Comeback wins for Watford, Coventry and QPR, derby wins for Blackburn & Blades, plus Barnsley thrash Luton and Bromley go third...
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Championship
Sam Parry
Five wins for pre-weekend bottom-half teams over pre-weekend top-half teams, a four-goal record, some three-goal comebacks, two derbies and one Blue Wave.
Let’s start with the Blue Wave. Birmingham have hit four goals in three consecutive home games, this time dismantling Norwich with unrelenting brutality. In his first match, Philippe Clement watched the Canaries allow their opponents big chance after big chance; when Norwich pulled a goal back, they’d already shipped two and the third came shortly after. The Blues continued to hunt goals, typified by their fourth: a turnover, a burst forward and Jay Stansfield finishing off the bar – 54’ gone, 4-1, game done.
From shellacking to a shell-shocking Comeback #1. Watford ended Derby’s winning run with a second-half surge from 2-0 down to 3-2 up, securing their first away victory since February with a late Kayembe double. A long wait, but worth it.
Comeback #2 belonged to Coventry, and it had the faint whiff of champion behaviour. Everything was going to plan for West Brom, who pressed high, countered sharply and fashioned four excellent chances. Two were converted, courtesy of Mikey Johnston assists and Aune Heggebø finishes. But Coventry kept loading the box, and Josh Eccles’ unmarked header on 37 minutes shifted the energy.
From that moment, the ending felt almost inevitable – doubly so when Jayson Molumby collected a daft second yellow. Down to 10, Albion wilted. From two set pieces, Ellis Simms headed the equaliser and Victor Torp guided in the winner. Inevitable is the watchword when talking about Cov right now.
How about Comeback #3?
A certain club’s numbers begged a thought experiment. What happens if a team with the second-most goals scored and the third-most goals conceded take their second shot in the 51st minute of a game, having let their opponents take 15? We got the answer: it put Hull 2-1 up at QPR.
Which begged a second question: how long could they hold out? The answer: not very long. QPR had already created enough to deserve parity before Jimmy Dunne’s looping cross-shot made it 2-2, and Rumarn Burrell turned the pressure into a 3-2 turnaround. Hull, being Hull, nearly equalised and nearly conceded again – total mayhem and a lot of fun.
Speaking of fun, let’s hit the derby days.
Blackburn beat Preston 2-1 in a lively Lancashire lash-up on Friday night. PNE forced Aynsley Pears into early work, but the game sparked just before the interval – Rovers struck first, Preston replied instantly, and the second half promised heat. It delivered. Michael Smith was fortunate to escape punishment for a cruncher from behind but, moments later, a foul allowed Blackburn to score from the resulting free-kick. The match turned bitty, but Rovers carried a counter threat and could have had a third. Val Ismaël’s worked wonders in post; the only grievance he might’ve felt was that Ben Whiteman’s horror tackle on Moussa Baradji, late on, didn’t bring a red card.
Spicy Sunday brought a Sheffield derby without much spice in it, and not all that much steel either. After a couple of forays, Wednesday were second-best throughout. United, who named a younger starting XI than the Owls, found it easy in the first half and easier still in the second. Though they had the chances for more than a 3-0 win, poor finishing and hesitancy held them back. A turning point in their season? It wouldn’t be wise to judge teams on their results against Wednesday.
AOB: Southampton raced into the fastest four-goal lead in EFL Championship history by going 4-0 up away at Charlton in the 22nd minute. It finished 5-1, and with Tonda Eckert having won all three games in caretaker charge, that Saints vacancy suddenly resembles a very handsome job indeed.
League One
Huw Davies
Are Luton in trouble? Not at first glance, being closer to the play-offs than the dropzone. However, if the previous week’s toothless, aimless, goalless draw at home to Rotherham had fans concerned about the direction of travel under Jack Wilshere, losing 5-0 to Barnsley has turned worry into alarm. With the exception of the cursed Nahki Wells being brilliantly denied an open goal by Jack Shepherd and Marc Roberts, it was one-way traffic, with Luton stuck at the lights.
