Norwich head coach David Wagner praised a ‘top quality’ performance from his side after watching them beat Cardiff 4-1 to give their Championship play-off bid a further boost.

The Canaries recovered from the shock of conceding first when totally on top to score four goals at Carrow Road for the second time in five days following Tuesday night’s 4-2 success over Watford.

Jamilu Collins put Cardiff in front but Josh Sargent (2), Gabriel Sara and substitute Christian Fassnacht replied to secure Norwich a fourth successive home win.

Wagner said: “The lads played very well, all the departments of our game were top quality.

“We started well and the only criticism I could make was we were not ruthless enough early on. But we stayed calm, kept playing our football and scored some wonderful goals.

“You can see from the way we are playing at the moment that there is a lot of confidence in the group.
All of the players are doing their jobs at a high level and full credit to them for that.

“I was also impressed with the way we defended. Cardiff are one of the best set-piece teams in the league and we didn’t concede a single corner, which was very pleasing.”

Wagner was critical of sections of the support on Tuesday, after a negative reaction to his substitutions, but was delighted with the backing today.

He added: “I thought the fans were top class and full credit to them.

“They backed their team throughout, even when we conceded, and in the end it was a great afternoon for the people in the stands – and the people on the pitch.”

Norwich were dominant throughout but fell behind against the run of play after 19 minutes when Collins squeezed the ball home at the back post after good work from Rubin Colwill.

But the hosts didn’t panic and were ahead at the break.

Sargent got them back on level terms 20 minutes later with a close-range finish after Sam McCallum’s effort had been parried by Ethan Horvath and Sara quickly made it 2-1 by curling a 20-yard free-kick into the far corner.

Norwich wrapped up the points after 54 minutes, Sargent reaching double figures in an injury-hit season as he acrobatically steered the ball home after his first shot had come back off the upright.

Fassnacht later made it back-to-back four-goal home wins when he finished emphatically after being set up by fellow substitute Sydney van Hooijdonk.

Manager Erol Bulut admitted Cardiff had been beaten by a better side on the day.

“They are a good team with a lot of good players and it was difficult for us, ” he said. “I thought we did well to stop them scoring early on and then we got a goal.

“But it was still tough, they kept coming at us and once they got their equaliser and then scored their second and third it was always going to be difficult to come back.

“It has been a difficult spell, the worst of my managerial career, but we have 40 points with 14 games left to play and there is plenty of play for.

“We need to get back to the sort of team we were at the start of the season. This team will come back again – I believe in them.”

Hull head coach Liam Rosenior praised captain Jacob Greaves after he scored twice in the dramatic 2-1 win over Huddersfield.

Greaves hooked home in the seventh minute and then headed in the winner after Jack Rudoni’s stoppage-time equaliser had seemingly earned the Terriers a point at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Rosenior lauded Greaves for his fine finishing in what was his 200th senior game and for his defending alongside Alfie Jones.

“I was happy for Greavsie, it was his 200th career appearance and he captained his home team and scored two goals,” said Rosenior.

“Alfie and Greavsie were great for us today. I’m so proud of the players. That was a difficult game today. It was never going to be easy.

“Sometimes we’ve played way better than that and come out with a defeat or with a loss.

“What happens when you’re a goal up away from home, you’re caught between going for a second goal and keeping what you have got.

“As a team we have to be more switched on at throw ins. We switched off when the ball went out of play (before the Huddersfield goal). They get a cheap shot from the edge of the area and score.”

Greaves’ winner made it successive wins on the road in Yorkshire for the Tigers following victory at Rotherham.

The central defender had hooked in following an early first-half corner and his diving header late in the game silenced the home fans who were still celebrating an equaliser from Rudoni.

Hull lie just outside the play off places on goal difference but a win for fellow strugglers QPR left the Terriers just two points above the relegation zone.

Huddersfield caretaker manager Jon Worthington, who hands over to new boss Andre Breitenreiter on Monday, had expected a tough game against the Tigers.

He said: “The game was pretty much as I expected it to be. First half the energy levels weren’t quite there.

