Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk avoided defeat on his first meeting with Birmingham City since being sacked in June as his side snatched a late 1-1 draw in the Championship clash.

Monk hit out at Pep Clotet on the eve of the match, accusing his former assistant of being "disloyal" for succeeding him as Birmingham's interim head coach in June.

The game finished all square after Kadeem Harris cancelled out Alvaro Gimenez's goal nine minutes from time at Hillsborough.

Elsewhere, West Brom regained top spot with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Bristol City.

Slaven Bilic's men cruised to all three points at The Hawthorns to leapfrog Leeds United, who had climbed to the summit with a late win at Reading 24 hours beforehand.

Preston North End lost ground on the automatic promotion places with a heavy 4-0 loss at Hull City, while Nottingham Forest put four unanswered goals of their own past QPR.

 

HONOURS EVEN AT HILLSBOROUGH

Wednesday's winless run now spans five matches under Monk, who was clearly keen to get one over on his former employers.

Gimenez found a way through early in the second half to give the visitors a lead somewhat against the run of play in Yorkshire.

However, Harris took advantage of some hesitant defending to snatch a point for Wednesday, who remain two points better off than their opponents.

WEST BROM KEEP UP THE TITLE PACE

Leeds put the pressure on West Brom with their win at the Madejski Stadium on Tuesday and Bilic's men responded in style.

First-half goals from Kieran Gibbs and Matheus Pereira put the second-tier leaders on their way to an eighth match without defeat, the last four of those ending in victory.

Famara Diedhiou pulled one back for promotion-chasing Bristol City 10 minutes from time, but Hal Robson-Kanu and Charlie Austin made it a straightforward win for West Brom.


PRESTON SLIP UP, FOREST CLIMB

Preston, beaten 1-0 by Derby County at the weekend, fell to back-to-back league defeats for the first time this season with a thrashing at the hands of Hull.

Jarrod Bowen made it nine goals in seven games with strikes in both halves, either side of a Josh Magennis penalty and Kamil Grosicki's strike from a tight angle.

Alex Neil's side are now fifth in the table and a point behind Forest, who punished 10-man QPR at Loftus Road.

Already 1-0 up through Tobias Figueiredo's header when Lee Wallace was shown a red card, Forest put their opponents to the sword with late goals from Lewis Grabban, Joao Carvalho and Alfa Semedo.


VITAL WIN FOR WOODGATE'S BORO

Middlesbrough eased some of the growing pressure on boss Jonathan Woodgate with a 1-0 win at home to Barnsley, Ashley Fletcher earning his side a first victory in 11 matches.

Boro were in the relegation zone heading into the match at Riverside Stadium, but they held their nerve to edge past bottom-side Barnsley through Fletcher's 54th-minute strike.

Elsewhere, Blackburn Rovers climbed four places up the table with a Bradley Dack-inspired triumph against Brentford.

The in-form midfielder converted Stewart Downing's cross with 11 minutes played to make it three goals in two matches.