Championship Round-up | Coventry and Sunderland reach play-offs

Coventry City and Sunderland booked their play-off places as Millwall collapsed at home to Blackburn Rovers.

The Sky Blues went into the final day of the Championship fifth knowing that the odds were in their favour although they faced a difficult opponent in fourth-placed Middlesbrough. Gustavo Hamer’s 22nd-minute goal helped ease any early nerves even though Cameron Archer found an equaliser for Michael Carrick’s team at the Riverside Stadium.

It looked for most of the afternoon that Coventry would be joined in the top six alongside Millwall with the Lions 3-1 at half-time at home to Blackburn Rovers.

However, Ben Brereton Díaz – in his final game for Blackburn – helped lead an unlikely comeback for the visitors.

It was a Brereton free-kick that was saved and eventually rebounded to Joe Rankin-Costello to reduce the deficit shortly after the break.

The Chile international then sent a fine curling effort from just on the edge of the box to pull Blackburn level and almost gave them the lead a minute later but another curler this time hit the post.

With Millwall throwing everyone forward to try and get ahead again, they were hit by a quick counterattack that eventually resulted in Brereton passing the ball into an empty net.

While all that drama was going on at the Den, Sunderland went to Deepdale and recorded a 3-0 victory with Amad Diallo opening the scoring with a brilliant strike before Alex Pritchard and Jack Clark completed the result. Remarkably, just last year the Black Cats returned to the Championship after winning the League One play-offs.

Those results meant that Millwall went from sixth to eighth in the table, behind Coventry, Sunderland, and Blackburn Rovers. West Bromwich Albion were one of the other teams in with a chance of the play-offs but the Baggies suffered a 3-2 defeat away to Swansea City.

Sunderland will take on Luton Town in their game while Coventry City will face Middlesbrough with the play-off final taking place on the 27th May.

The play-off winners will join second-place Sheffield United and champions Burnley in the Premier League next season. The Clarets stamped their dominance on the second tier this season with a 3-0 win at home to Cardiff City that put their points tally up to an impressive 101 for the season.

👊 It's all over at Deepdale... #SAFC | #PNESUN pic.twitter.com/81tJxdkgJL

— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) May 8, 2023