“Second half we really re-energised. The subs gave us a little bit more impetus.

“To get back in the game so late, it was a bit of a sucker punch to lose it in the end.

“That’s why you can’t shut off for a minute because you get punished.

“The game kind of went the way I thought it would, but it was disappointing to lose it how we did.

“That’s the fine lines against quality teams and you get punished. The players will bounce back, they will dust themselves off and get on with it.”

Dundee boss Tony Docherty was purring over the performance of his team after they beat Ross County 2-0 in the cinch Premiership.

The Dark Blues took all three points thanks to a Scott Tiffoney double, with his manager singling the winger out for special praise.

Tiffoney was signed from Partick Thistle last summer and Docherty feels the 25-year-old has now fully adapted to life in the top tier.

The Dundee manager said: “I am absolutely delighted. I keep seeing the team improving and now you can see the strength of us in keeping the clean sheet.

“Ross County are a good team and I knew it wouldn’t be an easy game.

“But the quality of the goals from Scott Tiffoney and then the defending as a team was really pleasing.

“I’m delighted for Tiff. He works so hard. There has been an adaptation period for Tiff coming up from the Championship. He got his rewards today for the efforts he puts in.

“I see the amount of work he puts in during the week and I’m delighted he gets the reward.”

Interim Staggies boss Don Cowie insisted there were positives to take from the game.

He said: “I thought we were good, it was a good away performance.

“We did a lot of things that I really enjoyed and really liked, but we switched off twice in 90 minutes and we got punished.

“Dundee will be very happy in the manner of getting the goal right on half-time. From our point of view it was really frustrating, but the message at half-time was to keep doing what we were doing.

“I really enjoyed what I was seeing and we did that, but we got punished. We’ve got to learn from that.

“It’s about not feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to just keep doing what we are doing and working away. If we keep putting performances like that in, the results will come.

“I’m confident. It’s going to be difficult because there are a lot of good teams in this league.

“We have to be ready going into every game. I have seen improvements from Wednesday night, we worked really hard against Rangers.

“In this game I thought we worked hard and passed the ball really well at times.

“The players are a little bit down after the game because they put a lot into it, and probably felt they deserved at least a point.”

Ange Postecoglou warned no magic wand will get Tottenham’s top-four tilt back on track after they suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Wolves.

Spurs had returned to fourth position with a last-gasp victory over Brighton last weekend but were leapfrogged on Saturday by Aston Villa, who won at Fulham.

Joao Gomes headed Wolves into a deserved lead after 42 minutes and, while Dejan Kulusevski levelled 34 seconds after the restart for Tottenham, Gomes grabbed his second after an excellent solo run by Pedro Neto with 63 minutes on the clock.

It consigned the hosts to a frustrating defeat and they have now failed to score in the first half of their last five home matches.

“We will work hard, we’ve got two weeks to prepare for our next game (against Crystal Palace) and there’s no point feeling sorry for ourselves,” Postecoglou insisted.

“You take the blows and you’ve got to move on irrespective of what’s happened in the past. You’ve got to make sure you’re ready for the next game.

“There’s no tricks, it’s hard work. I’m not a magician, I’m a football manager. It’s hard work which these guys have done all year.

“Like I said, we’ve got to this point which is pretty decent on the back of some hard work and that’s what we’ll keep doing.”

Spurs were without first-choice full-backs Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie and struggled to break Wolves down in the opening 45 minutes with home goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario making fine saves to deny Nelson Semedo and Pablo Sarabia either side of Gomes heading in a corner by Sarabia.

Tottenham came out firing after the break, like they had done in recent wins over Brentford and Brighton, with Kulusevski equalising after he dribbled past Craig Dawson and poked under Jose Sa.

Postecoglou’s team were beginning to build a head of steam but Wolves remained a threat on the break and, after Vicario denied Sarabia in the 56th minute, the visitors’ second arrived six minutes later.

Yves Bissouma lost possession after a Spurs corner and Neto carried the ball half the length of the pitch before he cut back and teed up Gomes, who slammed home for his second of the afternoon.

