Newcastle roar back to top of the Championship

LONDON ( Reuters) - Newcastle United roared back to the top of the English Championship with a 4-0 demolition of Rotherham on Saturday, although they were frustrated for 45 minutes by the bottom club.

Daryl Murphy opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time and when Matt Ritchie scored from close range soon after the restart the points were in the bag.

Ritchie struck again after Ayoze Perez got in on the act.

Rafa Benitez's Newcastle have 58 points from 27 games with Brighton and Hove Albion, who beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 on Friday, a point behind with a game in hand.

With Newcastle and Brighton having a stranglehold on the top two spots the battle below them looks like being for playoff places, with Leeds United, Huddersfield Town, Reading and Sheffield Wednesday leading that race.

Huddersfield bolstered their position with a 2-0 home win over Ipswich Town with Isaiah Brown and Christopher Schindler supplying the goals for the Terriers.

Reading suffered a 3-2 defeat at Derby County who are just outside the top six and Leeds lost 3-2 at Barnsley.

Nottingham Forest fans demonstrated against their club's plight but at least had something to cheer with a 1-0 victory over Bristol City - their first in eight matches - to ease their relegation fears.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)