Morgan Whittakerâ€s early goal at a near-empty Hillsborough gave Middlesbrough a 1-0 win at bottom club Sheffield Wednesday and lifted them to within a point of Championship leaders Coventry.
Whittaker struck for the second game running in the sixth minute and that proved enough for Rob Edwards†side, who should have won by a wider margin and had what looked a certain penalty turned down.
Wednesday remain winless in six home league games this season after slipping to their third straight defeat.
There was a minuteâ€s applause before kick-off for former Owls owner Milan Mandaric, who died this month aged 87. Mandaric sold the club in 2015 after five years at the helm to current owner Dejphon Chansiri, whose own tenure has descended into chaos.
Owls fans stepped up their protest against the Thai businessman – amid reports of a pending winding-up order for an unpaid tax bill – by boycotting the game in their thousands.
Rumarn Burrell scored for the second time in five days as QPR held 10-man Swansea at bay to win 1-0 and climb to eighth. Burrell – who was a scorer in his teamâ€s 2-1 home defeat by Millwall on Saturday – grabbed the only goal of the game in the 18th minute.
QPRâ€s Rumarn Burrell (second right) makes it 1-0 against Swansea. Photograph: Kieran McManus/Shutterstock
Swanseaâ€s teenage Brighton loanee Malick Yalcouyé was shown a straight red card in the 34th minute after he appeared to clash heads with QPR defender Steve Cook.
Yet Swans substitute Zan Vipotnik might have earned the 10 men a point in added time but failed to turn in a cross from two yards out. It is just one defeat in eight games for QPR, but Swansea – who drop to 16th in the table – have not won at home since August.
Watford returned to winning ways with a 2-1 comeback victory over West Brom in the first home game of Javi Graciaâ€s second spell as Hornets manager.
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Isaac Priceâ€s fine strike after 34 minutes put the visitors ahead but Imran Louza cancelled that out – four minutes later – to set the stage for Republic of Ireland international Rocco Vata, 20, to seal victory after the break.
The visitors would have gone third with a victory but could not conjure up an equaliser as they dropped down to 10th and Watford moved up to 12th. Gracia, whose first stint ended in September 2019, waved to applauding home fans on being re-introduced before kick-off.
Nathan Broadhead scored the only goal of the game as 10-man Wrexham recorded a 1-0 win against Oxford for their first home league victory since gaining promotion.
But Phil Parkinsonâ€s side made heavy weather of the long overdue success, playing with a man down after Callum Doyleâ€s 67th minute sending-off. Doyle received his marching orders for a crude challenge on Siriki Dembélé but Wrexham held on to collect three points at the Racecourse at the sixth time of asking.
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