BURTON Albion manager Nigel Clough described the record transfer fee spent on Socceroo Jackson Irvine as money well spent, with the Australian scoring his Championship side’s 1-1 draw with Fulham.
Ryan Sessegnon grabbed an injury-time leveller for Fulham to cancel out Irvine’s second-half opener, who slotted home in the 50th minute following Stuart Beavon’s pass.
Clough praised the efforts of 23-year-old Irvine, Burton’s record PS250,000 ($A442,000) signing.
“There’s a lot of money sloshing around the Championship. We haven’t got millions but we’ve spent a quarter of a million which is our transfer record,” Clough said.
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Despite coming within minutes of Fulham following the likes of Derby and Sheffield Wednesday, Clough said: “Fulham deserved a point at least and dominated for long spells in the game. It’s hard to hold out for that long. I wasn’t surprised six minutes was added on.
“We are disappointed now but without a doubt when we go on the bus it will become a brilliant point. We had a makeshift team out so to get a draw is a superb result for us.”
Jonjo Shelvey scored twice as Newcastle hammered QPR 6-0 at Loftus Road - Rangers’ heaviest-ever home league defeat.
Ayoze Perez had a goal disallowed in the eighth minute before Shelvey opened the scoring for the Magpies moments later with a right-footed shot from outside the box.
Perez added a second on the half-hour mark before further goals followed from Ciaran Clark, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Grant Hanley as the Magpies, who were twice denied by the woodwork, stormed to their fifth consecutive win.
Newcastle had started the day four points adrift of leaders Huddersfield, Aaron Mooy’s side lost their first game of the season, at Brighton.
Keeper Danny Ward could not keep out Anthony Knockaert’s 80th-minute effort as Chris Hughton’s side did his former employers a favour with a 1-0 victory.
Elsewhere, Sheffield Wednesday came from 2-0 down at home to Bristol City to win 3-2, with Kieran Lee scoring a stoppage-time winner to grab the points for the Owls.
In a game which saw both teams play with 10 men for the final half an hour, prolific teenage striker Tammy Abraham scored twice to give the visitors a two-goal lead at the interval but goals from Steven Fletcher, Barry Bannan and Lee handed Wednesday victory.
Barnsley’s Conor Hourihane continued his impressive run in front of goal as the skipper led his side to a stunning 4-0 win against woeful Wolves at Molineux.
Hourihane struck for the third time in eight games this season with a smartly-taken 73rd-minute strike to hand Barnsley a deserved lead.
Former Wolves winger Adam Hammill doubled their advantage seven minutes from time. Saidy Janko set the seal on the victory in the 85th minute before Tom Bradshaw completed the late rout, in which four goals were score in 17 minutes.
Norwich made it two Championship home wins on the spin with a tense 2-1 victory against battling Wigan at Carrow Road.
Jacob Murphy’s brace inside the opening 11 minutes put Alex Neil’s men in control. Jordi Gomez’s 72nd-minute strike set up a grandstand finish but the Canaries held on to remain in the top six, with help from a late Michael McGovern save to deny Will Grigg an equaliser.
Leeds centre-half Kyle Bartley headed his first goal for nearly three years to earn Garry Monk’s men their first home win of the season, with a 2-1 victory over Blackburn.
Bartley, drafted in on loan from Swansea in the summer, rose to head home substitute Alex Mowatt’s 87th-minute free-kick to secure Leeds their first win at Elland Road under Monk and ease some of the pressure on the head coach.
Blackburn had gone ahead through Chris Wood and the visitors thought they had snatched a point through Marvin Emnes before Bartley headed home to seal the win for Leeds.
Meanwhile, Preston won a Championship game at Deepdale for the first time in seven months by defeating Cardiff 3-0.
Under skies punctuated by lightning bolts, Tom Clarke and Callum Robinson both found the net within six first-half minutes before Jordan Hugill added a late third to earn Simon Grayson’s side just their second league victory of the season.
Derby’s miserable start to the Championship season continued when they were beaten 1-0 at home by Ipswich whose unbeaten run at the iPro Stadium now stretches back to 2006.
A second-half goal from former Derby striker Luke Varney sentenced Nigel Pearson’s team to a second home defeat in four days despite long periods of possession.
Birmingham stretched their unbeaten away record in the Championship to four matches with a gritty 0-0 draw with Reading at the Madejski Stadium.
Reading, undefeated in five matches, had the better of the openings, with Danny Williams seeing a powerful effort clawed away by Birmingham’s replacement goalkeeper Adam Legzdins in the first half.