A raft of attacking players were thrown on by Postecoglou, but Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Toti and Neto all squandered promising positions for Wolves before Ben Davies headed wide deep into stoppage-time for Tottenham to ensure Gary O’Neil’s side completed the double over the north London outfit.

Neto’s moment of individual brilliance was his ninth assist of the campaign but his manager issued a hands off to potential suitors after they moved on to 35 points for the season.

O’Neil said: “I still want to push him and get him as close to perfect as a wide player as we can.

“Yeah, I’ve been asked a few times this week about the summer already and I’m not interested in discussing Pedro Neto leaving the football club.

“He is a fantastic player that we spent a lot of money on, that we work very hard on and as far as I’m concerned, we don’t want to lose our best players.

“We have a long way to go yet this season and then hopefully he stays with us and we can keep pushing towards the top half of the table.”

Charlie Adam could not hide his frustration after Fleetwood impressed against Barnsley but fell to a 2-1 defeat.

Barnsley led through Sam Cosgrove’s header before Bosun Lawal pegged them back with a brilliant goal from distance.

Having wasted chances when dominating the first half, Fleetwood were then undone by Herbie Kane’s winner just before the hour mark.

Adam was left to rue those early missed opportunities, with his second-bottom side seven points from safety.

“We were the better team in the first half and the opportunities that we had were big chances,” he said.

“I think we should have had a penalty as well, that was a big call in a big moment, that would have got us back to 1-1, then we got our goal with a wonderful strike and it’s a huge disappointment but the effort that the lads put in was incredible.

“It’s frustrating but I think if you look at what we produced our performance was very good in terms of what we tried to do. Our game plan was working but we got caught with two opportunities against us that we feel could have been avoided.

“But I can’t fault my lads, they are giving everything and that performance against one of the top teams in the league should be a moment for them to grasp where we are and what we’re trying to do.

“Small margins win you games and small margins lose you games too. They’ve given us that performance against one of the best teams in the league who are in great form and have lost once away from home all season so we knew it was going to be a difficult game.”

Barnsley boss Neill Collins said the three points from another successful away day were hard earned and showed his players’ character.

“I’ve just said to the players the only thing that matters on days like today is the three points,” he said.

“I can’t be too judgemental about any performances, although the performance was good, especially in the last 30 minutes, but when you come to these places it might not be conducive to playing any type of football.

“The wind and rain was a real leveller, and I thought Fleetwood asked a lot of questions of us and our players stood up to it, so we move on thinking this was a big three points.

“They’ve shown character throughout this season, I think character is a great word for the group, I think they’ve got a lot of quality and energy but to have that character is going to stand us in really good stead.

“I thought their best chances came earlier in the game and we felt pretty comfortable in the second half. Every game’s tough away from home, especially playing against relegation teams because it’s make or break for them.

“I thought Fleetwood were so up for it and if we’d have been anything less than we were we could have been blown away but we weren’t. They’ve stepped up to every challenge really well.”

Darren Ferguson challenged his Peterborough side to show more conviction as they need to “ride out the storm” having fallen to another damaging defeat.

Blackpool grabbed all three points thanks to a second-half comeback started by a Shayne Lavery penalty and completed in stoppage time by a deflected Karamoko Dembele strike.

Hector Kyprianou had given Posh the lead after 38 minutes with a near-post header from a Harrison Burrows corner but Posh fell to a fourth consecutive defeat.

“The decision-making in both boxes is not good enough,” said Ferguson.

“It’s a disappointment to lose another game and in the manner we lost it.

“We were in complete control until the goal, totally dominant in the first half but missed too many chances again and their equaliser changed the game.

“We had started the second half really well. We lost conviction and belief after that and started doing things we’d never normally do. We lost all composure for 10 or 15 minutes and didn’t create much at 1-1. They got on top of us.

“We’ve got to ride the storm now, stick together and try and get that belief and conviction back into the squad.

“The penalty incident was certainly right on the edge, it was a bad decision from Jed (Steer). That’s always the key to winning and losing.

