Championship wrap: Saints do enough, Hammers win

Southampton won the battle of the top two in the Championship with their 3-0 win over Middlesbrough a 16th straight league win at home.

Leaders Saints maintain their three-point buffer at the top of the league and bump Boro out of the automatic promotion places with Guly do Prado’s two first-half headers and substitute David Connolly’s late strike, enough to settle the points.

Guly latched onto Danny Butterfield’s cross on 15 minutes to give Saints the lead before adding a second some 14 minutes later with Ricky Lambert the provider.

Southampton were impressive yet again and made the most of Boro’s defensive lapses to dominate the match.

West Ham kept up the pressure on the leaders with a 3-2 win over struggling Leicester enough to propel them back into the second promotion spot.

Sam Baldock scored with a header inside the six-yard box to give the Hammers the lead in the 21st minute and within two minutes Julian Faubert added a second.

Andy King pulled one back for Leicester, who sacked manager Sven-Goran Eriksson last Tuesday, and completed his brace three minutes after Baldock had done likewise in the 71st minute for West Ham.

Derby maintained their position in the playoff spots with a comfortable 3-1 win over Portsmouth.

Three goals in the first 33 minutes from Craig Bryson, Christopher Maguire and Jamie Ward consigned Portsmouth to their sixth loss of the season, despite Jason Pearce’s 78th-minute consolation.

Jay Simpson bagged a double as Millwall easily accounted for an inconsistent Ipswich side 4-1.

Crystal Palace blew a great chance to pull clear of Middlesbrough and Derby in third, playing out a 0-0 draw at home to Reading.

Doncaster shared the points in a 1-1 draw with Coventry, James Hayter’s second half goal ending a three-game losing streak for Rovers.

Birmingham could not break through a miserly Brighton defence in a 0-0 draw while Hull moved up to sixth and inflicted a first defeat on Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cotterill with a 1-0 win.

Watford edged out Peterborough 3-2 with all five goals coming in the first half and Bristol City were too good for Barnsley in a 2-1 win away from home.