EFL WEEKEND NOTES: So, you're telling me there's a chance?
Fivelights, top-lines plus reaction to EFL Awards + Blades in the FA Cup
Hello! Helluva weekend in the EFL, as they tend to be at this stage. We’ve got you covered with the top lines and the best highlights. We were at the EFL Awards on Sunday night... and a bit of Monday morning, too! So forgive us if we’ve not put together detailed reaction just yet, but make sure you listen to this afternoon’s podcast, which no doubt will be highly professional. And catch the top-lines here.
And shoutout Sheffield United: a hearty display at Wembley in the FA Cup Semi Final. The Blades and Grimsby Town have been main characters in this year’s iteration of the famous competition. And I’d rather have Iliman Ndiaye over Mahrez any day! If Sheff Utd reach the top two, while reaching an FA Cup Semi-Final, it truly is a 10/10 campaign. We hope that Blades fans enjoyed their day. One more win needed…
We’re still not able to embed Twitter videos - highly frustrating - but we’ve shared a few crackers over on our Twitter account.
Words: Ali Maxwell
Fivelights
Watch the five must-see highlights from this weekend’s slate:
1 - Smash & Grab — play this game 1,000 times and QPR only win about five. The beauty of a low-scoring sport!
2 - Hedges Bets & Loses — the ending of PNE v Rovers is EFL in its purest form.
3 - Take Stock — two goals, an assist and a goal-line clearance. Heroic.
4 - Wal & Sal — Salford’s away games guarantee drama.
5 - Telford’s Touch — Huge significance & the best first touch ever seen in League Two.
Don’t forget, we have every highlight of every game in every EFL league down below.
Championship
The play-off race looks more and more like the Roll-A-Ball Donkey Derby every single week; 4pts between 5th & 12th
Two wins for the two teams at the bottom give them a sniff of the big H
And after a horrific slide, QPR faced the league’s best team and……
🎦 Burnley 1-2 QPR - This is what makes football so good.
Burnley: the only team in the EFL unbeaten at home. If they win this game, they win the title. Queens Park Rangers? 14 points in their last 27 games. Just two wins.
At half-time, Burnley had had 86% possession, 17 shots to QPR’s 1. 1.75xG generated. But a combination of Rob Dickie, Seny Dieng and the crossbar kept them at bay. Either side of Manuel Benson’s howitzer, QPR nicked goals from a long throw and a corner, and saw it out, somehow! It should be enough to keep them up. With Luton and Middlesbrough going head to head tonight at 8pm, and Sheff Utd on FA Cup Duty, the main stories come beneath the top four.
🎦 Coventry 2-1 Reading - highly significant result, given the results of the teams around them. Gus Hamer refusing to let Reading nick a point. His dynamism is carrying Coventry into the play-offs at the minute.
🎦 West Brom 1-2 Sunderland - a penalty for West Brom just before half time felt significant to both sides’ play-off dreams. John Swift scored it, and Corberan teams don’t throw away leads, right? Wrong. Dennis Cirkin scored the sort of header that makes heading the ball look easy. That was 1-1. And then for 1-2, Cirkin ended a lovely, intricate Sunderland move on 84 minutes for a big, big win.
🎦 Wigan 2-1 Millwall - A deserved Wigan win against a wobbly Millwall, talented youngster Thelo Aasgaard with the winner. Wigan Athletic are not going down with a whimper, but it’s next to impossible for them to survive. Millwall are stumbling hard, at the wrong time.
🎦 Preston 1-1 Blackburn - An absorbing contest even at 0-0, which got the conclusion the neutrals deserved. Penny for Ryan Hedges’ thoughts... Rovers have conceded stoppage time equalisers in consecutive games, from a goalkeeper goal and an own goal.
🎦 Norwich 0-3 Swansea - Former Norwich City darling Russell Martin arrived with his in-form End Of Season Swans and dispatched these timid Canaries. Swansea are flying up the home straight, but they’re three points off the play-offs with five teams between themselves and 6th: will the race be one furlong too short for them?
🎦 Birmingham 0-1 Blackpool - By all accounts a terrible game, but Poveda’s winner keeps Blackpool alive, for now.
🎦 Bristol City 2-1 Rotherham - Lots of penalty shouts, some given some not. And a late Weimann winner. Can we talk about Nigel Pearson and his staff all wearing the same jumper that made them look like a group of off-duty Hells Angels?
🎦 Hull 1-0 Watford - One penalty given to Hull and scored by Tufan. One penalty not given to Watford. The Hornets are now in the bottom half.