But what a result for Conor Hourihane, who is just 11 months older than Wilshere and also learning his trade. Barnsley scoring five goals from five shots on target doesn’t tell the story: as early as the third minute, a slick move ended with Vimal Yoganathan hitting the crossbar, before Reyes Cleary pounced on a loose pass to score, Davis Keillor-Dunn missed a great chance, Yoganathan hit the woodwork again, Patrick Kelly made it 2-0, Luca Connell 3-0… and then it was half-time. Relentless. It finished 5-0 with Cleary, Yoganathan and Keillor-Dunn all excellent, but Luton made countless errors and the fifth goal summed up the game for both sides:
Port Vale hosting Plymouth Argyle was 23rd v 24th. Now they’re 24th and 23rd. In a tale as old as… well, this season, Vale had opportunities but didn’t take them and Lorent Tolaj scored for Argyle. It finished 1-0 and Vale will once again rue big chances missed – no club in League One has squandered more.
Wycombe 3-2 Lincoln was great fun, albeit with a frustrating outcome for those of an Impish persuasion. Wycombe’s Sam Bell scored twice and took each goal really, really well – that’s four ‘really’s in all – with the second set up nicely by Jamie Mullins. Lincoln made it 2-2 through their patented tactic of playing ALL OF THE FORWARDS, as substitutes Justin Obikwu and Freddie Draper scored while Ben House came close. With Reeco Hackett also coming off the bench, after Rob Street, James Collins and Francis Okoronkwo started alongside House, Lincoln have an embarrassment of riches in attack. Sadly, Obikwu’s 86th-minute miss was just an embarrassment, and to make things grimmer, Jack Grimmer walloped in Wycombe’s winner moments later.
With Stockport having lost 3-0 at Peterborough on Thursday, giving Luke Williams a fourth win in four across all competitions since his appointment, Lincoln’s defeat sent Cardiff top with a 3-1 win at Northampton that was less routine than it sounds. Huddersfield’s 3-1 win at Mansfield was more routine than it sounds: the visitors were 3-0 up after 15 minutes and forced another six saves before half-time.
But we finish with a moment straight out of Young Adult fiction. With Wigan trailing AFC Wimbledon 1-0, Alistair Smith having finished off a tidy game of Headers & Volleys, Latics teenager Harrison Bettoni came on to equalise with his first touch in league football – and then he scored the winner.
Incredibly, that first goal was a direct free-kick, which means Bettoni came on for his debut and immediately told his senior team-mates, “I’ve got this”. It’s especially impressive to achieve that lift and dip (see 5iveLights) when you’re having to drag your enormous stones up off the floor. The second was visual perfection for the YA theme: put through on goal in the dying minutes, Bettoni found the net, performed a classic knee slide and celebrated with the away fans, seemingly all in one movement.
The final word goes to his manager, Ryan Lowe:
“I said, ‘Go on, son, pick a corner and put it where you need to put it’ – and lo and behold, he bangs it right in the top corner”
League Two
Matt Watts
If the EFL is one big game of Snakes & Ladders, then the snakes at the top of Leagues One and Two seem particularly slippery this season. Swindon fumbled a two-goal lead against Ian Holloway’s previous club, Grimsby, and the resulting 2-2 draw at the County Ground allowed Walsall to return to the summit. Goals from Daniel Kanu and Priestley Farquharson delivered the Saddlers a 2-0 victory and Harrogate a sixth defeat in seven league games.
No team in England’s top four tiers is on a longer winning run than Bromley, who racked up a fourth straight victory by beating Salford 2-0 at Hayes Lane. It was death by set pieces for the Ammies, downed by an Omar Sowumni header and a rare goal from pod favourite Will Hondermarck. Bromley replaced MK Dons in the top three despite Paul Warne’s men fighting back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Tranmere. Having just halved the deficit with an excellent Jon Mellish strike, an extremely avoidable second yellow card for Jonathan Leko threatened to derail MK’s comeback; however, Kane Thompson-Sommers scored soon afterwards to earn the Dons a point.
With 17 league games played, six points separate MK in 4th from Oldham in 15th. One of the form sides in that cluster of teams is Colchester, who made it five wins in seven with a 3-1 triumph at Notts County. The home side, unbeaten in the league since 27th September, led through a Kane Vincent-Young own goal, but Harry Anderson’s delightful equaliser from followed by two more goals in the second half from loanees Micah Mbick and Will Goodwin.
