EFL Recap - 17 August 2026
Your Monday morning EFL cheat sheet: scores, tables, form, goals, assists and the numbers that matter across the Championship, League One and League Two.
Your Monday morning cheat sheet: scores, tables, form, goals, assists and the numbers that matter.
1️⃣ Championship | 2️⃣ League One | 3️⃣ League Two
Sam Parry: Hello and welcome to The EFL Recap, the Monday morning newsletter that distils the weekend’s football into its simplest parts. You know the drill. Numbers and tables. Stats and results.
It’s a digestible catch-up, perfect for the commute, so by the time you get to work, you know who’s up and who’s down. This first edition is naturally snack-sized, with only one round of games in the books, but as the season develops we’ll be adding form guides, top scorers and plenty more.
We’d also love you to get involved in our first ‘Dear Ali and George’ podcast of the season. If you’ve seen someone over the weekend who caught your eye, or there’s something else entirely you want Ali and George to get their heads around, drop us a comment, a question, a thought or a hot-take, and they’ll get stuck into the best of them on Thursday’s pod.
Championship
Today I want to flag up the opening-weekend fortunes of the new arrivals in each division, whether promoted or relegated.
Lincoln turned in a cockle-warming performance, taking the lead against Boro before eventually going down 2-1, whilst Bolton took their goals superbly in a 2-1 win over Preston.
We got a double ‘Desmond’ for the three relegated sides. Wolves needed an added-time penalty to rescue a point against Blackburn on Sky on Friday night, before Zian Flemming repeated the trick with a late brace to earn a 2-2 draw for Burnley against West Ham.
Championship Scores
Bolton 2-1 Preston
Bristol City 0-2 Millwall
Burnley 2-2 West Ham
Charlton 2-1 Derby
Middlesbrough 2-1 Lincoln City
Norwich 1-2 West Brom
Portsmouth 1-3 QPR
Sheffield United 0-0 Birmingham
Stoke 1-2 Swansea
Watford 2-1 Southampton
Wolves 2-2 Blackburn
Championship Table
Championship ‘Last Past The Post’
Last Past The Post: Who’ll be the last team to win, lose, score or concede? Teams on the list disappear once they’ve done all four.
Championship Target Tracker
Our Target Tracker shows the PPG each club needs from here to reach our benchmark totals, based on the average points required to finish in the relevant automatic promotion, play-off and safety positions since 2020/21.
League One
We saw an auspicious start for all four newly-promoted teams in League One. Bromley and Cambridge both won, while Notts County and MK Dons earned draws against newly-relegated Leicester and Oxford.
League One Scores
Barnsley 0-1 Bromley
Blackpool 1-1 Wycombe
Bradford 2-0 Peterborough
Burton Albion 1-1 Stevenage
Cambridge United 3-2 Wigan
Huddersfield 3-0 AFC Wimbledon
Leyton Orient 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday
Mansfield 2-1 Doncaster
Plymouth 1-3 Stockport
Notts County 1-1 Leicester
Oxford United 2-2 MK Dons
Reading 3-4 Luton
League One Table
League One ‘Last Past The Post’
Last Past The Post: Who’ll be the last team to win, lose, score or concede? Teams on the list disappear once they’ve done all four.
League One Target Tracker
Our Target Tracker shows the PPG each club needs from here to reach our benchmark totals, based on the average points required to finish in the relevant automatic promotion, play-off and safety positions since 2020/21.
League Two
A tough introduction to League Two life for the four teams relegated from League One. Port Vale, Rotherham and Exeter all lost, while Cobblers drew 0-0 at home. Elsewhere, York beat a well-fancied Bristol Rovers side and play-off winners Rochdale went down 3-0 to relegation favourites Newport County.
League Two Scores
Accrington Stanley 2-2 Colchester
Barnet 3-1 Salford City
Cheltenham 2-1 Rotherham
Chesterfield 0-1 Fleetwood Town
Crawley Town 0-1 Crewe
Gillingham 0-3 Walsall
Grimsby 1-0 Exeter
Northampton 0-0 Swindon
Tranmere 2-0 Shrewsbury
York 3-2 Bristol Rovers
Newport County 3-0 Rochdale
Oldham 2-0 Port Vale
Dear Ali and George, I turned up at Crawley on Saturday to see a meerkat mascot welcoming our players on arrival, who were wearing meerkat badges on their training clothes.
After a completely uneventful first half which saw Vito Mannone in goal - and come iff injured, Colin Kazam-Richards as manager and a player signed from Juventus up front - it felt like Football Manager gone wrong, the second half began. This saw 2 Crawley players sent off for violent conduct, then Crewe's skipper being sent off for a mistimed challenge. And finally an injury time winner in a did it cross the line? Was it a foul? We don't care. Limbs!
And finally chants of "You've been mauled by the meerkats" ringing around the away end.
It is the most bonkers game I have ever been to. What is the most bonkers match you have attended live?
Is Nabizada going to save Watford's balance sheet? Scoring that goal on Sky put another 0 on to his value and he becomes a more saleable asset (ie Sarr, Pedro, Deeney). How depressing will it be for Watford to lose their diamond, who might want Premier League football or Bundesliga football in the future that Watford cannot give him?
Also: Mattie Pollock. Captain Leader Legend