Words: Ali Maxwell
On Final Day, things get sorted. Promotions are secured, relegations suffered and the Play-Off quad for each division is set in stone. But not without a few hours of drama. No spoilers in this blurb, so go ahead and enjoy the recap, share it with a pal, and have a great week ahead of Play-Off Football - the greatest invention in sport.
Fivelights
1 - The Inexplicable Fall of Millwall - What. A. Game
2 - Sunderland smash down the Play-Off door with great goals
3 - Sam Smith van Bastens Cambridge to survival
4 - Lewis Wing from way downtown!
5 - Cobblers (P)
Don’t forget, we have every highlight of every game in every EFL league down below.
The Championship
Wow! At least one game was going to feel like pure, uncut Championship. But given Millwall’s constantly impressive shape, strength, and out of possession structure, I didn’t expect it to be this one.
The equation was simple for both. Millwall had to win to guarantee themselves a place in the play-offs. Blackburn had to win to give themselves hope of making it. Millwall flew out the traps: a Watmore goal either side of a Wharton equaliser (2-1). Burke made it 3-1, and Millwall fans must’ve been thinking about first legs and Wembley arches. This was meant to be.
But Blackburn weren’t finished. Rankin-Costello gave them a lifeline. They played with verve, creativity, constant movement and, even with results elsewhere making their own Play-Off tilt somewhat futile, incredible motivation. A Brereton-Diaz double was enough to take the win. A fine finish to his Rovers career, but ultimately not enough to put Rovers in the top six—goal difference the margin of error. And when the margins are this fine - for both clubs - the pain of missing out is so so cruel. Watching the full-time scenes felt like rubbernecking a car accident.
This was 0-0 at halftime. Millwall had a two-goal lead at home, and had the final whistle blown on 45’, then Sunderland would have finished narrowly outside the play-offs. How time changes everything… Sunderland blitzed Preston in the second period, with brilliant goals from brilliant players: Diallo, Pritchard and Clarke. They finished with a back three of Hume (natural position: RB), O’Nien (natural position: ?) and Anderson (18 league minutes this season).
This shouldn’t be working, but Mowbray is playing a blinder. After winning the League One Play-Offs last season, Sunderland will take on Luton Town in the Championship Play-Offs.
Cov looked more dangerous, but Boro pulled it back. A point enough to cement Coventry’s place in the play-offs; Boro already quick-dried into fourth. We’ll be seeing this one again soon… twice! And it should be a fantastic Play-Off match-up.
Same old Burnley! Reaching 101 points, with a Twine free-kick special thrown in for good measure. It will be fantastic if Twine scores a Premier League free-kick next season, having done so in League Two (20/21), League One (21/22) and the Championship (22/23). Vincent Kompany’s new deal is fantastic news for the club. The future is so rosy that it almost looks Claret, if you squint.
🎦 Birmingham 1-2 Sheffield Utd
Same old Blades! A win here gets them to 91 points, two more than Chris Wilder’s 18/19 Sheffield United achieved. Paul Heckingbottom, often placed in Wilder’s shadow (“He just went back to the same tactics”), will be quietly pleased about that.
Lots of legs rested for Luton ahead of the Play-Offs. 14 unbeaten, play-offs up next.
Swansea’s late-season form enough to battle back from 1-2 down to beat an unlikely play-off hopeful in West Brom. The two sides have ended up on the same points.
QPR’s resumé for 2022/23 ended with survival, and quite a lot of wreckage left behind. No surprise Bristol City took full advantage against an utterly beachy team.
Miserable end to the season for Norwich. Miserable season for both.
Most likely Chris Wilder’s final game in charge of Watford, and he signs off with a win. Miserable season for both.
This might have been a shoot-out for survival. It wasn’t. Warnock wins again.
Move on. Wigan Athletic’s owners: Get your act together.
League One
🎦 Port Vale 1-3 Plymouth - Plymouth Argyle are (C)hampions of League One.
Argyle needed a win to secure the League One title. An inauspicious start. A glorious defence-splitting pass on three minutes put Vale youngster James Plant through one-on-one and he obliged. Plymouth didn’t buckle but bounced back—of course they did. Two goals in four minutes put them ahead before half time, with Finn Azaz making sure with a brilliant finish from the edge of the penalty box. The 3-1 win from behind sums them up perfectly.
Plymouth Argyle. 101 points. Champions.
Ipswich failed to apply the pressure. They hit triple-figure goals, but missed out on triple-figure points. Fleetwood weren’t interested in rolling over, with Jack Marriott at the double. Ipswich found an equaliser, but it was only enough for a draw, and second spot.
🎦 Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Derby
Huge game that turned in the 41st minute. A red card for Curtis Davies and the resulting Michael Smith penalty was enough for Wednesday. The reaction to the incident was strong, and it’s understandable that County fans feel hard done by. However, the laws of the game are fairly clear and explain why the referee came to the decision: “Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offender is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.) the offending player must be sent off.”
