Championship roundup: West Ham stage dramatic comeback on Scott Parker’s opening night

Scott Parker’s return to West Ham had looked like beginning in painful fashion but instead featured a stunning comeback from 3-0 down. The east London club’s new head coach had watched Cardiff’s Jack Moylan score a first-half hat-trick, before a rousing response after the break ended with Max Kilman levelling the scores at 3-3 eight minutes from time. Elsewhere in the Championship, the leaders Middlesbrough went down 2-0 at Wrexham.

Parker had been confirmed as West Ham’s head coach earlier on Wednesday, taking over from Nuno Espírito Santo, who was sacked on Tuesday. The club’s former midfielder was appointed on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

A relieved Parker said afterwards: “I came in here at nine o’clock this morning and met the players for the first time, so I didn’t have a lot of input as such. As you can imagine, it was a difficult half-time talk. I just helped them tactically and told them, ‘OK, this is the way it needs to be now’.

“Certainly out of possession, we needed to be more aggressive. There were tactical changes and substitutions, and we became more front-footed. We took a few more risks.”

Parker admitted he could have skipped the dugout and “sat in a box” with his appointment confirmed on matchday.

But Parker – who won promotion to the Premier League with his former clubs Bournemouth, Burnley and Fulham – chose to spend the night on the touchline.

“The first half was poor in many aspects,” said Parker. “We were very passive and slow with the ball. The biggest positive is the team we saw in the second half. These boys have come off two defeats. You come to Cardiff away and you’re 3-0 down at half-time. I can only imagine what they were feeling. They showed a lot of character and that pleased me the most.”

Related: West Ham confirm Scott Parker as head coach after sacking Nuno Espírito Santo

Moylan halted the initial feelgood factor among the visiting support in the 11th minute at Cardiff City Stadium. His right-foot drive from the tip of the D left the visiting goalkeeper Mads Hermansen helpless as it sped into the top left corner. Moylan was then brought down for a penalty – the Ireland midfielder got up to spank it home to the left as Hermansen dived right in the 37th minute.

Within two minutes, Will Fish thought he had turned in a corner for Cardiff’s third – the centre-back deftly headed towards goal, but Moylan was directly behind him and claimed his hat-trick after making the final touch.

After the break, it was a completely different story. Divine Mukasa reduced the deficit in the 58th minute, finishing calmly over the stranded Nathan Trott after a fine ball over the top from Jarrod Bowen, before Arne Engels capitalised on a mix-up in the home defence to make it 3-2.

In the 82nd minute, Bowen was again the supplier, curling in an inviting cross from the right that was turned in by the centre-back Kilman to make it 3-3 from close range.

At the Racecourse, Wrexham waited until the 70th minute to break the deadlock against Middlesbrough, before George Thomason smashed a shot into the ground from just outside the area, which rocketed past a crowd of defenders and through the unsighted visiting goalkeeper Radek Vítek. Oli Rathbone then made it 2-0 in the 84th minute.

Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg refused to blame the absence of top-scorer Will Lankshear after the Championship leaders’ 11-match unbeaten run ended, but admitted it hardly helped.

“Every team would miss their top goalscorer,” Hellberg said. “I think it’s tough when the decision is made very late and you have planned for it. That doesn’t help… You need to find ways. Today I think it would be difficult because we weren’t sharp enough. Whoever would be on the pitch there were not so many opportunities.”

Scott Twine scored a stunning, curling free-kick to give Bristol City the lead at Ashton Gate but the promotion-chasing Wolves turned the match around with two late goals from Sean Neave to make it a 2-1 win to the visitors.

Neave, on loan from Newcastle, came off the bench to score on 82 and 89 minutes to win it for Wolves, much to the delight of their manager, César Peixoto.

“The team showed character and soul to win that game. They kept on believing right to the end and so did our supporters,” said Peixoto. “We got what we deserved in the end. We created a lot of chances from wide areas in the first half without getting on the end of them often enough.

“Sean Neave is a young guy making his first steps in professional football and those goals will do him a lot of good. He has a lot of ability, but is humble and plays for the team.”

City’s manager, Michael Skubala, said: “We fell to a sucker punch. When you get to 80 minutes ahead against a very good side you have to take something from the game.

“As a group, we have to defend better. The goals were soft from our perspective and we could have been stronger to prevent the second in particular.