Weekend Preview is our new regular feature. Huw Davies guides you through the EFL weekend ahead, with the games, players, stories and statistical oddities worth knowing about before kick-off.
Second chances…
Second league fixture. Second chance to get it right.
Failing to win either of your first two games doesn’t instil panic in a fanbase – at least, it shouldn’t – but it is enough to dampen the high spirits of a new season’s start. Those kernels of doubt re-emerge. Some even disregard all scientific advice and look directly at the league table; Sky Sports commentator Gary Taphouse dramatically declared that Watford’s curtain-raising win over Southampton put Saints “seven points off the lead”. TIME IS RUNNING OUT.
It’s OK. It’s all going to be OK. This weekend, initial errors in defensive shape will have been eradicated in training. Team-mates will begin to recognise each other’s rhythm. Crawley, you probably won’t even have two players sent off this time. Every team that played away on opening weekend is now at home, and vice versa, giving that subtly different demographic of supporters the feeling of a fresh start. Right?
As for those teams who won or otherwise impressed in their first showing, this is a chance to show that’s just what they do now. They laid down their marker. Win again and they can point at it as if to say, “There it is, look – still there.”
Which brings us to our Championship headliner at Saturday lunchtime…
Millwall started as they mean to go on. Norwich did not. But while the hosts have three points on their fellow promotion hopefuls, Norwich may have a slight psychological edge.
In April, Alex Neil welcomed his old side to The Den just as Millwall had broken into the top two for the first time all season. It was Easter Monday, only six matches remained, and their timing appeared perfect. However, Norwich’s comic timing was perfect, as they won 2-1 with the nonchalance of an ex-wife whispering into the new model’s ear, “You know he went up straightaway with me…” Coming three days after their win at promotion rivals Middlesbrough, Millwall’s seventh home defeat of 2025/26 was the hardest to take, in a campaign where they finished just one point behind 2nd.
The Lions pawed aside 10-man Bristol City last week. Norwich were pretty good themselves, but lost 2-1 to West Bromwich Albion thanks to the literal handiwork of Max O’Leary and Aune Heggebø (who has, remarkably, been banned for two games for having “successfully deceived a Match Official by handling the ball in a direct successful attempt to score a goal”). The Canaries could find themselves unexpectedly bottom on Sunday, or they could haunt Alex Neil once again.
The theme in the 3pm kick-offs is: ‘If you’re that good, do it again’. Watford go to Wrexham with the intention of proving their victory over Southampton was no fluke. Swansea know that beating Sheffield United would yield greater kudos than beating Stoke (some offence, Stoke). QPR host Bolton after both won their first fixture, giving the R’s a chance to kick off a season with back-to-back wins for the first time in a decade. Don’t tell them that, for God’s sake, you know what’ll happen.
Cardiff travel to Derby with, or without, four injured centre-backs. If Calum Chambers is ruled unfit, we could see 15-/16-year-old* Noah Anyadike starting a Championship fixture, having been an unused substitute on Monday. That is very young for a centre-half.
On Super Sunday, West Bromwich Albion and Burnley provide a quietly intriguing midday undercard to the Premier League’s noisy return. Both sides looked impressive but open on opening day, so get to the pub early.
*The internet isn’t sure if he’s 15 or 16, and I feel uncomfortable Googling it too often.
Two games fascinate me, at different ends of the hype spectrum.
MK Dons v Huddersfield is the second instalment in MK’s summer blockbuster trilogy: Oxford (A), Huddersfield (H) and Leicester (H), after trailers in the form of a League Cup game at Norwich. It’s also a big test for Martin Drury.
Huddersfield strolled past Wimbledon, winning 3-0 despite playing with 10 men for an hour – but MK away is a different beast, notwithstanding a lack of ‘Welcome to the Hell’ banners. One potential avenue to victory could be the ex-Excelsior duo of Ilias Bronkhorst and Derensili Sanches Fernandes. If they can overwhelm wing-back Cohen Bramall down MK’s left, that will drag big Charlie Goode away from his home in the centre of defence.
Bromley v Cambridge probably won’t get a Soccer Saturday mention outside of any goals, but it’s an interesting clash. Both just won promotion, Cambridge with better performance data (including a mere 33 goals conceded) but Bromley as champions. Both have hopes of climbing under the radar. Both won last week. They appear evenly matched. Yet there’s a reason the bookies favour Cambridge, and part of it is Andy Woodman’s side allowing Barnsley to have 58 – fifty-eight – touches in the Bromley box last week. Still, home advantage, momentum and belief can take you a long way.
