Reading top of table after narrow win at CardiffBoro and QPR share points, Blackburn stun DerbyReading made it nine points from nine, edging to a valuable 2-1 win at Cardiff. Michael Morrison opened the scoring with a close-range header from Michael Olise’s wicked delivery before Lucas João doubled the visitors’ lead, rifling home after good work by Josh Laurent. Lee Tomlin pegged one back late on for the hosts, following up after Kieffer Moore’s effort was saved.
Two more promotion hopefuls met a Loftus Road, where Chuba Akpom’s early glancing header for Middlesbrough was cancelled out when QPR’s Bright Osayi-Samuel bundled the ball in after Osman Kakay’s teasing cross. Stoke got three points against 10-man Preston thanks to Lee Gregory’s first-half tap-in – Tom Barkhuizen’s rash first-half challenge earning him a straight red – and Ivan Toney stayed cool from the spot to convert a penalty he had won himself Brentford in a 1-1 draw with Millwall, who had taken an early lead when Jed Wallace nodded in Mason Bennett’s cross from deep.