Ipswich & Cambridge up; Exeter, Harrogate & Barrow down; Bromley champs, Hull & Stevenage in the play-offs... and Kamwa takes the spotlight
The final Weekend Notes of the 25/26 season.
Championship
⚽ SCORES
Blackburn 0-1 Leicester
Bristol City 2-0 Stoke
Derby 1-2 Sheffield Utd
Hull 2-1 Norwich
Ipswich 3-0 QPR
Millwall 2-0 Oxford
Portsmouth 1-1 Birmingham
Preston 1-3 Southampton
Sheffield Wed 2-1 West Brom
Swansea 3-1 Charlton
Watford 0-4 Coventry
Wrexham 2-2 Middlesbrough
✍️ BIG STORIES
Matt Watts
For the second time in three seasons, Ipswich have finished 2nd in the Championship. The Tractor Boys beat QPR 3-0 to make it three promotions in four seasons under Kieran McKenna. Town ended the intrigue surrounding the second automatic promotion spot, dashing the hopes of Millwall and Middlesbrough in the process, at approximately 12:40pm. In the opening ten minutes of their game, Ipswich had five shots, four on target and they scored twice through George Hirst and Jaden Philogene. Kasey McAteer added a third late on before yet another pitch invasion at Portman Road and yet more scenes of Ed Sheeran leading a celebratory singalong in the changing room. Ipswich’s class of 25/26 might not have set hearts racing like the class of 23/24, but some of that is by design, and the circumstances are very different. After relegation from the Premier League, a summer of squad churn and a season of expectation, Kieran McKenna can reflect on a job well done.
Millwall beat Oxford 2-0 to finish 3rd on 83 points - a single point behind Ipswich - thanks to a brace from Femi Azeez, who won’t be playing in the Championship next season, whatever happens over the weeks ahead. Alex Neil’s side will face Hull in the play-offs, after the Tigers came from behind to beat Norwich 2-1. Oli McBurnie’s brace, coupled with Wrexham’s 2-2 draw at home to Boro means that, despite being winless in six heading into final day and significantly out-performing their underlying numbers all season, Sergej Jakirović’s men still have a shot at promotion. Was McBurnie’s winner offside? Quite possibly, but the Tigers’ luck was in. As for Wrexham, despite a phenomenal free-kick from Josh Windass, their run of successive promotions will have to stop at back-to-back-to-back. The poor things.
Boro will take on Southampton in the other semi-final. Tonda Eckert’s charges beat Preston 3-1 to make it 14 wins (and no defeats) in their last 19 league games. The Saints really are marching into the post-season.
There was a time on Saturday afternoon when it looked like Derby might crash the play-off party. A tap-in from Sammie Szmodics gave the Rams the lead at home to Sheffield United and, with Hull and Wrexham either losing or drawing, Derby were 6th in the live table. However, second-half strikes from Tom Cannon and Sydie Peck saw the Blades come from behind to win 2-1. Thankfully for Derby, Oli McBurnie’s winner at the MKM Stadium meant that their somewhat feckless performance after the break wasn’t the reason why they missed out on a play-off berth. Nevertheless, like Wrexham, those of a Derby persuasion can point to the fact that their final position would have been good enough for a shot at the play-offs next season.
How about some news from the beach to finish? Champions Coventry signed off in style with a 4-0 victory over Watford, who have since parted company with Ed Still. An Ellis Simms hat-trick and a trademark Victor Torp banger from range took the Sky Blues to 95 points and 97 goals scored. Roy Hodgson won his final game in charge of Bristol City - and, potentially, the final game of his illustrious managerial career. The Robins beat Stoke 2-0 - in part due to Viktor Johansson’s blunder in the opening minute. The curse of the new contract video prank? Quite possibly. August Priske scored the equaliser for Birmingham in their 1-1 draw against Portsmouth at Fratton Park. Priske’s father, Brian, played for Pompey 20 years ago.
Last and by no means least, we need to talk about Sheffield Wednesday. After a long and tumultuous season, the Owls saved by far and away their best day of the 25/26 campaign for final day. Their new owner, David Storch, was introduced to the Hillsborough faithful pre-match. Using a countdown on the big screen, they revealed that Wednesday will start next season on 0 points, without a 15-point deduction. Speaking of zero points, Henrik Pedersen’s side beat West Brom 2-1 to secure their first home win of the season and finish a campaign where they were deducted 18 points on… 0 points!
📊 STATS
🔁 Straight back up — Ipswich are the 30th side to go straight back up to the Premier League after being relegated the previous season.
💪 Minute men — Alongside Cameron Burgess, Dara O’Shea was the only outfield player to play every minute of the Championship season. Remarkably, the Ipswich captain didn’t receive a single yellow card.