🎦 Cardiff 1-1 Stoke - Sory Kaba kept up his goalscoring form BUT his penalty, saved brilliantly by Bonham, would surely made have Cardiff safe on 48pts. Still work to do.
League One
Little change in automatic and play-off battles as the top 6 all win
Vale stop the rot and find the win they’ve been waiting for; another year in L1
Accy adrift; Derek Adams pulling timely rabbits out of Morecambe’s hat
🎦 Plymouth 3-1 Cambridge Utd - Vintage Argyle. Free-flowing attacking football kept any nerves at bay, even after Smith equalised for Cambridge. The third goal was Argyle at their best - Mumba and Ennis combining. Two wins needed, two home games coming up this week against bottom half opposition.
🎦 Peterborough 0-3 Ipswich - Vintage Ipswich. Three excellent goals scored. Dominance exerted for the most part, though Walton made a few smart saves. Two wins needed, with a mouth-watering fixture to come on Tuesday at Oakwell.
🎦 Sheff Wed 2-1 Exeter - Not vintage Wednesday, but they got the job done, and their response to going behind was worthy of the win. It’s out of their hands, but if they can squeeze off two wins in the next two weekends, who knows…
🎦 Barnsley 2-0 Oxford Utd - Nine home wins in a row for this South Yorkshire juggernaut. Slobodan Tedic with his 3rd and 4th of the season, he could be an interesting late-bloomer if they head into the Play-Offs. Beat Ipswich on Tuesday and everything is on the table!
🎦 Bolton 1-0 Shrewsbury - The performance wasn’t the prettiest, but Josh Sheehan’s winner was a beauty. Beat Accrington at home in midweek and they’re in the Play-Off box seat.
🎦 Derby 1-0 Burton Albion - Burton hit the post, and it needed a Didzy penalty, but Derby got the job done to buy themselves a two point gap over Posh in the battle for the last two Play-Off spots.
🎦 Portsmouth 1-0 Accrington Stanley - A huge chance missed at the end by Aaron Pressley, and John Coleman looked dejected post-game. But with Cambridge and Oxford still to play (after a trip to Bolton on Tuesday), there is still a chance for Accrington.
🎦 Wycombe 0-2 Lincoln City - Contains a goal from inside the scorer’s own half! The Imps are having a carefree end to the season, and ended Wycombe’s slim hopes of a Play-Off spot.
🎦 Port Vale 2-0 Bristol Rovers - The post-Darrell Clarke era started with a win against his former club, with Ellis Harrison, also once of the Gas parish, the star man.
🎦 Charlton 2-3 Morecambe - Result of the weekend in League One. And surely the most heroic individual performance from Cole Stockton. The last week or two for Morecambe has been the epitome of the Dumb & Dumber "so you're telling me there's a chance" line.
🎦 Cheltenham 3-1 Forest Green - Cheltenham win El Glosico thanks to their absolute handful of a front two, Alfie May and Aidan Keena. Their safety is confirmed, a job well done by Wade Elliott and co.
🎦 Fleetwood Town 1-0 MK Dons - Did MK use up their energy during that little burst in March & April? Do they have enough points to stay up even if they don’t win again? Both difficult questions to answer!
League Two
Rochdale relegated; desperate Hartlepool need a lifeguard
Leyton Orient are champs; not long now for Northampton
The race for third is still on with just a point between 3rd-5th.
🎦 Leyton Orient 2-0 Crewe - Orient are coronated as Champions with a helping hand from some calamitous Crewe defending. There’s little to add to the Ode To Orient from Friday’s weekend preview. No doubt that Richie Wellens’ side have been League Two’s best this season, and deserves a few weeks of celebration while those below them scrap it out.
🎦 Northampton 3-1 Harrogate Town - It’s a Cobblers team full of intangibles - character, spirit, determination, grit - and they showed it again having gone behind early. Far from getting nervy, they scored three in response, each better than the one before: Pinnock, Hoskins and Bowie combining brilliantly. One more win needed to banish the demons from last season.
🎦 Mansfield 1-0 Stevenage - This was a crucial game, and there was a deserved winner. Mansfield summoned one of their strong, reliable performances and got ahead early. The big surprise was how comfortable it was from that point. Stevenage with a strong position but weak performances.
