Jamaican international footballer Jamal Lowe scored twice in the second half on Saturday as Swansea ended a run of four successive English Championship defeats with a 3-0 win at Millwall to boost their promotion hopes.
The 26-year-old forward, who scored on his debut for the Reggae Boyz in a 4-1 defeat in a friendly against the United States last month, netted in the 76th and 85th minutes after Andre Ayew curled home an opener in first-half stoppage time as the Swans scored their first goal in five games.
Lowe’s first capped a fine counter-attack to ease Swansea nerves, before adding his second – and 11th of the campaign – with a smart finish when he turned and hammered the ball into the roof of the net after being fed by Ayew.
Lowe had gone close in the first half when he cut inside from the left and shot at goal, but Bartosz Bialkowski denied him with a good save.
Another Championship marksman on target was Brentford’s 25-year-old Ivan Toney, who notched his 29th goal of the season.
Toney, who is eligible to represent Jamaica, scored his side’s third goal in the 75th minute as the visitors ended a run of four straight draws to regain third spot in the table wirth a 5-0 win at Preston North End.
Chris Willock, meanwhile, one of three siblings of Montserratian descent plying their trade in England, scored in the 60th minute for Queens Park Rangers (QPR) whose 4-1 win dealt Sheffield Wednesday’s hopes of avoiding relegation from the Championship a significant blow.
Willock, 23, tapped home after a pull-back by Lyndon Dykes whose two headers were key as 11th-placed QPR secured a seventh win in nine home league games. Wednesday remain second from bottom of the table, seven points from safety.
In League One, 31-year-old St Kitts and Nevis defender Michael Nottingham gave Accrington Stanley the perfect start, heading home after five minutes when a Sean McConville corner was flicked goalwards by Cameron Burgess.
But AFC Wimbledon moved out of the relegation places after the visitors, who finished with 10 men, roared back to win 5-1.
In the same division, 20-year-old striker Ellis Simms, who is also eligible to play for Jamaica, Poland and England, netted for Blackpool in a 2-2 draw at Lincoln City.
Simms, on loan from Everton, produced a fine finish to put Blackpool two up before the Imps battled back to share the spoils with two late goals.
In League Two, Nathan Smith, 34, who played two friendlies for Jamaica in 2011 and 2012, grabbed the winner as Port Vale overcame a lengthy snow delay to continue their fine run with a 1-0 victory against promotion hopefuls Morecambe.
Smith’s strike secured Vale’s sixth successive win for the first time in 25 years.
Vale took the lead on 34 minutes, six minutes after the restart following the snow delay, as Smith headed home Tom Conlon’s inch-perfect free-kick.
In another contest, Antigua and Barbuda international Luther Wildin produced a thunderous strike from outside the box that arrowed into the top corner beyond a helpless Vaclav Hladky, but in-form Stevenage went down 2-1 at Salford City, who gave their League Two promotion hopes a major boost with victory at Moor Lane.
Right-back Wildin, 23, levelled in the 56th minute for Stevenage, who were on a 12-match unbeaten run, but Ian Henderson nodded in a 76th-minute Ibou Touray corner to give Gary Bowyer’s side a second consecutive win, closing the gap to the play-off places to three points.
CMC
