Coventry & Boro the big winners of Leicester 3-1 Ipswich, Stevenage grab and smash Stockport, and Darrell Clarke leaves Gas after 10th straight loss...
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Championship
Sam Parry
Today we’re unapologetically talking promotion places. OK – one apology to Pompey, who secured a huge rot-stopping win over Blackburn. Meanwhile…
Although Ipswich did pull a goal back for 3-1, they were, in Football Manager news-speak, “powerless to resist” Leicester.
The Foxes were inside the Tractor Boys’ hen house, their individual genius sending feathers everywhere. Bobby De Cordova-Reid‘s effort ebbed in the air and wobbled with turbulence — it was lovely, swazzy, long distance. But not as long as Fatawu’s. A nutmeg to tee himself up and then a shot from a distance Usain Bolt couldn’t cover in six seconds. 65.2 metres out — the furthest distance for a Championship goal on record (since 2013-14). It was so good we’re not even putting it on 5iveLights, because if you haven’t already seen it, then there’s no helping you.
Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up when goals that good decide games. Sometimes the goals deserve more words than the game. And this time, given the final score, you have to say the biggest winners were Coventry and Boro.
The table looks beautiful. Yet the more beautiful it looks, the more nervous you get, because you can’t help thinking about that magical ‘P’ word. We’re not even halfway through the Championship season, but the scale of the challenge for those who would be king is growing larger.
Exhibit A
Nothing has been earned yet. But Coventry holding on for a 1-0 win against Bristol City means they’re now 12 points ahead of 3rd and streaking clear of the ‘parachute’ teams.
The best chance of the game fell to Ephron Mason-Clark, who converted it. Bristol City gave an extremely good account of themselves and have every reason to divine a sustainable play-off push from the tea leaves. For Frank Lampard’s side, it was the result and not the performance that mattered most, given what happened elsewhere.
The same goes for Middlesborough, who extended their lead over 3rd to seven points. Nothing is a given for them, though everything Kim Hellberg touches at the minute turns to wins. He returned David Strelec to the side, and Strelec opened the scoring. Morgan Whittaker bagged his sixth goal in six games, including one in each of Hellberg’s first four. Even Tommy Conway converted a 50th-minute penalty for his first goal since August, and the game was over despite QPR reducing the deficit.
Exhibit B
I’m not suggesting for a second that Boro can’t be caught, nor that they can’t catch Coventry, but the battle for 2nd has a clear frontrunner. Now that Boro have a gap of 8 points to Ipswich (L), 11 to Leicester (W) and 12 to Southampton (L), it puts a new slant on the league, because those are the sides who have the kind of squad that could put a run together to unseat second place.
Yes, by semi-conscious omission, I’m ruling out 3rd-placed Preston. They fashioned a two-goal lead over Oxford in a game that wasn’t level on chances – because Oxford out-shot them three to one, with 16 of their 24 efforts coming from inside the box. Yellows pulled one goal back, but couldn’t find a leveller. Paul Heckingbottom is doing a grand old job, but I don’t see PNE improving on their 1.67 points per game over the long term in order to challenge the top two.
And then there’s Millwall. While they continue to drop points in more games than they win, they’ll keep ruling themselves out. This time, Hull beat them 3-1 with arguably their best performance of the season. Inside 15 minutes, they showed lethal counter-attacks and lethal crossing from both sides, producing the tap-in opportunities that Kyle Joseph could only dream about… although the same can’t be said of his father, apparently.
Southampton lost under Tonda Eckert for the second time. They missed a penalty and conceded from a clear handball, and maybe that rocked them, but at 2-1 down against Norwich with more than half an hour to play, Saints conjured one solitary effort from 20+ yards. It’ll be interesting to see how they respond to that in their next fixture – more on that below.
It’s all finely poised and it’s all about timing.
Today, we are still closer to the start than we are to the end. By New Year’s Day, we will be closer to the end than we are to the start. The MASSIVE games in between will decide whether 2026 brings a blistering race for 2nd and something more than a procession for top spot. So, stock up on Baileys, squirrel away the best Quality Street and nab the comfy chair…
Sat 20 Dec
Southampton vs Coventry — 12:30
Bristol City vs Middlesbrough — 15:00
Fri 26 Dec
Millwall vs Ipswich — 13:00
Mon 29 Dec
Coventry vs Ipswich — 18:00
Middlesbrough vs Hull — 19:45
Birmingham vs Southampton — 20:15
Sat 4 Jan
Birmingham vs Coventry — 12:00
Middlesbrough vs Southampton — 15:00
League One
Sam Parry
Right. Shall we dial it down a bit?
