LEAGUE LEADERS WEST Bromwich Albion were held to a 0-0 draw by Birmingham City this afternoon, as the Championship resumed following a three-month hiatus.
Irish international Scott Hogan, on loan from Aston Villa, headed the game’s best chance straight at Sam Johnstone with six minutes left.
“I’m not happy but even the table looks better now”, said Baggies boss Slaven Bilic.
“Every game is a potential three points, I’m disappointed with the result and that we didn’t get it but there were a lot of positive things considering it was our first match back.
“Of course it was a missed opportunity and I’m not happy with the result, I’m disappointed with the result.
“We deserved to win and we did enough to win. You have to be good enough in the final product. The number of shots and crosses we had were extremely high.
“It comes down to sharpness, you need matches to get sharp. Everything else was there and there are a lot of positive things.”
The result means Leeds United can leapfrog Albion and go three points clear at the league summit if they beat Cardiff City tomorrow.
Elsewhere, Blackburn Rovers placed themselves in the race for the play-offs with a come-from-behind 3-1 win at home to Bristol City.
The results sees Rovers move to within a point of sixth-placed Preston, who were held 1-1 by bottom-of-the-table Luton Town. Nottingham Forest remain fifth, following a 1-1 draw away to Sheffield Wednesday, for whom Connor Wickham scored a dramatic, 93rd-minute equalier.
At the bottom of the table, Charlton Athletic earned a crucial 1-0 win at Hull to clamber out of the relegation zone at the Tigers’ expense. Hull are now in the bottom three by virtue of their inferior goal difference to Middlesbrough, who lost 3-0 at home to Swansea earlier today.
Barnsley gave themselves hope of escaping trouble with a 1-0 win over QPR, and they sit four points from safety.
Huddersfield are only a point clear of the drop after a 2-0 home defeat to Wigan, for whom Irish international Anthony Pilkington was on the scoresheet.
Michael O’Neill, having recovered from Covid-19, saw his Stoke City side draw 1-1 at Reading, meaning they stay two points clear of the relegation zone.
Meanwhile, a hat-trick from teenager Louie Sibley earned Derby County a 3-2 win away to Millwall.
Additional reporting by Press Association
That’s shocking from Tipp. Why not play in the Munster Senior League against Limerick Clare Waterford Kerry and Cork give fellas realistic game time instead of meaningless friendly wins over depleted Mary I team. I might be wrong there might be something I don’t know.
It was a fundraising game but maybe they should have played it earlier in the year
Spot on. They had no interest in the Munster League, because they thought they would have meaningless matches. Guess what happened next!
Was that three McGrath brothers playing together? Liam, John and Noel? Also very promising to see Bill Maher from Kilsheelan-Kilcash, a traditionally footballing club, lining out.
Noel and john brothers,liam is a cousin.
Rubbish. The lunatics have finally taken over the asylum. What did he learn from this? How could you possibly gauge a players potential in a game like this’? You could have dragged 15 lads out of a pub, who would have put up a better show. They passed on the Munster Hurling League for this garbage? He wanted the month of January to himself. He could well be getting a whole lot more months, as this shower have no idea how to run a hurling team at elite level.What a moron. O’Shea was a romantic, and this guy is the ‘Terminator’ in a hurling form. The Tipperary County Board should be strung up, for appointing these idiots.
Oh lord I hope u dont follow tipp u moron.could do with out your like.