⚽️ Sky Blues strike — Coventry are just the fourth side to score 97+ goals in a single Championship season after Reading in 2005-06 (99), Bournemouth in 2014-15 (98) and Fulham in 2021-22 (106).
⛔️ Wallwall — No team kept more clean sheets in the Championship this season than Millwall (18), their most in a single season since 2017-18 (19).
😩 Pottered about — Since being relegated from the Premier League, Stoke have finished 16th, 15th, 14th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 17th.
📺 HIGHLIGHTS
🧮 LEAGUE TABLE
League One
⚽ SCORES
Barnsley 1-3 Stockport
Bolton 2-3 Luton
Exeter 1-2 Bradford
Leyton Orient 2-2 Burton Albion
Mansfield 5-4 Cardiff
Northampton 2-3 Plymouth Argyle
Peterborough 1-3 Doncaster
Port Vale 0-2 Lincoln
Reading 0-1 Blackpool
Stevenage 1-0 Wigan
Wimbledon 0-4 Huddersfield
Wycombe 3-2 Rotherham
✍️ BIG STORIES
Huw Davies
There were 47 goals in League One, very nearly four per game, but a 1-0 is the only place to start. Three points for Stevenage would render all other results irrelevant in the play-off battle, and in the end, they got over the line. Mostly.
There’s understandable debate about Dan Sweeney’s winner, after 91 minutes in which Wigan came closest to scoring when Harrison Bettoni’s shot hit the underside of the bar – although Sam Tickle also made a miraculous save at 0-0, and arguably did so again for the goal. It’s completely unreasonable to criticise the officials: there is no goal-line technology in League One and the incident is impossible to judge in real time, because we can’t even agree based on slo-mo, pause and alternative angles. But the facts are these:
All of the ball must be over all of the line.
There is no definitive angle showing it is or isn’t. This, below, is probably the best we can get – a screenshot taken at the exact moment the ball hits the goalkeeper and bounces out – though some Stevenage supporters prefer this angle.
Credit: EFL / Sky Sports Considering the position of the goalkeeper’s leg as it stops the ball at its furthest point towards/into the goal, and considering where his foot is placed in relation to that, and considering what we know about the size and shape of a football, it isn’t physically possible for all of the ball to have crossed all of the line.
That’s my reading, anyway, and if that is the case, then Luton can consider themselves unlucky. They’d come from behind to beat Bolton 3-2 in stoppage time of a thrilling encounter, and even had a penalty saved after that. It didn’t matter. It mattered for Bolton, though, who slipped carelessly to 5th after Steven Schumacher had expressly said they wanted to secure 3rd or 4th. Giving up seven big chances at home doesn’t bode well for their play-off hopes, either, even if they can look irresistible going forward.
There was more shuffling as Bradford climbed to 4th and Stockport to 3rd. They beat Barnsley 3-1, yet this viewer’s highlight was an astonishing Corey Addai save that promises more play-off shenanigans from the big fella (even if Adam Phillips did tap in the rebound on this occasion).
Plymouth narrowly missed out on the top six despite winning 3-2 from 2-0 down at Northampton, who were reduced to 10 men at 2-2. Brendan Wiredu’s winner could have been a moment of redemption after his Argyle career began with own goals, red cards and penalty concessions, but it wasn’t to be, largely because Argyle were still in the relegation zone on New Year’s Day; averaging more than two points per game across the subsequent half-season just wasn’t enough.
Michael Jacobs scored a peach for Cobblers but their defeat rounded off a miserable 2025/26 in which they were extraordinarily inept for a third of the campaign:
You may have noticed that Exeter aren’t in the first table. Losing 2-1 to Bradford on Saturday relegated them but the writing was on the wall before that – failing to have a single shot in the first half of a must-win match just added the final arrgghhhh.
Exeter had 39 points with 16 games remaining when Gary Caldwell left with their blessing to join Wigan on February 16th. The points tallies required for survival in the past five League One seasons were 47, 40, 45, 44 and 46. Those at the club wouldn’t have been so blasé as to say it, but two wins would surely be enough. They managed one. It took just 40 days and 40 nights for the Grecians to fall into the relegation zone, and there they stayed.
MEANWHILE…
Mansfield beat Cardiff 5-4, scoring inside two minutes, leading 3-0 after 30 and romping into the final five minutes 5-2 to the good. Louis Reed had a hand in creating four goals for a team having tremendous fun in the sun. Brian Barry-Murphy gave debuts to a couple more teenagers, with Paul Moreno becoming Cardiff’s youngest ever player in a league fixture, as the Bluebirds ended the season having scored more goals than runaway champions Lincoln, which is the real quiz. Lincoln were busy setting a third-tier record by going a 29th consecutive match unbeaten, with a 2-0 win at Port Vale. Show-offs.
