{"id":574784,"date":"2020-12-17T09:21:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T14:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=574784"},"modified":"2020-12-17T09:21:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T14:21:33","slug":"millwall-nottingham-forest-and-derby-star-in-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/17\/millwall-nottingham-forest-and-derby-star-in-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Millwall, Nottingham Forest and Derby County Star in Latest Championship Game-Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The penultimate Championship game-week before Christmas followed <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/04\/cardiff-city-brentford-and-luton-town-star-in-latest-championship-game-week\/\" target=\"_self\">a familiar tightly-contested season so far<\/a>, with Millwall, Nottingham Forest and Derby County securing vital wins. Zero teams were able to win by a scoreline that exceeded two goals, whilst 75% of the games were either a draw or were determined by one goal.<\/p>\n<h2>Millwall, Nottingham Forest and Derby County All Star in Latest Championship Game-Week<\/h2>\n<h3>Lions End 10-Game Winless Run in the Southwest<\/h3>\n<p>Millwall bounced back in style to record a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/55225498\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2-0 away win<\/a> against play-off chasing Bristol City. The Lions recorded their first win since October 28 with a goal either side of the break, despite seeing just 32% of possession.<\/p>\n<p>The struggling visitors opened the scoring in the 17th minute when <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/a9d071f8\/Tom-Bradshaw?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Bradshaw<\/a>&#8216;s deflected effort completely wrong-footing Dan Bentley in the Bristol City goal and ending up in the back of the net. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/aba031ad\/Mason-Bennett?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mason Bennett<\/a> doubled Millwall&#8217;s advantage midway through the second half, cutting in and firing into the bottom corner and ultimately securing the much-needed points for the Lions.<\/p>\n<p>Millwall&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soccerstats.com\/team.asp?league=england2&amp;stats=19-millwall\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first win in six league games<\/a> has taken them up to 15th. Whilst, Bristol City&#8217;s second 2-0 loss in succession means they are now another point away from the desired play-off positions.<\/p>\n<h3>Forest Comfortably See off Fellow Championship Strugglers Sheffield Wednesday<\/h3>\n<p>In a game-week where anything other than a win would have seen Nottingham Forest drop into the relegation zone, Chris Hughton&#8217;s side enjoyed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/55225500\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a 2-0 victory<\/a> against bottom of the league Sheffield Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>In a battle of the league&#8217;s least in-form sides, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/284f2ce6\/Yuri-Ribeiro?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yuri Ribeiro<\/a> got the Reds off to a dream start with his sweet first-time strike opening the scoring after just four minutes. Both sides struggled to create any chances of note from that point forward until <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/1a857282\/Lewis-Grabban?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lewis Grabban<\/a> sealed Forest&#8217;s first win in eight games when he clinically struck home inside of the box.<\/p>\n<p>Forest remain just above the relegation places on goal difference, whilst Sheffield Wednesday &#8211; who have only won one game in their last 14 &#8211; sit in bottom place and are now seven points from safety.<\/p>\n<h3>Rams Extend Unbeaten Run<\/h3>\n<p>Derby County extended their unbeaten run to six with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/55240970\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">convincing 2-0 win<\/a> against play-off hopefuls <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/swansea-city\/\" target=\"_self\">Swansea City<\/a>. Additionally, the Rams made it four games without conceding a goal and look revitalised after such a poor start.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/ca9e7345\/Colin-Kazim-Richards?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colin Kazim-Richards<\/a> opened the scoring for Derby after just four minutes, poking his effort beyond Freddie Woodman after the Swans failed to deal with a free-kick. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/bd4e3824\/Kamil-Jozwiak?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kamil Jozwiak<\/a> grabbed a second for the hosts in the 37th minute, with his emphatic left-footed strike flying into the top corner to give his side a fully deserved two-goal advantage.<\/p>\n<p>The victory was just Derby&#8217;s third of the season and wasn&#8217;t enough to lift them out of the relegation zone. Meanwhile, Swansea sit in fourth place but will be well aware of the gathering pack just outside the play-offs.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"gdqJgCyXR1FsM8rK1zSMMw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1230174193\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'gdqJgCyXR1FsM8rK1zSMMw',sig:'ZdPAKYW4lmgoh9IdJgFwX9n6tPVogR1t3ZwdQiH1itg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1230174193',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The penultimate Championship game-week before Christmas followed a familiar tightly-contested season so far, with Millwall, Nottingham Forest and Derby County securing vital wins. Zero teams were able to win by a scoreline that exceeded two goals, whilst 75% of the games were either a draw or were determined by one goal. Millwall, Nottingham Forest and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3580,"featured_media":574846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,32,4475,23,1],"tags":[537,4275,695,239,489,891,394,136],"class_list":["post-574784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-championship","category-league-football","category-nottingham-forest","category-swansea","category-uncategorized","tag-bristol-city","tag-cardiff-city-v-sheffield-wednesday","tag-derby-county","tag-efl-championship","tag-millwall","tag-nottingham-forest","tag-swansea-city","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Tom Cunningham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3580"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}