QPR had not won at Fratton Park since 2000, and they settled it in fifteen minutes

Queens Park Rangers had not won a league match at Fratton Park since May 2000. On Saturday they went a goal down there, scored three times before half-time, and walked off having reset a quarter of a century in about fifteen minutes.

Ilias Chair turns Portsmouth over before the break

Portsmouth had the first half hour and the lead. Terry Devlin hit one from distance that Fratton Park will be talking about for a while, and for that opening spell the day was going the way the home crowd had planned it.

Then Rangers scored three before the interval, Ilias Chair taking two of them, and it finished 3-1. Twenty-six years without a win at a ground is the sort of run that tends to end all at once rather than politely.

Millwall punish ten men, West Brom punish nobody until the end

Bristol City lost Adam Randell to a second yellow card in the 36th minute at Ashton Gate and lost the match 2-0 to Millwall. Josh Coburn scored either side of half-time, a flicked volley at the near post and then a header down into the ground, which is a fair day’s work for a striker on an opening weekend.

Norwich had the better of West Bromwich Albion at Carrow Road for most of the afternoon and lost anyway. Albion scored twice late through Aune Heggebo and Jimmy-Jay Morgan to win 2-1, and Heggebo’s looked like it came off his hand, which should keep Carrow Road warm on the subject for about a week.

The rest of the Saturday card

Swansea won 2-1 at Stoke, which made it four away wins from the eight Saturday fixtures. Middlesbrough beat Lincoln City 2-1 and Charlton got past Derby by the same score. Sheffield United and Birmingham cancelled each other out at Bramall Lane in a goalless draw, which is one way for two sides with promotion ambitions to introduce themselves.

Bolton beat Preston 2-1 in the lunchtime kick-off, seven years after they last played at this level.

Two of the relegated three meet on Sunday

Burnley host West Ham, which is a strange fixture to find in the second tier and a reminder of how last season ended in the Premier League. Both went down, along with Wolves, who opened this season with a 2-2 draw at home to Blackburn on Friday night. West Ham were relegated for the first time since 2012 and did it with 39 points, the highest total for a relegated side in fifteen years.

Watford play Southampton in the other Sunday game, and Cardiff meet Wrexham on Monday to close the round.

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