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• Hull ease to 3-1 win at Stoke to climb into Championship play-off places

  Hull extended their unbeaten run to seven league games with a comfortable 3-1 victory at Stoke.

  The Tigers leapt back into the play-off places thanks mainly to a quickfire double after the half-hour mark.

  Aaron Connolly opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the season after good work from former Potters loanee Jaden Philogene.

  And the shell-shocked hosts fell further behind a matter of seconds after the restart when Adama Traore notched his first goal since April.

  Regan Slater’s shot led to a Lynden Gooch own goal in the second half as Hull coasted towards a third successive Championship away victory for the first time since April 2013.

  Stoke notched a late consolation through the returning Andre Vidigal, but he could not prevent their winless run stretching to five league games.

  The tone for the home side was set inside 13 minutes as Tyrese Campbell limped off to add to the Potters’ injury woes.

  Despite their early setback, the first clear chance fell to Stoke but Daniel Johnson dragged his effort wide in what would prove to be a costly miss.

  At the opposite end, Philogene – who spent six months in the Potteries in 2022 – overpowered Ben Wilmot to tee up Connolly for a simple finish as Hull took the lead.

  And the bright Connolly was instrumental as the Tigers raced to double their advantage almost immediately after the restart.

  The Republic of Ireland forward advanced dangerously from goalkeeper Ryan Allsop’s long pass and his blocked strike popped up invitingly for Traore, who drilled a first-time effort on the swivel into the corner.

  Vidigal, who had missed a month through injury, tried to rouse a comeback with his free-kick forcing a stop from Allsop.

  Yet Stoke nearly fell further behind in a calamitous first half when a downward Connolly header was cleared off the line by an alert Johnson.

  Sead Haksabanovic, like Vidigal minutes earlier, came close to halving the hosts’ arrears from a free-kick but again Allsop was on hand to save.

  And it was a similar story after the interval with the Hull stopper twice thwarting Wesley, with the second a miraculous instinct save from point-blank range.

  The visitors took advantage and soon added a third with a long-range Slater strike deflecting off Gooch and looping over a helpless Mark Travers.

  The Potters’ shining light Vidigal then offered his side a lifeline as he marked his return with a fifth goal of the season.

  After skipping beyond the challenge of Jacob Greaves, the Portuguese forward finished accurately low into Allsop’s far corner, but it was too little, too late.

  Stoke searched desperately for a late reprieve, but Hull held on for a first league victory in the Potteries since January 2006.

• Grant McCann believes Doncaster are heading in right direction after Gills scalp

  Doncaster boss Grant McCann believes his side are only getting better after making it back-to-back wins with the 2-1 triumph over high-flying Gillingham.

  Two excellent strikes from Ben Close, including an 87th-minute winner, saw Rovers collect their first home league triumph of the campaign, a week on from finally picking up a maiden victory at Forest Green.

  And McCann feels his side are firmly heading in the right direction as they seek to make up ground on the promotion-chasing pack in the division.

  “We had to be very good to win and I felt in the second half we were as good as we have been this season,” he said. “I thought we were really in control.

  “We’re yet to have that full 90-minute performance. We’re still searching and that takes some doing, every manager will tell you that. Teams will always have a spell against you.

  “I felt that Gillingham didn’t really have much of a spell against us and on a whole, I felt the second half was a real performance from us.

  “I could feel the team taking on board the information we had given them, particularly in taking up the pockets of space to have that control of the game against a top, top team.”

  Gillingham manager Neil Harris is still looking for his team to find the balance between defensive solidity and creativity after dropping points in South Yorkshire.

  The Gills set the early pace in League Two with five 1-0 wins from their opening eight matches. But with Harris encouraging them to deliver more decisive scorelines, they have shown vulnerability in defence, which he is keen to see quickly banished.

  “In the last couple of weeks we’ve been a lot more creative, we’ve had sparks, we’ve shown class and we want to continue that because if we do, we will wins games of football comfortably,” Harris said.

  “We’ve won a lot of games so far 1-0 by being resilient. In the last couple we’ve not been as resilient as I would have liked but we’ve been really good with the ball. We’ve just got to find that balance between the two.

  “The winning goal for Doncaster – he stuck it in the top corner but it’s poor from the restart, and it was from the first. To be a top team in League Two, we’ve got to be better than that from restarts.”

  Despite his frustrations, Harris felt Gillingham should have won the game comfortably.

  He said: “I’m baffled how we’ve not won the game. We’ve not won the game because we weren’t clinical enough. We should have been coming off (with) four or five goals but if you don’t take your chances, you don’t win games.”

• Nigel Clough praises patience as Mansfield go third

  Mansfield manager Nigel Clough praised his side’s patience as they moved up into third place with a 1-0 home win over Barrow.

  Stags are the only EFL side unbeaten this season in all competitions but were made to sweat until Ollie Clarke drilled in the 72nd-minute winner.

  A red card in the 84th minute Junior Tiensia then sealed the Bluebirds’ fate.

  “We needed that win,” said Clough. “We are not quite as fluent as we were a few weeks ago, but you grind them out.

  “With nine players out at the moment, that is probably a good reason why we are disjointed at times.

  “But one good finish and you win the game – it was an important clean sheet.

  “In a few weeks’ time no one will remember the game, just the three points which have put us back up to third in the league. And I think there are going to be quite a few games like that here where we are going to have to be patient.

  “The crowd are going to have to be patient as well. We are not always going to be having 25 shots, as much as we’d like to.”

  Barrow had the edge in the first half and Emile Acquah missed the target with their two best chances.

  Rory Feely also sent a free header over from a 58th-minute corner.

  But Mansfield took control and Will Swan saw his shot deflect over, skimming the top of the crossbar on the hour.

  Calum Macdonald escaped with a yellow card for his challenge on 70 minutes before Clarke broke through with a low finish from 20 yards from Swan’s pull-back from the left.

  Tiensia then saw red on 83 minutes for diving in on Aaron Lewis.

  Barrow boss Pete Wild felt the game proved his side can live with the best and he felt Stags had the rub of the green on the red cards.

  “I thought first half we played really well and it was a classic away-from-home performance,” he said.

  “Second half as the home team they pinned us in and I didn’t think we got out enough and got on the front foot.

  “It is fine margins and it didn’t go our way. But there were mitigating circumstances and I feel hard done by.

  “The turning point for me was they should have had a red card before ours. He dived in and left the floor. Our lad’s was a red though, which didn’t help us.

  “They won it with the one shot we haven’t blocked in the whole game.

  “There was nothing between the two teams which shows we can live with the top teams at this level. But they have just edged it today.”