Derby couldn’t find an equaliser, and Wednesday never looked complacent about giving one away. The defeat meant that Derby’s Play-Off prospects relied on Peterborough failing to win at Oakwell…
But Posh got the job done! They will take on Sheffield Wednesday in the Play-Offs. A perfect start saw Clarke-Harris score on 6’, a goal that sees him share the Golden Boot with Conor Chaplin. Posh survived some Barnsley pressure before Jack Taylor scored the all-important second goal. Since Darren Ferguson took charge, Peterborough picked up 42 points from 22 games, seven points more than Derby, and they’ve snuck in on Final Day, heading into the Play-Offs full of form and confidence.
Much of this played out like the no-consequence game that it was. Bolton, immovable in fifth, scored first. Bristol Rovers equalised. Bolton levelled when Daniel Nlundulu passed the ball into the back of the net from 20-yards, a lovely finish. Williams made it 3-1 before Marquis pulled one back (3-2) to make the last few minutes nervy than they might’ve been.
🎦 Burton Albion 0-0 MK Dons [MK Dons relegated]
We said in The Six Fix that Burton weren’t done, relishing their role in the seasons of others after securing safety themselves*. That would prove the case here. Burton held firm in the face of an MK Dons side that had 31 shots on goal. MK Dons missed so many opportunities that it’s hard not to think the footballing Gods were punishing them for something or other. A win would’ve kept MK in the division, but it wasn’t to be.
🎦 Exeter 3-2 Morecambe [Morecambe relegated]
Given what happened in Burton, a win would’ve kept Morecambe up. And how many would bet against Derek Adams repeating his survival magic with Morecambe? Not many. A Cole Stockton double might’ve been enough on another day. But Jay Stansfield scored a hattrick in what might well be his final game for the Grecians, on loan from Fulham. The Stansfield story ends on a remarkable note for this season, with many more brilliant chapters to come.
🎦 Cambridge Utd 2-0 Forest Green
*Cambridge lost in mid-week to Burton, and that result meant survival was out of their hands. All they could do here was win and hope results elsewhere went their way. They did their bit with two goals in the first half. Dunk bundling in after a corner, and Smith channeling his inner van Basten with a magnificently controlled weaker-foot volley. It must’ve been tense in that second half, waiting and wondering. Cambridge might’ve dispensed with Mark Bonner’s services when they looked dead and buried a month or so ago—a testament to their faith that they stuck with him. Another year in League One.
🎦 Oxford Utd 1-2 Accrington Stanley [Accrington Stanley relegated]
A comeback win for Accies not enough, the maths made it practically impossible pre-match. Oxford had done what was needed in the previous matches.
Charlton had never beaten Cheltenham. It looked like they might in this end-of-season entertainer. But Alfie May in May had his say — a great way to sign off a 20-goal season.
Dead rubber “Desmond” played out amongst two sides who will look back on this campaign and think, What If? Seven and eight points off the play-off places, respectively. Lewis Wing’s goal from half-way line a real Final Day highlight.
The goal came by virtue of…erm… Matty Virtue. Two teams securing top-half finishes when many predicted them to be struggling at the wrong end. But Steve Cotterill’s post match interview suggests he’s feeling the pressure in the midst of some big restructuring at Shrews.
League Two
🎦 Tranmere 0-1 Northampton [Northampton Town are promoted]
Stop all the clocks, banish all the memories of this day a year ago. Cobblers do the business away from home to secure promotion. Richly deserved.
The result was decided by a simply sensational goal from Sam Hoskins, League Two’s Player of the Season, scorer of 22 goals (35% of Northampton’s total). Northampton, missing their customary 10+ players through injury, rode out some nervy moments to secure a promotion they feel they deserved last season. Jon Brady has been an incredible leader of this football club, and his post-match interview was wonderful, highly-emotional, and further evidence.
A result broadly in the interest of all parties—Orient’s in full-flow; Bradford with a chance to celebrate in the play-offs.
Stevenage in “job-done” mode, still did the job to finish on 85 points.
Stockport had to win to have a sniff of third place; they didn’t. They found Pools keeper Ben Killip in once-in-a-lifetime form, but still looked a little laboured going forward. They’ll take on Salford City in a mouth-watering Play-Off tie.
A draw for Carlisle to make the final day comfortable. They’ll take on Bradford City in the Play-Off Semi Finals.
It wasn’t comfortable for Salford, who diced with the prospect of falling out of the play-offs. Not an impressive final day performance, and they have to count themselves very lucky. They cling onto 7th despite defeat…
Because Stags took three points from Colchester, but only two goals. And they needed three. A single goal away from making the play-offs. Just. One. Goal. A painful end to the season but there can be few complaints, they’ve just not quite been good enough, and this sums it up.
Two Omar Bogle goals to nick 4th in the Top Scorer charts. Crewe achieve the accolade of Highest Finishing League One Relegated Teams From 2021/22 - with a 13th placed finish.
Because Doncaster (18th) have been simply miserable.
And Wimbledon (21st) have been even worse.
Mike Flynn was unveiled as the new Swindon Town Manager at half-time. The fans seem pleased with his appointment, and it seems that he will be shaking things up a bit.
Rochdale’s last EFL game for the foreseeable ended in a draw.