth 1-0. Second-half substitute Michael Obafemi scored an 82nd-minute solo goal to settle a tense south-coast contest at a sold-out Home Park.
The 24-year-old Republic of Ireland striker muscled Pompey captain Regan Poole off a long through-ball from Argyle keeper Dan Grimshaw before smashing a first time low strike into the corner past keeper Nicolas Schmid. The win moves Argyle out of the bottom three, six points clear of bottom club Pompey.
“It’s important to get the win, coming off the last four games, we had to do something to stop that run of results,” Rooney said. “I am delighted with three points. I wasn’t looking for a performance, it was about the win. It wasn’t the prettiest of games but it was the result that mattered.”
Myles Peart-Harris bagged his first goal for Swansea as the Brentford loanee helped to make it back-to-back wins with a 1-0 home triumph over Watford.
