IRELAND INTERNATIONAL SCOTT Hogan marked his Birmingham debut with a goal, as they beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 in the Championship today.
The 27-year-old striker has been out of favour at Aston Villa for some time, and had a frustrating loan spell at Stoke, which was cut short recently.
Birmingham announced the loan signing of Hogan on Wednesday, with the new arrival’s goal helping them climb to 17th in the table after today’s victory.
Goals in either half from Hogan and Kristian Pedersen gave the Blues a win over promotion-chasing Forest. Those goals cancelled out Tiago Silva’s opener.
The 74th-minute finish from Pedersen gave Pep Clotet’s men a much-needed first home win since October.
Elsewhere in League Two, Eoin Doyle scored his first goal since joining Swindon on a permanent basis amid a 2-1 victory over Exeter City.
The Dubliner had managed 23 goals in 22 appearances for the table toppers during a prolific loan spell in the first half of the season.
His parent club Bradford recalled him, but the 31-year-old’s return to Swindon was confirmed on Thursday.
Meanwhile, West Brom climbed back to the top of the Championship as Callum Robinson inspired a 2-0 win over Luton, while Leeds crashed to a shock home defeat against struggling Wigan.
Slaven Bilic’s Albion ended their seven-match winless run thanks to an influential display from Robinson, who signed on loan from Sheffield United for the rest of the season this week.
Robinson set up Albion’s 14th-minute opener, an own goal by former West Brom player Donervon Daniels, and was a constant threat on his debut.
Semi Ajayi’s 70th-minute header sealed the first league win since 14 December for the Baggies as bottom-of-the-table Luton suffered an 11th successive away league defeat.
Leeds dropped to second place, one point behind West Brom, after Pablo Hernandez’s unlucky 59th-minute own goal proved the difference between the two sides at Elland Road.
A victory or a draw would have seen Leeds stay top, but Hernandez’s deflection past his own keeper from a Joe Williams corner inflicted a surprise seventh loss of the season.
Fulham climbed up to third place with their third victory in four matches after surviving a scare to beat Huddersfield 3-2.
Bobby Decordova-Reid, Tom Cairney and Aleksandar Mitrovic had put Fulham 3-0 ahead and apparently out of sight by the 31st minute but Emile Smith Rowe and Steve Mounie made it 3-2 before the interval.
The visitors gave them an almighty scare and could have grabbed a point by the final whistle but Scott Parker’s men held on to claim their 10th home win of the season and close the gap on Leeds to just three points in the race for automatic promotion.
Said Benrahma’s hat-trick helped Brentford get their promotion push back on track with a 5-1 victory at Hull.
Benrahma scored after 12 minutes and just eight minutes later the visitors netted again through Reece Burke’s own goal.
Brentford goalkeeper David Raya inexplicably allowed Ryan Tafazolli’s misguided pass from the halfway line to squirm through his legs.
But Raya’s error proved immaterial as Benrahma went on to bag his treble, as Ollie Watkins also scored to inflict an embarrassing defeat on Hull.
English Championship results on Saturday:
Birmingham 2 Nottingham Forest 1
Charlton 2 Barnsley 1
Fulham 3 Huddersfield 2
Hull 1 Brentford 5
Leeds 0 Wigan 1
Middlesbrough 1 Blackburn 1
Preston 1 Swansea 1
QPR 0 Bristol City 1
Sheffield Wednesday 0 Millwall 0
West Brom 2 Luton 0
Played Friday
Cardiff 1 Reading 1
Derby 4 Stoke 0
Additional reporting by AFP