“The finishing is not good enough, we’ve had three one-on-ones today, it’s just not good enough and we’re losing poor goals. The second one you can’t do much about but the first is a poor, poor decision.”

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley hailed his side as deserved winners, even if he was disappointed to concede another set-piece goal.

He said: “It was a terrific game, we were excellent. We got what we deserved.

“There wasn’t a lot in the first half, their best opportunities came from us giving the ball away.

“I’m really disappointed with the goal, we’ve shown a vulnerability at set-pieces recently. We wobbled a bit after that but the response in the second half was outstanding.

“We showed real character to come from behind and create the opportunities we did at a really tough place to come against a really good team.

“Kyle Joseph committing himself to get in there for the penalty epitomises the second-half performance. We were much more on the front foot, getting to the ball first and being much more aggressive.

“Him and Shayne were a real handful in the second half, really relentless with their running and work ethic.

“Shayne was the first to put his hand up when we were practising penalties in training yesterday so I was not surprised when he tucked it away very well.”

Aberdeen’s interim manager Neil Warnock insisted his side must cut out the sloppy defensive errors that see him still on the hunt for a first cinch Premiership win following a 2-2 draw with Hibernian.

The Dons fell behind after Martin Boyle rounded Kelle Roos after just 12 minutes, but were quickly level through Nicky Devlin.

Jamie McGrath put the home side in front just after the break, but sub Emiliano Marcondes turned home from close range to earn his side a share of the points.

And Warnock said afterwards: “It’s frustrating. We’ve had 26 attempts on goal but given two goals away like Sunday league.

“I think that’s the best we’ve played since I’ve come here, and we just missed a little bit of the rub of the green.

“We played some good stuff at times, but we needed a clean sheet to win the game. I bet Hibs can’t believe the goals we’ve given them – it’s elementary defending, and it’s disappointing after the effort we put into the game.”

Hibs boss Nick Montgomery was handed his professional debut by Warnock during a spell at Sheffield United, and he felt his side could have got one over on his former boss.

He said: “I think we came here with a game plan, and we scored early but we’re disappointed with the goals we lost. It was a competitive game on a difficult pitch.

“I thought we probably should have had a penalty for handball in the first half, and in the second we conceded another poor goal.

“I thought we showed great character to level, and [Emiliano] Marcondes is a top quality player, and I thought his finish was quality.

“We had chances to win the game, as did Aberdeen. We could have taken three points but it wasn’t to be so we’ll take a point at a difficult place to come.”

Lincoln manager Michael Skubala wants his side to be more ruthless after the 1-0 sky Bet League One victory over Exeter at LNER Stadium.

Joe Taylor clipped in the winner with his first goal for the club since joining on loan from Luton. He calmly dinked the ball over Viljami Sinisalo midway through the second half.

In a game short of real clear-cut opportunities, Ben House was denied by a solid double save from the visiting goalkeeper Sinisalo.

“We needed to be a bit more clinical in front of goal in the first half,” Skubala said.

“I though tactically, Exeter caused some real troubles today. We knew they’d keep the ball well. We made some adjustments at half time to try and break through them a little bit more. The match plan the lads stuck to was fantastic and in the end our quality showed.

“We’re pleased again to get another win at home, but the players have done really well. Not only have we got competition for places at the moment, but the players also who are coming in are impacting the game as well.

“Joe Taylor loves scoring goals. He’s been snatching at chances the last couple of games. When he went through, I was just hoping and praying he’d score. I know now he’s started scoring, he’s going to get more and more at this level. That’s hopefully going to settle him down a bit.

“If we can’t win, we need to be hard to beat. If we’re hard to beat, we’ll go on and win more games. We were both today.”

Jack Aitchison hit the bar for Exeter with the Grecians only clear-cut opportunity.

Dion Rankine burst down the wing and picked out Aitchison inside the Lincoln area. The Scot’s side-footed effort was tipped onto the bar by the ever-alert Lukas Jensen.

Exeter manager Gary Caldwell was disappointed with his side’s performance.

