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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Ricky Charlesworth

EFL winners and losers as Rotherham romp to win but Norwich hangover continues

Saturday was another dramatic day of action across all three divisions of the English Football League ( EFL ).

The Championship saw nine matches take place and that yielded 25 goals. Hull City beat Norwich 2-1 to go top on goal difference, overtaking Watford, whose 1-0 win over Burnley on Friday night inflicted a first defeat on Clarets manager Vincent Kompany.

Blackburn Rovers can overtake both teams if they can overcome West Bromwich Albion when they meet at Ewood Park on Sunday. In League One, Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday are the top two on seven points apiece after home wins over MK Dons and Charlton respectively.

Here, Mirror Football looks at the winners and losers to emerge from all the action.

Winners

Rotherham

Rotherham secured a superb 4-0 win at home to Reading on Saturday (PA)

The Millers have quite rightly earned the tag of yo-yo kings of the EFL in recent years. This is their sixth consecutive season in a different division after what feels like a never-ending series of promotions and relegations.

The desire for all associated with the club is that they can finally shed that image and secure Championship consolidation this term.

Saturday saw them register a thumping win to maintain an unbeaten start, admittedly having played a game fewer than most other sides. They were 4-0 up at home to Reading by half-time and it was very much a case of job done, with the second 45 minutes a foregone conclusion.

Paul Warne's side will be buoyed by their impressive start and hope it signals a better outcome this season.

Danny Schofield

The former Huddersfield player-turned-coach was always going to come under scrutiny trying to pick up where Carlos Corberan left off.

And after three defeats in all competitions, that pressure was cranked up that little bit more. So it will have been a huge relief as the Terriers finally got on the board this season. They had to work to defeat Stoke too, with Lee Nicholls pulling off a fine first-half penalty save to keep out Lewis Baker, before Yuta Nakayama put Town 1-0 up.

Huddersfield are off the mark for this season (REX/Shutterstock)

When Baker made amends by netting an equaliser after the break, Huddersfield fans may have been fearing the worst. But thankfully for them, two goals within 10 minutes from Danny Ward and Jordan Rhodes sealed a long-awaited win for the hosts - and Schofield.

Leyton Orient

The O's are the only EFL side with a 100 per cent record after three games. Saturday saw them edge out last season's League Two beaten play-off finalists Mansfield 1-0.

Charlie Kelman's goal midway through the second half was enough to take Richie Wellens' side to nine points from nine.

Losers

Coventry

All the talk for Coventry has been around the issue of them having to postpone or relocate home games owing to the unplayable turf at the Coventry Building Society Arena. That is down to the impact of the ground hosting rugby sevens at the recent Commonwealth Games.

Saturday morning saw a third home game fall victim to a postponement, with Tuesday's proposed visit of Wigan shelved. It was hardly the ideal preparation for Mark Robins' side as they headed to Millwall but they belied the poor build-up and lack of action to go 2-0 up within half an hour.

But that's where it went downhill. Millwall restored parity after the break before Gus Hamer was shown a red card. And Coventry's miserable weekend was capped when George Saville pinched a later winner for the Lions.

Norwich

The bookmakers' favourites for the Championship have suffered a slow start to the new season.

It appears their hangover from Premier League relegation has not been shaken off yet. Losing 2-1 away at Hull means it is just one point from a possible nine for Dean Smith's side.

It might still be early days but not many would have expected the Canaries to be occupying bottom spot.

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