Article body analysed

Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Millwall, QPR 1-3 Blackburn Derby into top six; Blades win late at Portsmouth Sheffield Wednesday threatened to record only their second victory of the season after taking the lead against Millwall before their promotion-chasing opponents hit back to win 2-1. Having not scored a goal since Boxing Day, there was a mixture of relief and jubilation among the home supporters when Jamal Lowe scored in the 60th minute to put Wednesday ahead. However, the joy was short-lived as Millwall scored two goals in two minutes after Cole Mc Ghee put into his own goal and Macaulay Langstaff’s winner earned all three points. Millwall included former Wednesday skipper Barry Bannan in their lineup and, such is his standing at Hillsborough, home supporters chanted his name and applauded in the 11th minute. The veteran midfielder joined the Lions after making more than 450 appearances during a decade with Owls. Cardiff doubled their lead at the top of League One to four points with a 3-1 win over Wycombe.  The front-runners went ahead through David Turnbull before Jordan Clark's penalty dragged them back. Joel Colwill and Perry Ng then struck twice in five minutes in the run-in to half-time, establishing an advantage that Jack Wilshere's side could not break. The two teams immediately beneath them held each other to a 1-1 draw,  Lincoln coming within eight minutes of landing a crucial blow in the promotion battle with Bolton. The Imps took control of the second-versus-third clash through Jack Moylan in the 25th minute and that looked to be enough for a fifth straight win and a nine-point lead over their opponents. But Sam Dalby rose to head home Ethan Erhahon's teasing delivery late on to snatch a 1-1 draw. Bradford jumped a spot into fifth thanks to a 2-0 win over Peterborough, Bobby Pointon and Kayden Jackson on target in either half. They swapped places with Huddersfield after they went down 1-0 to Stevenage following Carl Piergianni's late effort.   Jack Marriott bolstered Reading's hopes of pushing for the play-offs with a match-winning hat-trick against Wycombe.  Marriott gave the Royals a 2-0 half-time lead and won it for the hosts after goals from Dan Casey and Anders Hagelskjaer squared things up. Barnsley and AFC Wimbledon shared a six-goal thriller at Oakwell, Omar Bugiel with a double for the visitors and Scott Banks striking at the death to secure the draw. Plymouth thrashed Blackpool 4-0, including three before the interval but there were clean sheets all round as Northampton held Exeter. PA Media Derby celebrated a home win for only the second time this year as they beat Swansea 2-0 to move into the playoff places. Swansea had been the better side in the first half but they were undone by two corners after the break with Rhian Brewster and the US international Patrick Agyemang scoring the goals that gave the Rams a league double over the team from south Wales. County’s first victory at Pride Park since New Year’s Day moved them into sixth in the table. Mathias Jorgensen scored twice as Blackburn won 3-1 at QPR in new manager Michael O’Neill’s first match in charge. It was the perfect start for the Northern Ireland manager, who will perform both jobs until the end of the season after this week being handed the task of keeping Rovers in the Championship. O’Neill inherited a side third-bottom of the table, having won just one of their previous 10 league matches and only two of their past 16, but victory lifted them out of the relegation zone and up to 19th. Jorgensen put them ahead on 21 minutes and restored the lead after Koki Saito’s equaliser before Ryoya Morishita’s goal early in the second half sealed the victory. O’Neill later refused to take credit, saying Damien Johnson, who has been in caretaker charge, deserved the plaudits. “I only arrived in the building yesterday at 11am, so the work was done by Damien all week. He prepared the team and did a fantastic job. ” Jorgensen’s attacking partnership with Andri Gudjohnsen was a key factor in Rovers’ victory. O’Neill, who urged his new team on from the technical area, having initially considered watching from the stands, said the decision to deploy the duo together up front was Johnson’s. “The front two have a lot in them. They played really well with each other, ” O’Neill said. “That was Damien. He felt the two up top would benefit us. Having them give us what they gave us, in and out of possession, was a real bonus. Damien said he felt it would really benefit the team if I was in the dugout, so I took guidance from him. It’s nice to be here and to take some credit, but the credit really lies with him because he prepared the team and picked the team. ” Andre Brooks scored a 90th-minute winner to give Sheffield United their first away victory in six games and keep their hopes of a playoff place alive with a 1-0 success at Portsmouth. The last-gasp triumph leaves Chris Wilder’s side six points off the top six while Pompey are just a point above the relegation zone. League two pace-setters Bromley drew 1-1 at home against Notts County but retained their four-point cushion. Matthew Dennis turned the ball past his own keeper to put Bromley ahead but Jodi Jones' penalty cancelled it out.  The Magpies held out following Scott Robertson's subsequent dismissal but still dropped from third to fourth. Challengers Swindon missed the chance to take advantage, upset 3-1 by resurgent Shrewsbury who made it back-to-back wins to ease their relegation worries. Iwan Morgan, George Lloyd and Nick Freeman got the home side's goals at the New Meadow, Billy Kirkman having equalised in first-half injury-time.  Instead it was Cambridge who moved replaced the Robins in second, Ben Knight netting once from open play and once from the spot in a 3-1 win over Bristol Rovers. Barrow's new manager Dino Maamria celebrated victory at the first attempt as captain Niall Canavan powered home the only goal against Colchester with just five minutes left. Maamria was appointed after the torrid five-match reign of Paul Gallagher and took over a side with one win in their last 15 league games. Harrogate also grabbed an important result, lifting themselves off bottom spot with a 1-1 draw at 10-man Chesterfield. Tobias Brenan levelled in the 84th minute after Lee Bonis' dismissal left the Spireites a man down. Barnet and Cheltenham were goalless, Crewe and MK Dons edged 1-0 wins over Gillingham and Newport respectively, Oldham and Fleetwood drew 1-1 and Crawley went down 2-0 at Tranmere. PA Media United’s on-loan Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips started his first game since March last year as Pompey dominated the first half, with the home side left to rue a string of missed opportunities. Wilder, meanwhile, refused to be drawn on talks of a push for promotion, saying: “You win games of football, you go up the division. If we were 24th, I’d want to be 23rd. If we were 10th, I’d want to be ninth. And if we were top, I’d want to be top by 10 points. So that’s our attitude. We’re not top. ” Milutin Osmajic came off the bench to rescue a point for Preston in a thrilling 2-2 draw with fellow playoff hopefuls Watford at Deepdale. The 26-year-old returned to the squad after his three-match suspension and struck his sixth goal of the season on 70 minutes to claw the Lilywhites level. Preston had taken the lead through a well-taken Lewis Dobbin strike in the 19th minute but were pegged back by Othmane Maamma’s cool 55th-minute leveller and fell behind due to an unfortunate own goal from Odel Offiah two minutes later. It was the first match in charge for new Watford boss Edward Still, brother of former Southampton manager Will, and the 35-year-old was pleased with his team’s second-half efforts, saying: “We had to stretch them and once you can do that, it will open up the space in the midfield to be able to control the ball a little bit more which is exactly what happened. We managed to find Maamma a little bit more as well so the second half was really positive. “There are things we can improve on and we need to improve quickly to be able to capitalise on the good stuff that we’ve done. ”