Norwich City manager Neil Adams admitted his side came through a stern test of their promotion credentials after after they beat Brentford 3-0 away on Tuesday to climb to the top of the Championship.
Second-half goals from Alexander Tettey and Cameron Jerome’s double lifted the relegated Premier League club of last season two points above Nottingham Forest – for 24 hours at least – but Brentford will wonder how they came away with nothing.
The newly-promoted hosts would have gone above Norwich with a win and could have been three or four goals ahead after a one-sided first half.
But City somehow held out until half-time, and then broke away ruthlessly to snatch the points after the interval.
Adams said: “We’ve been tested to the limit, and it was a good test of character.
“I said at half-time I felt we could win the game and our quality would shine through.
“It’s a bit unfair on Brentford, it looks like they’ve been battered but it was a lot closer than that.
“We’ve scored three different goals which is very pleasing, and it’s nice that the goals are being spread around.
“You have to start the season well so from our point of view we are delighted with our start.
“You don’t get anything in September but if you ask me where I’d rather be, it’s at the top.”
Watford moved into second, perhaps also only briefly, with a win of their own as Matej Vydra’s second-half penalty secured a 1-0 win at Blackpool.
Substitute Nile Ranger wasted a glorious chance of his own to level for Blackpool from the spot with 10 minutes to go.
“This victory is very good news, of course but we have to improve on certain things. We have to analyse them and find solutions,” said Watford assistant Ruben Martinez, speaking as manager Oscar Garcia was taken to the hospital with chest pains on Monday.
“In the last game we started with 3-5-2 but after 20 minutes we changed and we decided to take a similar style for this game.
“At the moment we don’t want to have a lot of change. This is a difficult week because we have three matches and we want to work step-by-step.
“It is important for Matej [Vydra] that he plays like a second striker to score goals. It is very important for his confidence, but the first step is to work for the team and after that the goals will come.”
Elsewhere, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Charlton filled out the fourth and fifth places in the table, playing to a 1-1 draw as Danny Bath equalised and grabbed Wolves a point after Andre Bikey-Amougou put the Londoners ahead.
Caretaker manager Neil Redfearn increased his chances of becoming the next full-time manager of Leeds by overseeing a 3-1 victory at Bournemouth, where Andrew Surman put the hosts in front early on but United responded through goals from Souleymane Doukara, Giuseppe Bellusci and Mirco Antenucci.
Cardiff City continued a troubling slide for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, down to 17th, with an unimpressive display at home in a 1-0 loss to Middlesbrough.
Cardiff were booed off at half-time and full-time, but Solskjaer made the effort to applaud the home support, taking to the pitch as the teams walked off to clap towards all sides of the ground.
He said: “I have to praise the fans for what they did during the game, they helped the boys.
“They are entitled to stay behind and be disappointed. We are every bit as disappointed, but they did everything I could have asked from them during the 90 minutes.”
Middlesbrough ended the night eighth in the table.
Just of ahead of them Reading and Sheffield Wednesday, sixth and seventh in the Championship, both came away with three points.
Steve May and Jeremy Helan lifted Wednesday over Birmingham City away, while Simon Cox’s 84th-minute goal to claim a double helped Reading escape a comeback bid by Millwall. The hosts had gone ahead 2-0 in the first 15 minutes on Cox’s opener and a Nick Blackman penalty, but Ricardo Fuller and Mark Beevers each netted on either side of half-time to level.
Bolton Wanderers escaped relegation territory for the time being, as a Joe Mason second-half hat-trick made the difference in a wild 3-2 win over Rotherham nited. After Mason’s first equaliser at the 60th minute, he put Bolton ahead 2-1 20 minutes later. Two minutes after that, though, Jordan Bowery drew the visitors even before Mason completed the hat trick another two minutes later with the winner.
Jonathan Parr and Daryl Murphy snagged a pair of goals for Ipswich Town inside the last 21 minutes for a 2-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion and Huddersfield Town played to a scoreless draw with Wigan Athletic, as well.
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