Erm, no…
Cardiff 4–3 Doncaster Rovers was possibly my favourite game of the season so far. “Ding dong! Merrily on high. In Cardiff, goals were flowing.”
The first ding came via Owen Bailey, right place, right time, turning in a cut-back to put Donny ahead. Then it all clanged about. Omari Kellyman’s touch and volley was a dream. Thimothée Lo-Tutala failing to get a hand on Cian Ashford’s toe-poke was a nightmare. Charlie Crew slipped Brandon Hanlan through to make it 2-2 at the break.
Yousef Salech outmuscled his marker to put Cardiff ahead again on 50’. Harry Clifton equalised from the scraps of a set-piece to level things again. The final dong arrived in the 99th minute with another Lo-Tutala nightmare, parrying a shot straight into the path of Joel Bagan to win it at the death. Brutal on Donny. Wild scenes in Cardiff.
And maybe let’s dial it up again. Did we see the best performance by an individual player so far this season, as Barnsley recovered from going behind twice to beat Leyton Orient 3-2?
The story was Reyes Cleary. Fresh from his NTT20 Pod bow, the Young Player of the Month scored the opener with a deflected volley, led the game for touches in the box, smashed the post after outmuscling his marker and added two assists. One was a first-time volley across goal; the other came from chasing a lost cause and punishing hesitant defending to tee up the winner. Long before that, he’d also put a cross on a plate that should have been converted. Signing of the season in the EFL? I think so.
Elsewhere, the biggest clash among the chasing pack saw Stevenage win 3-1 at Stockport. Coming in, Stevenage’s goals column had read either zero or one in seven straight games, though that was also true of their opponents, resulting in W1 D3 L3. Would it be tight? Sort of…
Both sides passed up early chances before Chem Campbell rolled his man and smashed home. Stevenage then did what they haven’t always done this season and scored at exactly the right times, doubling their lead on 53’ and then hitting back within 10 seconds of Kyle Wootton’s reply, thanks to an undercooked backward header from County’s Ethan Pye.
Stockport are missing Ollie Norwood badly. They’ve won just once in his absence. There is room for optimism, though: he’s due back soon and cup fixtures have limited the damage.
And finally, Double Desmonds. Blackpool showed some backbone by coming from two down to draw 2-2 with Lincoln at Bloomfield Road, Ashley Fletcher levelling late. Equally significant was Port Vale ending their goal drought by scoring against Luton; unfortunately for them, they were pegged back twice. Another 2-2.
Nine points separates 7th from 23rd – what a league, man.
League Two
Matt Watts
It was ten (league defeats in a row) and out for Darrell Clarke, whose second coming at Bristol Rovers didn’t go as anyone had hoped. Clarke was sacked after Rovers’ 3-0 defeat to Swindon – managed, of course, by former Gashead Ian Holloway. Swindon were three up after 33 minutes thanks to goals from Joe Snowdon, Ollie Clarke (another former Gashead) and Aaron Drinan, before Kacper Lopata’s red card on 36’ made matters worse for the home side. The Robins didn’t punish them in the second half; in fact, Drinan evened up the numbers with a second yellow card.
Swindon’s day was made all the better by Walsall’s 1-1 draw at home to Shrewsbury. Daniel Kanu scored his seventh goal in eight games in all competitions, but a scruffy equaliser from Tom Anderson means that Swindon and Notts County, who beat Grimsby 2-0 for a third win in succession, are now just two points behind the table-topping Saddlers.
One point back from Swindon and Notts, you’ll find Bromley, who went to Accrington and won 1-0. If Michael Cheek and Nicke Kabamba don’t get you, Omar Sowunmi or Deji Elewere will, and it was the latter who duly nodded home the winner in the 89th minute. Since the start of November, no team has won more points in the fourth tier than Andy Woodman’s Ravens.
