Championship round-up: Bruce sacked as Stoke ace grabs top honour

The big news from the midweek round of Championship fixtures was the sacking of Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce, less than 24 hours after a cabbage was thrown in his direction by an angry supporter. A 3-3 draw at home to Preston proved the final straw for the Villa owners after a hugely disappointing start to the season, with the club already languishing seven points off top spot.

Stoke were another side tipped to challenge for the Championship title before the season started, but they are even further off the pace. The Potters are two points worse off than Villa but did at least win their midweek match, recording a 2-0 home win over Bolton. Tom Ince played a direct hand in both goals, assisting Bruno Martins Indi for the opener before securing all three points with 16 minutes of normal time remaining.

The 26-year-old had two more attempts on goal (8) than Bolton managed as a team, hitting the target with half of them. The Stoke No.7 also completed two dribbles, won one aerial duel, one tackle and created three goalscoring opportunities. Ince garnered a WhoScored rating of 9.32 to finish as the highest WhoScored rated player from the midweek Championship action.

Only Birmingham (7) are on a longer unbeaten run than Norwich (6) in the Championship at the moment, with the Canaries sharing a point with Derby on Wednesday night. Timm Klose headed Norwich ahead just after the hour mark, one of seven aerial duels the German won at Pride Park. The 30-year-old also completed eight tackles and interceptions combined. The only thing missing from Klose’s impressive display was a clean sheet, but he still garnered the second highest WhoScored rating from GW11 (8.63).

Rounding off the three highest rated Championship players is Sheffield United striker Billy Sharp (8.30), after scoring both goals in a 2-0 win away to Blackburn on Wednesday. The Blades are impressively level on points with Middlesbrough and Leeds at the top of the table after a run of three straight wins. Sharp has now scored seven goals in eight league starts this season following his two-goal salvo against Blackburn.  

While the aforementioned duo turned in eye-catching displays, the same cannot be said for Manchester United academy graduate Ben Amos. The 28-year-old didn’t make a single save in Millwall’s 2-2 draw away to Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night and only completed 58% of his passes. Millwall will take the point but Amos scored the lowest WhoScored rating from the Championship action (5.38).