Champ: Villa win puts pressure on Cardiff

Published on: 24 February 2018

Lewis Grabban of Aston Villa scores for Aston Villa vs Sheffield Wednesday Getty

Aston Villa ramped up the pressure on second-placed Cardiff in the Championship with a 4-2 comeback victory at Sheffield Wednesday.

With Cardiff not playing until Sunday, at home to playoff hopefuls Bristol City, Villa knew a win would close the gap to one point.

They were trailing at half-time to goals from Sean Clare and Lucas Joao either side of Lewis Grabban's leveller.

But Glenn Whelan's 67th-minute equaliser was added to late on by Conor Hourihane and Robert Snodgrass, who scored from the penalty spot, to give Villa the win.

Fourth-placed Derby drew 3-3 at Reading after Jon Dadi Bodvarsson netted a late equaliser for the hosts.

Despite Kasey Palmer firing Derby into an early lead, Reading went ahead through goals from Liam Kelly and Mo Barrow.

Derby responded either side of half-time through Richard Keogh and Tom Lawrence, only for Bodvarsson to grab an equaliser 10 minutes from time before Chris Baird was sent off for the visitors.

Callum McManaman denied Middlesbrough the chance to leapfrog Bristol City into sixth place as Sunderland drew an ill-tempered thriller 3-3 at the Stadium of Light.

Relegation-threatened Sunderland led 1-0 at half-time after an opening 45 minutes which saw Joel Asoro score before Jake Clarke-Salter and Adama Traore were sent off to leave the contest 10-a-side.

First-half substitute Jonny Williams levelled for Sunderland after Patrick Bamford and a Grant Leadbitter penalty had put Boro ahead, but Bamford put Boro ahead again the 68th minute until McManaman netted the equaliser in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

Sunderland remain rooted to the bottom of the table, four points adrift of safety, while fellow strugglers Birmingham and Burton also lost.

Oli McBurnie scored twice and missed a penalty as Barnsley moved out of the drop zone with a 2-0 victory at Birmingham.

Ben Marshall's second-half goal condemned Burton to a 1-0 defeat at home to Millwall.

Mustapha Carayol netted the winner as Preston's playoff push stuttered with a 1-0 defeat to Ipswich at Deepdale.

Liam Cooper's first-half header gave Leeds a 1-0 home win over Brentford, earning Paul Heckingbottom his first victory as head coach, while Norwich and Bolton drew 0-0 at Carrow Road.

Lee Tomlin netted twice as Nottingham Forest won 5-2 at QPR.

Joe Lolley, Matty Cash and Ben Brereton also scored for the visitors, meaning goals from Massimo Luongo and Matt Smith were nothing more than consolations for QPR.

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