At the bottom, Cheltenham moved out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 victory over Bristol Rovers. Jonathan Tomkinson’s first goal for the Robins consigned Darrell Clarke to defeat on his return to Whaddon Road. While Steve Cotterill has four wins from the first seven league games of his second coming at Cheltenham, Bristol Rovers have lost seven in a row.
Finally, Newport fell to a 3-0 defeat at Oldham in Christian Fuchs’ first game in charge. He looked down upon the rest with Leicester in 2015/16, but the Austrian’s new side are four points adrift at the bottom of the Football League.
🎦 Our Top 5 clips from the EFL weekend
A star is born at Wigan: Harrison Bettoni’s first touch as a pro
Carry On Up The Wall: Jordan Williams’ kept driving for Pompey
Sometimes the ball moves different: see Charlie Savage for Reading
Bar to back of the net in 30 seconds in Crewe v Chesterfield
Relish the Jon Mellish touch-and-away for MK
📊 Your Monday morning cheat sheet — L1 was madness!
🛣️ The Road to Wigan Peers — On his Football League debut, 18-year-old Harrison Bettoni became the youngest sub to hit a League One brace since Harry Kane in 2011.
🐝 Master of the Comeback Trade — Watford have gained 14 points from the 11 Championship games in which they’ve conceded first this season.
💔 Jacks of None — Swansea have fallen behind in eight straight games, and haven’t won any of them.
🎩 Mehmeti Masterclass — Anis Mehmeti assisted all three goals in Bristol City’s 3-0 win over Swansea, making him the first Robins player with a hat-trick of assists since Andi Weimann in 2020.
💥 Cov Carnage — Coventry’s 43 goals in 16 games equals Fulham 2021/22 for the most at this stage of a second-tier season (since 2004/05).
🐯 Gelhardt Gains — Hull’s Joe Gelhardt has six goals in his last seven games; only Josh Sargent (16) has scored more Championship goals in 2025.
🏠 Vale’s Void — Port Vale are winless in seven (D3 L4) and have failed to score in five games straight – their joint-longest goalless league run ever.
✌️ Totally Rad — Huddersfield’s Bojan Radulovic was involved in three goals inside 16 minutes (1 goal, 2 assists).
🧱 Latics Lockdown — Keep an eye on Oldham: they may be 15th in League Two but they’ve conceded a league-low 12 goals and kept 9 clean sheets.
🟢 Dack Attack — Gillingham’s Bradley Dack now has 5 goals in 15 games, for his best EFL return since 2019/20 with Blackburn (9 goals).
📉 Sulphurites Slide — Harrogate earned 8 points from their first 4 games but have taken just 7 from the next 13 (W2 D1 L10).
⚔️ Sharpened Blades — Sheffield United’s 3-0 win at Hillsborough was the biggest away win by either side in the 132-year history of the Steel City Derby.
SkyBet Championship
Birmingham 4-1 Norwich
Bristol City 3-0 Swansea
Charlton 1-5 Southampton
Coventry 3-2 West Brom
Derby 2-3 Watford
Ipswich 0-0 Wrexham
Leicester 2-1 Stoke
Oxford 1-1 Middlesbrough
Portsmouth 3-1 Millwall
Preston 1-2 Blackburn
QPR 3-2 Hull
Sheffield Wednesday 0-3 Sheffield United
Sky Bet League One
AFC Wimbledon 1-2 Wigan
Barnsley 5-0 Luton
Bolton 0-0 Bradford
Leyton Orient 1-1 Blackpool
Mansfield 1-3 Huddersfield
Northampton 1-3 Cardiff
Peterborough 3-0 Stockport
Port Vale 0-1 Plymouth
Reading 1-1 Rotherham
Stevenage 0-0 Doncaster
Wycombe 3-2 Lincoln
Sky Bet League Two
Barrow 0-2 Cambridge
Bromley 2-0 Salford
Cheltenham 1-0 Bristol Rovers
Crawley 1-1 Accrington
Crewe 3-3 Chesterfield
Fleetwood 3-1 Shrewsbury
Gillingham 1-1 Barnet
Harrogate 0-2 Walsall
Notts County 1-3 Colchester
Oldham 3-0 Newport County
Swindon 2-2 Grimsby
Tranmere 2-2 MK Dons
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