The game of the day in League Two came at the Peninsula Stadium as, once again, Salford came from behind to win a seven-goal thriller at home. Karl Robinson’s Ammies were 3-1 down to Colchester before an Adebola Oluwo header, a Fabio Borini penalty and a Luke Garbutt piledriver turned the game on its head.
While we’re on comebacks, managerless Barrow came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Gillingham, who’ve now drawn their last five fixtures. A second-half brace from Josh Gordon was just reward for the hardy travelling faithful.
At the foot of the table, Harrogate moved out of the bottom two at Bristol Rovers’ expense thanks to Conor McAleny’s 80th-minute penalty earning the Sulphurites a point at Cheltenham. Newport failed to build on their hard-earned point at Crewe, falling to a 2-0 home defeat to Fleetwood.
🎦 Our Top 5 clips from the EFL weekend
He’s going to need a trademark — Cohen Bramall with another freekick
Sullay Kaikai waves bye-bye to a curling ball into the top right corner
Swindon’s Joe Snowdon with a low-trajectory laser
Chem Chem Cher-ee — Chem Cambell spins and smashes home
‘Keeper assist klaxon — Boro’s Sol Brynn finds Morgan Whittaker
Oh, and if you have 11 minutes to watch Reyes Cleary for Barnsley, then you really should drink it in
📊 Your Monday morning cheat sheet
🎯 One shot, one kill — With his first shot of the season (13 apps), Ben Pearson scored his first goal since October 2019.
😞 Double figure defeats — Bristol Rovers are the first team since Notts County 2016-17 to lose ten League Two games in a row.
⛽ Gas 4eva — Well over 800 games into his managerial career, Saturday was the first time Ian Holloway has managed against boyhood club Bristol Rovers. He made 476 appearances as a Gas player (1981–1985, 1987–1991 & 1996–1999) and oversaw 249 matches as manager (1996–2001).
🧪 The Science of War — There have been 12 instances of a player being fouled 6 times or more this season in the Championship. Leo Scienza is the only player on the list three times.
🔪 Still Fab — Fabio Borini’s first league goal for Salford comes 14 years and 8 months after his first EFL goal, for Swansea in March 2011.
🐤 Young Canaries — Today’s Norwich City starting XI contained seven players under the age of 23 for the first time in 15 years, and only the second time in their 1,258 games this century. Credit @NCFCNumbers on X.
🐔 Cosy Coop — No side in England’s top four tiers has won more home league games in 2025 than Bradford City (17).
🤝 Not Winning ‘Em — Gillingham drew 2-2 against Barrow in what was their fifth consecutive League Two draw. It was the Gills’ 22nd league draw in 2025, the most of any EFL side.
🤪 Hero To Zero — There have been two occasions of a player both scoring and being sent off in a League Two match this season, with both cases being Swindon players (Finley Munroe v Chesterfield in November, Aaron Drinan v Bristol Rovers).
SkyBet Championship
Birmingham 1-1 Charlton
Coventry 1-0 Bristol City
Leicester 3-1 Ipswich
Middlesbrough 3-1 QPR
Millwall 1-3 Hull
Norwich 2-1 Southampton
Oxford 1-2 Preston
Portsmouth 2-1 Blackburn
Stoke 2-1 Swansea
West Brom 2-0 Sheffield United
Wrexham 2-2 Watford
Sky Bet League One
AFC Wimbledon 0-0 Mansfield
Barnsley 3-2 Leyton Orient
Blackpool 2-2 Lincoln
Bolton 2-1 Exeter
Bradford 2-0 Reading
Burton Albion 0-0 Wycombe
Cardiff 4-3 Doncaster
Huddersfield 1-1 Wigan
Luton 2-2 Port Vale
Peterborough 2-1 Northampton
Plymouth 1-0 Rotherham
Stockport 1-3 Stevenage
Sky Bet League Two
Accrington Stanley 0-1 Bromley
Bristol Rovers 0-3 Swindon
Cheltenham 1-1 Harrogate
Chesterfield 3-1 Barnet
Crawley 2-2 Oldham
Gillingham 2-2 Barrow
Grimsby 0-2 Notts County
MK Dons 1-1 Cambridge
Newport 0-2 Fleetwood
Salford 4-3 Colchester
Tranmere 1-4 Crewe
Walsall 1-1 Shrewsbury
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