Before all of that, the early kick-off treats us to a Yorkshire derby (of sorts) in Doncaster Rovers v Barnsley, to follow the Yorkshire derby (of sorts) between Sheffield Wednesday and Bradford City on Thursday night, which the Bantams won 1-0. Donny and Barnsley both lost tight games last week, which shouldn’t discourage them but may raise supporters’ pre-match nerves a tickle.
Swindon v Cheltenham catches my eye, as happy Robins travel to meet mardy Robins. Cheltenham weren’t great in their 2-1 win over Rotherham but in match-winner Jake Evans (18 years old today!) they have a serious talent on loan from Leicester and in Steve Cotterill, 62, they have a manager they love and trust.
Ian Holloway doesn’t have the exact same relationship with Swindon supporters. Having ended last season by dropping out of the play-off places with a single point from their final four games, his side started this one with a cup defeat and a 0-0 draw at Northampton in which they were comfortably second-best, as four shots with none on target would tend to suggest. They can’t lose this. They mustn’t lose this.
Rochdale and Crawley looked equally ropey on opening day, having three men sent off between them. The two clubs meet at the Crown Oil Area (née Spotland) to decide who can get over it the fastest.
The sensible money is on Rochdale, because Crawley aren’t sensible, but neither am I and so I wonder if the stylistic teething problems that Ian Watson is suffering at Dale might go on a little longer. In the 3-0 defeat to Newport they were, like Craig Burley after a Chelsea training session, alarmingly toothless. Coming away pointless from opening matches against the two relegation favourites would not be ideal.
Elsewhere in League Two, Colchester must improve when Oldham come to town, while Walsall v Grimsby should be fun. And, as Peter Cklamovski takes a subdued Salford to a chastened Chesterfield, will Paul Cook the Cklam or end up in hot water himself?
I think I’d better leave those to Ali in future.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Sat 22/08
12:30 — Birmingham v Bristol City
12:30 — Lincoln v Portsmouth
12:30 — Millwall v Norwich
15:00 — Blackburn v Middlesbrough
15:00 — Derby v Cardiff
15:00 — Preston v Wolves
15:00 — QPR v Bolton
15:00 — Southampton v Stoke
15:00 — Swansea v Sheffield Utd
15:00 — West Ham v Charlton
15:00 — Wrexham v Watford
Sun 23/08
12:00 — West Brom v Burnley
LEAGUE ONE
Thu 20/08
20:00 — Sheffield Wed 0-1 Bradford
Sat 22/08
12:30 — Doncaster v Barnsley
12:30 — Luton v Notts County
12:30 — AFC Wimbledon v Reading
15:00 — Bromley v Cambridge
15:00 — Leicester v Burton Albion
15:00 — MK Dons v Huddersfield
15:00 — Peterborough v Mansfield
15:00 — Stevenage v Oxford
15:00 — Stockport v Blackpool
15:00 — Wigan v Leyton Orient
15:00 — Wycombe v Plymouth
LEAGUE TWO
Sat 22/08
12:30 — Bristol Rovers v Newport
12:30 — Salford v Chesterfield
12:30 — Walsall v Grimsby
15:00 — Colchester v Oldham
15:00 — Crewe v Northampton
15:00 — Exeter v Accrington
15:00 — Fleetwood v Gillingham
15:00 — Port Vale v Tranmere
15:00 — Rochdale v Crawley
15:00 — Rotherham v York
15:00 — Shrewsbury v Barnet
15:00 — Swindon v Cheltenham
Last week, ICYMI mentioned Sheffield United preparing to bid up to £10m for Leicester defender Harry Souttar. This week, it’s been reported that the previous company belonging to Sheffield United’s owners still owes the club’s former owner £35m, and they’ve just chosen not to contest the liquidation of that company, which creates the potential for a 12-point deduction. The two stories are unrelated.
Coincidentally, Wolves have confirmed they will not be re-introducing The Liquidator before matches at Molineux, because the song has “historically prompted mass offensive chanting”. It hasn’t been played for nearly 25 years, but some fans want that decision reversed, partly because rivals West Bromwich Albion will be more than happy to play it when Wolves go to The Hawthorns. Salt, meet wound.
In the midweek EFL Trophy games, Barnet thrashed Arsenal’s U21s 5-1 while Stockport beat Everton’s kids 6-3 and started Arttu Hoskonen, giving their fans a first sighting of the defender since he joined the club in July 2025. Injuries have taken Hoskonen so far out of the limelight that you’d be forgiven for forgetting he’s a Finland international, but despite those injuries, he’s no’ Finnish, he’s only 29.
Finally, there are concerns among prematurely aged football writers that all managers in the third and fourth tiers now dress for matches as if they’re going to the pub.
