Marquee signing Will Lankshear notched a second-half double as Championship promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough fought back to kick off their campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 victory and inflict a first defeat in eight and a half months on newly-promoted Lincoln City.
The Imps – playing their first second-tier match in 65 years – made a strong start and opened the scoring in the 12th minute through Adam Reach but former Tottenham forward Lankshear marked his first league appearance since his much-hyped move to the Riverside by equalising just after the hour and then poking in a stoppage-time winner.
It was a devastating end for spirited Lincoln as a run of 29 games undefeated in all competitions since early December was finally brought to a halt.
Another newly-promoted side did leave the opening weekend victorious however as Sam Dalby and Thierry Gale scored first-half goals to enable Bolton beat Preston 2-1 and record a first Championship win since March 2019.
Last season’s League One play-off final winners have been predicted to struggle on their return to the second tier after seven years away but in front of a sellout 26,262 crowd at the Toughsheet Community Stadium, Steven Schumacher’s side largely dominated.
However, they had to hold on at the death after Jusef Erabi headed in fellow substitute Andrija Vukcevic’s cross four minutes from time to give Preston hope.
Meanwhile, Sheffield United and Birmingham City made a much more underwhelming start to the Championship season as they played out a drab goalless draw at Bramall Lane that didn’t suggest either side’s ambition of mounting a promotion challenge will necessarily be particularly successful.
West Brom launched a smash-and-grab raid with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Norwich, enduring long spells of pressure before late goals from Aune Heggebo and Jimmy-Jay Morgan secured an unlikely victory, while young Charlton star Tyreece Campbell netted a stunning 80th-minute goal to complete a 2-1 comeback win for the Addicks over Derby, who ended a week to forget after Saudi government official and boxing supremo Turki Alalshikh’s takeover collapsed on Monday.
Ilias Chair scored twice as QPR came from behind to beat Portsmouth 3-1 and claim their first win at Fratton Park in 26 years, while super-sub Adam Idah snatched a 66th-minute winner with his first touch of the game as Swansea bravely battled back from a goal down to stun Stoke 2-1.
Defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for the Potters, especially after Eric Bocat had fired them into a 10th-minute lead with a deflected left-foot strike, but Nigeria international midfielder Joseph Opoku snatched a 23rd-minute equaliser by powering in a sweet right-foot shot after some poor defending and Idah then won it with a smart close-range finish following more questionable defending.
And Josh Coburn netted a double as Millwall notched a comfortable 2-0 away win over 10-man Bristol City, who saw Adam Randell shown a second yellow card for a foul to prevent a counter-attack in the first half.
