Sheffield United maintained their unbeaten start in the Championship and moved joint-top of the table with a 2-0 home win over Luton Town.

Jesurun Rak-Sakyi marked his 22nd birthday in style, scoring a goal in each half, as the Blades brushed aside their struggling visitors on Saturday.

The youngster was denied in the opening stages, but still ensured United got off to a strong start, firing in an emphatic finish after just 12 minutes.

He then got his second just seven minutes after the restart, sliding it through Thomas Kaminski's legs.

The Blades should have had a third late on when Vinicius Souza struck the post, but they had already done enough to take advantage of Sunderland dropping points on Friday to join them on 19 points at the summit.

Luton, meanwhile, are winless in three as they sit just above the relegation zone in 21st place.

Elsewhere, Plymouth Argyle snatched a dramatic 2-1 home win over Blackburn Rovers, after manager Wayne Rooney had been sent off.

Michael Obafemi's 15th-minute goal looked enough to secure a win until Joe Rankin-Costello equalised with four minutes left of normal time.

Rooney was subsequently sent to the stands for his protests as he felt there was a foul in the build-up, meaning he was not on the touchline when Morgan Whittaker headed in a last-gasp winner in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

Watford also secured a late victory, with Tom Cleverley's side coming from behind to beat Middlesbrough 2-1 at Vicarage Road.

It initially looked like they were in danger of falling to a second consecutive defeat, having failed to create chances before George Edmundson took advantage of slack defending to put Boro ahead.

However, the Hornets' substitutions swung the game back in their favour, with Edo Kayembe pulling them level before Kwadwo Baah's half-volley secured the points in the 87th minute.

Kieran McKenna hailed Ipswich’s defensive display after they beat Blackburn 1-0 to climb to the top of the Sky Bet Championship table.

Ipswich stamped their authority on the game early and were ahead in the ninth minute when Conor Chaplin’s first-time strike squirmed through Aynsley Pears.

Rovers were second best in the first half, though Joe Rankin-Costello had a goal disallowed due to Sammie Szmodics being in an offside position – their second ruled out for offside.

Blackburn’s frustrations continued as Andrew Moran’s goal was disallowed for a Scott Wharton foul, and Ipswich dug in to claim a vital win. After their first Ewood win since 1996, McKenna felt his side displayed both sides of their game.

He said: “Fantastic result, you have to enjoy every win you get in the Championship. The performance was mixed. I thought first half we started ever so well, big credit to the way we came out, especially after international duty, we imposed ourselves really well on the game.

“Gave the opposition problems and controlled most of the first half. Blackburn had a counter-threat and they set up to give us problems through the middle of the pitch so we didn’t have it all our way.

“We came out at the start of the second half and done well. As the second half went on, it became tough. We knew there’d be tiredness in the group, and it became a challenging last 30 minutes. We worked really hard, we defended our box really well, blocked crosses, defended set plays well, blocked shots.

“Didn’t control the game as we would have liked but sometimes you have to show that other side and I thought we did that really well.”

Rovers are winless in nine but John Eustace was proud of his side’s effort and disappointed the disallowed goals didn’t count.

He said: “Frustrated but very proud as well. I thought the effort of the group was outstanding. After the week we’ve had with the injuries and bit of sickness in the camp as well, to have possibly four starters out of the XI, I thought the effort was outstanding.

“We’ve gone up against a very good team and played very well and we’re disappointed not to get anything out of the game.

“I thought the referee had a fantastic view of the goal from Joe. Sammie obviously wasn’t in front of the goalkeeper so I thought that was really disappointing we didn’t have that goal.

“I thought Scott’s header was a fair challenge on the goalkeeper and the offside was tight but we’ve shown very good signs, the team are playing very well. It’s important we don’t get too disappointed about the result. We’ve got to brush ourselves off and go again.”

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