🎦 Stockport 1-0 Rochdale - Stockport’s strength in depth up front showed, with January addition Olaofe stepping up in Kyle Wootton’s absence. This result means that Rochdale are relegated to the National League after 102 years in the Football League. Pre-season we worried about a lack of strong leadership off the pitch, a concerning spiral at the end of the 21/22 season and the loss of key players seemingly without dependable replacements. The season started poorly, and it was never really dragged back. Lots of work to be done to get themselves back to this level - the board appear up for the challenge and are not hiding away, at least.
🎦 Barrow 0-1 Carlisle - The Cumbrians have earned the right to be nicknamed The Cumbrians by doing the double over Barrow, edging a gritty derby with a great goalmouth scramble goal. They are grinding right now, with only 12 total goals in their last 10 games, 1.2 per game. 7 for them, 5 against.
🎦 Bradford 2-2 Gillingham - BRADFORD, WHY CAN YOU NOT QUITE CONVINCE AT VALLEY PARADE? Hawkins with a late, late, late equaliser after Cook’s double had them ahead.
🎦 Walsall 2-3 Salford - Salford City’s away games are must-watch. Their last five away games have seen 11 goals be scored after the 80th minute: seven for them, and four for the opposition. A deflected Matty Lund strike looped in to give them three precious points, but with Bradford and Mansfield having a game in hand, it’s still out of their hands.
🎦 Hartlepool 0-2 Crawley Town - It was a ginormous game. Hartlepool had the home advantage. But Crawley, unfazed, came strong out of the blocks and ended up winning it with comfort to all but relegate Hartlepool and guarantee their own survival. Six points and six goals between the teams now. Dom Telford plucking the ball out of the sky from Corey Addai’s 75-yard kick is surely one of the best first touches in League Two history. And the finish was never in doubt.
🎦 AFC Wimbledon 1-5 Swindon - Two teams ending the season poorly, but who is the more dysfunctional? We got our answer. Swindon making the most of Wimbledon calamity to rack up five fairly simple goals.
🎦 Colchester 4-1 Sutton Utd - ColU are enjoying themselves right now with Ben Garner adding some attacking vim and vigour. Youngsters Samson Tovide, Junior Tchamadeu, Noah Chilvers all getting fans off their seats, as well as Old Faithful John Akinde, who created one of the comedy moments of the season.
🎦 Doncaster 1-3 Newport County - Newport are finishing strong, but it’s not hard to beat Donny right now. Two of County’s goals coming direct from long throws doesn’t reflect very well on Doncaster’s players or their motivation levels. The last few months don’t reflect very well on the situation at the club.
🎦 Tranmere 2-0 Grimsby - Tranmere had very few shots but scored a penalty and a free kick. Grimsby have lots of shots and didn’t score any of them.
The EFL Awards
Championship
Player of the season: Chuba Akpom, Middlesbrough
Young Player of the Season: Alex Scott, Bristol City
Team of the Season:
Manager - Vincent Kompany, Burnley
Ben Wilson, Coventry City
Connor Roberts, Burnley
Anel Ahmedhodzic, Sheffield United
Tom Lockyer, Luton Town
Ian Maatsen, Burnley
Alex Scott, Bristol City
Josh Brownhill, Burnley
Nathan Tella, Burnley
Iliman Ndiaye, Sheffield United
Chuba Akpom, Middlesbrough
Viktor Gyokeres, Coventry City
League One Team of the Season
Player of the Season: Aaron Collins, Bristol Rovers
Young Player of the Season: Bali Mumba, Plymouth Argyle
Team of the Season:
Manager - Steven Schumacher, Plymouth Argyle
Michael Cooper, Plymouth Argyle
Bali Mumba, Plymouth Argyle
Leif Davis, Ipswich Town
Mads Andersen, Barnsley
Ricardo Santos, Bolton Wanderers
Barry Bannan, Sheffield Wednesday
Conor Hourihane, Derby County
Aaron Collins, Bristol Rovers
Jonson Clarke-Harris, Peterborough United
Conor Chaplin, Ipswich Town
Josh Windass, Sheffield Wednesday
League Two Team of the Season
Player of the Season: Sam Hoskins, Northampton Town
Young Player of the Season: Junior Tchamadeu, Colchester United
Team of the Season:
Manager - Richie Wellens, Leyton Orient
Lawrence Vigouroux, Leyton Orient
Junior Tchamadeu, Colchester United
Ibou Touray, Salford City
Carl Piergianni, Stevenage
Omar Beckles, Leyton Orient
Elliot Watt, Salford City
Owen Moxon, Carlisle United
Idris El Mizouni, Leyton Orient
Sam Hoskins, Northampton Town
Andy Cook, Bradford City
Mitch Pinnock, Northampton Town