“We got what we deserved today, and we need to be better than that.” Caldwell said.

“The result is what it is, we never got going at any point. We still created the best chance of the game at 0-0. We need to recognise when we come to stadiums like this we need to pass forward quicker. We have to be willing to fight more. Lincoln outbattled us today so we must take that on the chin.

“A good run can very quickly become a bad run, so we have to recognise standards in training have to go up. Too often we didn’t defend simple balls. We have to defend the ball better than we did. We risked the game in areas we shouldn’t have.

“There are so many mistakes we have to address.”

Watford head coach Valerien Ismael admitted feeling some relief after his side ended their losing streak with a 1-0 win at Rotherham.

Neither side entered the contest with much confidence following three straight defeats apiece but it was Watford who snatched the points thanks to Yaser Asprilla’s second-half strike.

Ismael said: “We were ready for the battle. We spoke about it before the game.

“It was all about the result. We had to be solid and to do the basics right.

“Finally it was another clean sheet. It was very difficult but we managed well.

“Our focus was all about the result. We have had to stay positive. There is no excuse any more – we had to act on the pitch.

“Yaser is a player who has learned a lot this season and he is ready now to have an impact on games. I am very pleased for him.

“We were stronger in the line-up because we expected (a physical) game. We had to protect our goal and we defended well. We knew the ball would be coming in the air.

“It’s a big relief to get three points. The next challenge is to win the next home game.”

Both sides created decent opportunities in the first period. The nearest Watford came was through Asprilla but his deflected effort was just over the bar.

Rotherham’s Peter Kioso looked the dangerman early on and tested Ben Hamer with a header.

Watford went ahead just before the hour-mark, with Asprilla showing real quality to smash beyond Viktor Johansson after the ball had fallen to him on the edge of the area.

Rotherham then did all the pushing. Seb Revan fired just off target and Sean Morrison and Hakeem Odoffin came close with headers.

Watford were defending desperately come the end and it took timely blocks from Jake Livermore and Wesley Hoedt to deny Rotherham.

Millers’ head coach Leam Richardson still only has one win in the hotseat at the New York Stadium and his side are now 14 points from safety.

However, he is managing to remain positive.

He said: “You’re judged on the final result; I think we are up on every stat within the game apart from the result which counts.

“I am disappointed for the players. They gave enough effort and endeavour to get a positive result out of the game. That is where we are.

“I have said it before and I will probably be repeating myself a lot now until the end of the season, I knew the challenge coming in.

“There is no reason why we can’t give a good account of ourselves whether that be on a Saturday or Tuesday or Monday, Thursday, Friday. We have still got points to play for and an end goal.

“It is important we remain positive. It’s easy to ask negative questions.

“The lads know they have got to give a good account of themselves at Ipswich on Tuesday.

“The players were on the floor at the end but you have got to pick them up. There is nothing to gain by being negative.

“We are not kidding ourselves because we know it’s a tough division.

“I have been in worse situations than this and come through it.”

Cheltenham twice hit back from behind to claim a 3-2 home win over League One relegation rivals Port Vale and spoil Darren Moore’s first game in charge.

Nathan Smith’s header and an own goal from Curtis Davies put Vale ahead, but strikes from Matt Taylor, Jack Shepherd and Will Ferry secured the points for Darrell Clarke’s side against his former club.

Luke Southwood had to save well twice to deny Ethan Chislett as Vale threatened early on and they went ahead when Smith headed in Conor Grant’s corner in the 25th minute.

Lewis Freestone was close to a leveller and Vale goalkeeper Connor Ripley blocked well from George Lloyd.

Taylor levelled after a free-kick routine involving Tom Pett, with the veteran striker stroking in his third goal in four appearances since joining the club.

Liam Kinsella and Taylor went close to giving Cheltenham the lead early in the second half.

Vale claimed the next goal when Southwood parried Chislett’s shot and Davies turned the ball into his own net under pressure from James Wilson in the 65th minute.

But Cheltenham responded quickly with Shepherd lashing in a superb volley four minutes later.

