Wolverhampton boss Mick McCarthy admitted he was a relieved man after his side eased their promotion nerves with a narrow 2-1 win over rock-bottom Charlton.
Chris Iwelumo put McCarthy’s Wolves ahead after 36 minutes with his first goal in 17 league games, only for Chinese midfielder Zheng Zhi to level the scores six minutes after the interval.
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake bundled home his 24th of the campaign with 11 minutes left to the relief of the Molineux faithful who had watched his penalty saved by Robert Elliot just nine minutes earlier.
Wolves, who have stumbled over the last two months, dominated the second half and left McCarthy a contented man.
“Of course, it’s a relief to win and it’s a big help that [third-placed] Reading are still in their bad run,” McCarthy said. “Hopefully, it will continue until the end of the season.”
“I’m certainly not getting carried away. There are still seven games to go and you’ll have to wait until May to see if I have a smile on my face,” he said.
Birmingham moved to within three points of Wolves with a 2-0 win at Doncaster, while Reading’s poor run continued with a 1-0 defeat at home to Ipswich for whom Jon Stead was on target.
Steve Coppell’s side have won once in eight league games.
Coppell admitted that Reading’s promotion push is in danger of coming off the rails.
“From February onwards we have been less than average at home,” Coppell said. “We have nine games to go, six are away and at this stage of the season it is harder for home teams.”
“But that is no excuse — we know we are not performing to our potential at the moment. We are not playing well enough to win games,” he said.
Darius Henderson scored a brace for Sheffield United as they beat visitors Derby 4-2 to move within a point of Reading, while Preston had to come from behind to beat Coventry 2-1 at home.
Clinton Morrison put the Sky Blues ahead after 17 minutes, but Preston secured victory thanks to a Ben Turner own goal and Jon Parkin’s winner after 72 minutes.
Burnley marched into the play-off places with a thumping 5-0 win at home to Nottingham Forest.
Swansea missed the chance to move back into the play-off places as they lost 3-1 to Crystal Palace.
Francis Jeffers converted a penalty six minutes into injury time as Sheffield Wednesday drew 2-2 at Watford.
Meanwhile, Norwich and Blackpool secured important wins in their battles against relegation.
David Mooney hit Norwich’s winner after 53 minutes as they beat visitors Plymouth 1-0 while a Wade Small volley helped Blackpool win by the same score at Barnsley.
Southampton remained second from bottom after a goalless draw at home to QPR.
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