Cardiff, Fulham beaten on Championship return

London - Promotion favourites Cardiff and Fulham began their Championship campaigns in the worst possible way on Saturday after respective defeats to Wigan and Barnsley.

Josh Windass picked himself up from missing a penalty to mastermind Wigan's 3-2 victory over Neil Warnock's Cardiff whilst Fulham fell at Barnsley 1-0.

Cardiff got off to a great start in England's second tier as Joe Ralls gave them the lead in the 20th minute.

It looked as if Warnock would come away with the three points when Wigan's Windass missed a penalty early in the second-half, but he recovered to set up Michael Jacobs for the 59th-minute equaliser before scoring the second.

Omar Bogle got Cardiff back on equal terms against his former club with 20 minutes remaining, only for Wales-born Lee Evans to rifle home a long range effort to restore Wigan's lead five minutes later.

Fulham's defensive problems which cost them so dearly in the Premier League let them down early on against Barnsley, with Luke Thomas breezing past their defence to fire the winner after just 13 minutes.

Former England midfielder Parker's side could not force an equaliser despite having two efforts cleared off the line against their newly promoted opponents.

Swansea began their second successive season in the Championship with a fine 2-1 win over Hull City, Steve Cooper's side showing great character to come back from 1-0 down to take the three points with two goals scored in rapid succession at the beginning of the second half.

Borja Baston has been an underwhelming performer since the club paid £15.5 million ($19 million) in 2016 and has spent time out on loan but he scored only his second goal for the club three minutes after the break before Mike van der Hoorn headed home the winner less than two minutes later.

Two of the other sides tipped to contest automatic promotion to the Premier League, Leeds United and Huddersfield Town, begin their campaigns on Sunday and Monday, respectively.