Ferry then won it, jinking past several challenges in the box before applying a neat finish for his first Cheltenham goal in the 73rd minute.

Hull captain Jacob Greaves snatched a dramatic stoppage-time winner as his side kept pace in the Championship play-off race with a 2-1 victory at Huddersfield.

Greaves had put Hull ahead in the seventh minute and, after Jack Rudoni had seemingly earned the home side a point in added time, netted a diving header in the dying stages to earn victory.

Back-to-back wins following a disappointing home defeat by Swansea has left Liam Rosenior’s side out of the top six only on goal difference while the Terriers lie two points above the relegation zone.

Jaden Philogene forced Huddersfield goalkeeper Lee Nicholls to deflect over for the first corner when the forward made the most of good work by Fabio Carvalho and Ozan Tufan to shoot from the edge of the area.

The Terriers failed to clear it and when the ball fell to Greaves 12 yards out, he hooked left footed towards goal and a diving Nicholls got a hand to it but was unable to stop it crossing the line.

Hull should then have paid the price for giving the ball away at the back, but Josh Koroma curled well over from 20 yards.

The visitors were forced into the first change after half an hour as on-loan Liverpool midfielder Tyler Morton limped off following a second spell of treatment.

Ben Wiles’ rising shot was beaten away by Hull goalkeeper Ryan Allsop diving high to his right to preserve his side’s lead five minutes before the interval.

Alex Matos shot through the legs of Alfie Jones, but Allsop got down to block the midfielder’s shot after 50 minutes as the home side tried to force their way back into the game.

Sorba Thomas sent Rudoni clear inside his full-back with a pinpoint pass but the cross from the winger failed to reach a Huddersfield player.

The pressure was increasing from the Terriers and when Thomas curled in a cross from the left it was just too deep for Rudoni.

Tufan sent a dangerous ball across the home box which Jonathan Hogg cleared at the expense of a corner with an hour gone.

Substitutes Brahima Diarra and Delano Burgzorg created openings in quick succession as Hull continued to weather the home side’s pressure.

Thomas curled in a low shot from the left with his right foot and the ball deflected off a Hull defender before hitting the far post.

The game had entered stoppage time when Rudoni’s left foot shot beat Allsop from the edge of the area.

But Huddersfield’s fans were soon silenced as Greaves headed in a cross cross from substitute Abdulkadir Omur in the fourth minute of added time.

A Matt Smith goal secured Wigan a 1-0 away win and completed a season double over relegation-threatened Shrewsbury.

The first opportunity of the afternoon went Wigan’s way when Luke Chambers played a drilled pass into Martial Godo, who was just inside the area, but Marko Marosi pushed his goalward effort clear.

Shrewsbury started the second half brightly and went close to breaking the deadlock two minutes in when Mal Benning floated in a cross to the back post which Aaron Pierre met but Sam Tickle made an outstanding one-handed save from his header.

Wigan opened the scoring just before the hour mark with the move originating from a corner which was flicked into Smith’s path and the midfielder smashed home.

Shrewsbury went close to a late equaliser when an Elliott Bennett corner was whipped into the near post but Chey Dunkley’s header clipped a defender and went out for another corner.

The home side kept pushed for the elusive goal but to no avail.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson produced another vital contribution from the bench as Bolton twice came from behind to earn a 3-3 draw with Charlton in League One.

The Icelandic super sub denied the visitors a first win in 17 games with a 71st-minute equaliser to add to a midweek winner against Wycombe.

Bolton, who remain just outside the automatic promotion places, led after 19 minutes when Victor Adeboyejo turned in Zac Ashworth’s cross for his ninth goal of the season.

But the Addicks threatened to gain a first win over their hosts since 2017 when Thierry Small and Lloyd Jones struck after 22 and 40 minutes.

Small’s deep cross – on his Charlton debut – deceived keeper Joel Coleman who endured a nervy afternoon deputising for the injured Nathan Baxter.

Bodvarsson replaced Adeboyejo at half-time and six minutes after the interval Paris Maghoma curled in a spectacular right-foot leveller.

