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
As expected, Stoke were really poor. Is there any way they avoid relegation this year?