Championship roundup: Norwich on way to top flight, says Thomas Frank

Brentford’s manager, Thomas Frank, believes Norwich are certain to be promoted after seeing them defeat his team 1-0 in a top‑of‑the‑table Championship match at Carrow Road.

A superb individual goal from the midfielder Emi Buendía midway through the first half was enough to take the Canaries 10 points clear at the top with 12 matches left to play. It was a sixth successive Championship win for Farke’s side and a fourth defeat in six games for Brentford.

Frank believes his side are playing for the second automatic promotion spot, with Watford and Swansea breathing down their necks. “Congratulations to Norwich, I think they are 100% certain to be promoted,” he said.

“That is not mind games or anything like that, it’s based on the quality of their performances this season. They are now 10 points clear, they have the same team who won promotion two years ago, no injuries and have an excellent coach in Daniel [Farke]. They are a very good side and it wouldn’t surprise me if they went undefeated for the rest of the season.”

Frank was delighted with his Brentford side’s display. “We didn’t allow them many proper chances and we had many good situations and should really have scored more goals. To have 73 points at this stage of the season is an outstanding achievement. It’s seven points more than we had when we went on to win title two years ago and 11 points more than Leeds had last season.

“We are in a great position but there is no guarantee that it will be the same in the final 12 games. We have to keep this going to get what we want to be.”

Watford joined the second-placed Bees on 63 points after a 2-0 home win against bottom-placed Wycombe, with Andre Gray scoring two.

Andre Ayew scored a penalty deep into stoppage time as Swansea moved a point behind with a 2-1 win at Stoke City. Nick Powell had given the hosts an early lead with his sixth goal in nine games, but Connor Roberts levelled before the break, and it was Ayew who grabbed the glory with almost the last kick of the game.

Barnsley kept their play-off hopes alive with their sixth consecutive victory, a 3-1 win against QPR. Charlie Austin’s equaliser cancelled out Daryl Dike’s opener, but Alex Mowatt’s free-kick and Carlton Morris’s second-half goal gave the visitors the points.

Freddie Ladapo’s last-gasp winner earned 10-man Rotherham a dramatic 2-1 win at fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday, ruining Darren Moore’s first game in charge. The striker Michael Smith headed the visitors into a first-half lead, only to be red carded midway through the second period for violent conduct.

The new Owls manager, Moore, then looked to have secured a point in his first game since leaving Doncaster when Matt Olosunde put through his own goal, only for Ladapo to strike in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

The win took Rotherham to within three points of safety, with Wednesday seven behind fourth-bottom Birmingham.

Nigel Pearson’s winning start as Bristol City manager was ended by a Dan Bentley error and a late Cameron Carter-Vickers goal in a 2-1 home defeat by Bournemouth.

The hosts took a 38th-minute lead when Tyreeq Bakinson headed home, only for Bentley to fumble the ball into his own net for an embarrassing equaliser before Carter-Vickers’ 88th-minute winner.