Skybet Championship: Wycombe Wanderers Returns To Ligue 1 As Late Point Saves Rooney's Derby

Skybet Championship: Wycombe Wanderers Returns To Ligue 1 As Late Point Saves Rooney's Derby By Admin Wycombe Wanderers' relegation from the Championship was rubber-stamped despite finishing the season with a convincing victory at mid-table Middlesbrough. Gareth Ainsworth's Chairboys started the day three points from safety but their vastly inferior goal difference meant they needed to beat Boro by a huge margin, hope that Sheffield Wednesday won at Derby and Rotherham failed to beat Cardiff to pull off a miraculous escape. While that sequence of events was never likely, Wycombe dominated at the Riverside Stadium and comfortably led at the break through Fred Onyedinma's clever dinked finish and a scruffy strike from Garath McCleary. Boro looked well off the pace and the visitors scored a deserved third when Jason McCarthy headed in to ensure they went down to League One with their heads held high. Wycombe finish their first-ever Championship campaign 22nd, above fellow relegated sides Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday and just a point from safety, while Neil Warnock's side end the season 10th. Martyn Waghorn was the hero as Derby County battled back to get the point they needed to stay in the Championship and consign Sheffield Wednesday to relegation to League One after a chaotic game at Pride Park. For much of the afternoon it looked like both sides would be going down as Rotherham, who needed to win to stand any chance of survival, led at Cardiff through Lewis Wing's spectacular early goal. When Marlon Pack netted an 88th minute-equaliser for Cardiff, it was Wednesday who were staying up as they led 3-2. But almost immediately, Owls defender Chey Dunkley brought down sub Kamil Jozwick in the box and Waghorn kept his composure to beat Keiren Westwood from the spot and ensure it was Wayne Rooney's Rams who would be staying up. Meanwhile Rotherham let in the equaliser at Cardiff that consigned them to the drop. It was a big late heartbreak for Rotherham as a Cardiff equaliser two minutes from time to send them to League One. Needing a win to stand a chance of staying up, the visitors got the perfect start when Lewis Wing volleyed in on eight minutes. And with the scoreline between Derby and Sheffield Wednesday in their favour, the Millers looked set to extend their stay in the Championship. But Marlon Pack's late curling effort condemned them to relegation. It looked likely to be a tough ask for Wednesday to avoid relegation after they were forced to start the season with a 12-point deduction for breaching spending rules. The penalty was reduced to six points after successfully appealing against the sanction and the Owls moved off the bottom of the table with a 0-0 draw with Millwall on 7 November. However, boss Garry Monk was then sacked two days later and replaced by veteran Tony Pulis. The Welshman's spell in charge was a disaster though and he won just one of his 10 matches before also being sacked on 28 December with the Owls in 23rd position, three points adrift of safety. Their form initially picked up under caretaker Neil Thompson and they moved out of the relegation zone and to a season-high 20th place with a 1-0 home win over Derby on 1 January. They moved out of the bottom three again with a 2-0 win over lowly Wycombe on 9 February but then lost the following four matches before Darren Moore was appointed their third manager of the season. He lost his first three matches and then missed a couple of games after testing positive for Covid-19 before having to step away for an extended period after contracting pneumonia. Moore returned to the dug-out for the game against the side he played for between 2006 and 2008 but he could not inspire his side to a win that would improbably have kept them in the division. However, relegation on the final day of the campaign will be tough to swallow on a day when they led twice but just could not hold on.