West Ham beat Championship leaders Swansea to boost promotion bid

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP)—West Ham bolstered their push for an immediate return to the Premier League with a 1-0 win at Championship leaders Swansea on Saturday. Nuno Espirito Santo's side ended Swansea's four-match winning run thanks to Divine Mukasa's first-half strike. The second-placed Hammers, relegated from the Premier League last season, moved one point behind the Welsh club.

After West Ham's 6-0 rout of Lincoln in midweek, this was a far tenser encounter as Swansea lost at home for the first time since April in front of their stadium's record crowd of 20,973. It was only a second defeat this term for Swansea, who had made their best start since 1923, winning seven and drawing two of their opening 10 games. Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg defended his decision to rest Will Lankshear against Cardiff after the Championship's top scorer came off the bench to rescue a 2-2 draw against Cardiff.

Lankshear, signed from Tottenham in the close-season, watched from the sidelines as Cardiff stunned his promotion hopefuls with first-half goals from Jack Moylan and Ollie Tanner. Lankshear was introduced at half-time and inspired a fightback, levelling for third-placed Middlesbrough with his 11th goal of the campaign after Tommy Conway had reduced the deficit. Liam Millar scored twice as fourth-placed Birmingham beat QPR 3-0 at St Andrew's.

West Bromwich Albion completed a stirring comeback to beat Blackburn 3-2 at the Hawthorns. Andri Gudjohnsen's brace put Blackburn two up before the break, but Barney Stewart started Albion's fightback. Isaac Price's penalty levelled it up before substitute Felix Horn Myhre netted a dramatic winner for his fifth-placed team in the 89th minute.

Wrexham eased the pressure on boss Phil Parkinson with a 4-1 win over bottom-of-the-table Preston. Watford improved under-fire manager Alessio Dionisi's prospects of avoiding the sack as they beat Charlton 2-0 at Vicarage Road. Jake Cooper's equaliser rescued a point for Millwall as they came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Lincoln at The Den.