Daniel Kanu restored Charlton’s lead just past the hour. Bolton, however, protested that referee Ross Joyce should have stopped the game for a potential head injury to Josh Dacres-Cogley in the build-up.

But Bolton rallied and Bodvarsson turned in Dacres-Cogley’s centre for a deserved point.

John Eustace’s wait for a first win at Blackburn goes on after Preston battled back to claim a 2-2 draw in an entertaining Lancashire derby clash at Deepdale.

Eustace, whose first game in charge of Rovers ended in defeat at former club Birmingham, saw his side let a 2-0 lead slip but still dented Preston’s play-off aspirations.

All four goals came in the first half as Sammie Szmodics regained his place as the Championship’s top scorer before Sam Gallagher doubled the visitors’ lead.

But Robbie Brady’s 39th-minute strike and Emil Riis’ effort four minutes later secured Ryan Lowe’s hosts a point.

Eustace made two changes from the side which lost at St Andrew’s as John Fleck made his debut and Scott Wharton returned to the starting line-up, while North End remained unchanged from the side that beat Middlesbrough to earn a third successive win.

Blackburn arrived at Deepdale off the back of a turbulent few weeks but they quickly hit the front as star man Szmodics, who had already lashed an effort wide, opened the scoring after just seven minutes.

The 28-year-old overtook Plymouth’s Morgan Whittaker at the top of the second-tier scoring charts as he raced on to Gallagher’s flick on and coolly slotted beyond Freddie Woodman.

Down the other end, Liam Millar cut onto his left foot but could only tamely hit straight at Aynsley Pears.

Fleck’s debut lasted just 17 minutes before he was forced of with injury but Rovers were soon celebrating a second goal.

Gallagher sent the visiting fans into scenes of jubilation when he got in behind from Callum Brittain’s defence-splitting pass and converted with a neat flick in the 23rd minute.

It could have been three when Szmodics forced Woodman into a decent save after Brittain’s free-kick was cleared into his path.

But a four-minute burst saw the Lilywhites level before the break.

The first goal was a fine curling first-time finish from Brady, a stunning strike to open his account for the season.

And Riis scrambled home his third goal in as many games to draw the hosts level on the stroke of half-time.

Referee David Webb was jeered with chants of “you’re not fit to referee” from both sets of supporters after a break in play with an injury.

The momentum was all with the hosts after a scintillating end to the first half and Riis fashioned a chance for Brady with a cheeky backheel, but a pivotal Blackburn block kept the scores level.

Mads Frokjaer then smashed a 20-yard volley over as Preston continued to press.

Dangerous Danish striker Riis nodded an Alan Browne cross straight at Pears, who then produced an important stoppage-time save to keep out Browne’s header and help earn a point for his side.

Cambridge inflicted further woe on basement side Carlisle with a fine 4-0 away win at Brunton Park.

Sierra Leone midfielder Sullay Kaikai, who had not scored in his five previous games, fired the visitors into a welcome 14th-minute lead with a sweet right-foot strike into the bottom right corner.

An unfortunate second-half own goal from Sam Lavelle, an Elias Kachunga header three minutes later and Liam Bennett’s late goal made sure Carlisle have now lost their last seven games on the spin.

Striker Lyle Taylor had come close to doubling the lead after Kaikai’s early opener, but his effort was parried by keeper Harry Lewis and deflected wide.

Kaikai and defender James Gibbons both had shots blocked as the U’s forced the pace, before Danny Andrew came within a whisker of scoring with a fierce free-kick which flew just wide.

Josh Vela saw his close-range header well saved by shot-stopper Jack Stevens, while Harrison Neal had a shot charged down for the Blues.

Goalscorer Kaikai had an effort charged down before Lewis saved Jordan Gibson’s header on the stroke of half-time and Jack Diamond rifled wide for the visitors close to the hour mark.

Taylor headed wide before Lavelle deflected Kaikai’s cross into his own net and Kachunga bagged his fourth league goal of the season.

Substitute Bennett pounced with seven minutes left as the U’s bounced back from successive defeats.