Watford boost promotion push

Championship club bag controversial 1-0 victory against Sheffield Wednesday

LONDON:

Watford bolstered their push for promotion to the Premier League with a controversial 1-0 victory against lowly Sheffield Wednesday on Friday.

Xisco Munoz's side took the points thanks to Tom Lees' early own goal at Vicarage Road.

But Wednesday were furious with the goal as the offside flag went up when Lees tried to beat Isaac Success to Ismaila Sarr's cross.

The officials ruled that Success had not been interfering with play and Watford held on to cement their grip on second place in the Championship.

With the top two promoted automatically, Watford are on course for an immediate return to the Premier League after last season's relegation.

They have won six in a row and sit nine points clear of third placed Swansea, who have a game in hand but slumped to a last-gasp 1-0 defeat at Birmingham.

It was a bitter blow for second bottom Wednesday, who are seven points from safety and were without manager Darren Moore after he tested positive for Covid-19.

Brad Potts' stoppage-time strike saw Preston hold leaders Norwich to a 1-1 draw at Deepdale.

Emi Buendia had put Norwich ahead with a superb long-range effort but Potts struck in the fifth minute of stoppage-time for managerless Preston.

Norwich are six points clear of Watford as they progress towards a seemingly inevitable promotion.

Bournemouth boosted their play-off hopes with a 3-1 win over their manager Jonathan Woodgate's former club Middlesbrough.

Cardiff's chances of breaking into the top six suffered a blow as they went down 1-0 at home to Nottingham Forest, who ended a six-match winless run thanks to James Garner's first-half strike.

Third bottom Rotherham lost 1-0 at Millwall after Michael Smith saw his late penalty saved by Lions keeper Bartosz Bialkowski.

Jed Wallace's blistering strike won it for Millwall after Rotherham captain Richard Wood was sent off.

Derby took a big step towards safety as they ended a seven-game winless run with a 2-0 victory over Luton, while QPR beat struggling Coventry 3-0.