Billy Sharp hit a hat-trick in his final Doncaster appearance, a 3-1 win over Peterborough, 21 years after scoring his first EFL treble for Rushden & Diamonds against a Boston United side managed by Steve Evans with Jason Lee in attack. Sharp had a fourth (rightly) disallowed that would’ve taken him to 300 career goals.
And we’ll leave it to Richie Wellens to sign off the regular League One season for 2025/26. This is the message he gave his Leyton Orient players after Exeter’s defeat saved them from relegation, one year on from being in the play-off final:
Don’t be celebrating with your family. Get off the pitch. It’s been an embarrassing season. Michael Duff said his [Wycombe] players had wasted 10 months of their lives – there are too many players in our dressing room that have wasted this season and wasted my time. I’ve had one year of my managing career wasted on them players.
📊 STATS
👴 Generational talent — Billy Sharp, has now scored an English Football League hat-trick in his teens, twenties, thirties and forties.
👶 Rambo IV — Paul Moreno (16y 111d) became Cardiff City’s youngest ever player in a league fixture, a few months after Rob Tankiewicz (16y 117d) and then Axel Donczew (15y 234d) became Cardiff’s youngest in any fixture, meaning that Aaron Ramsey’s record from 2007 has been surpassed three times in a single season.
☁️ Cloud nine — With nine goals, Mansfield 5-4 Cardiff was the highest-scoring match in the EFL this season.
👣 39 steps to success — Mansfield’s 10th-place finish in the third tier is their highest for 39 years (1986/87, also 10th)…
🙌 Boro’s time — …and Stevenage’s 6th-place finish is their joint-highest in history, level with 2011/12.
⁉️ Wait what — Can anyone explain how Wycombe’s success in BOTH halves did not translate over the season?
📺 HIGHLIGHTS
The satisfying crunch of a Jacobs cracker
Jack Holmes scores his first (and then his second) EFL goal in style
Corners are easy, Bolton-style
Headers and volleys, Burton-style
🧮 LEAGUE TABLE
League Two
⚽ SCORES
Barrow 1-2 Newport
Bromley 3-1 Walsall
Cheltenham 1-4 Colchester
Crawley 0-0 Salford
Crewe 0-0 Cambridge
Fleetwood 1-1 MK Dons
Gillingham 1-0 Shrewsbury
Harrogate 1-2 Barnet
Notts County 1-1 Bristol Rovers
Oldham 3-0 Accrington
Swindon 1-2 Chesterfield
Tranmere 1-1 Grimsby
✍️ BIG STORIES
Sam Parry
It wasn’t simply a Ronan Coughlan overhead kick for Fleetwood that cost MK Dons the title. Almost 300 miles away, where Kent meets South London, Bromley met Walsall and Andy Woodman named an attacking XI to win at all costs – four at the back rather than three, Ben Thompson in, and two wingers.
But it wasn’t Bromley that cost MK, either. It wasn’t Ben Thompson’s hammer-struck beauty, nor Mitch Pinnock’s second-half bobbler, nor an archetypal Omar Sowunmi header. What cost MK was a ragged performance, as they cancelled out Coughlan’s goal but failed to improve upon it. And Bromley, unbeaten at home, did what champions do: they won, won well, and took the League Two crown.
In the battle for the final automatic spot, Cambridge had a chance to take their rivals out of the equation with a penalty against Crewe. Ben Knight missed it. And if Crewe goalkeeper Ian Lawlor was the U’s chief antagonist, producing point-blank saves late on to preserve the 0-0 draw, he could well have become an unlikely hero for Salford or Notts County – a win for either and 3rd place would have been theirs.
The most perverse shock of final day, perhaps, is that neither managed it. At Meadow Lane, there were penalty shouts at both ends before Nicholas Tsaroulla put Notts County ahead and into the top three. They had chances to extend the lead, too, before Bristol Rovers levelled through Ellis Harrison. If not for an offside flag following Jacob Bedeau’s tap-in, Notts would have done it. But they didn’t.
Salford, meanwhile, were battering away at Crawley. The Ammies hit the bar twice, missed glaring chances and watched as a bang-to-rights penalty went unawarded. It somehow remained 0-0, which meant Cambridge survived the wobble and chalked up an impressive promotion back to League One at the first attempt.
Those results confirmed the top five. Grimsby looked nailed on for 6th: already assured of a play-off berth, they led relegation-threatened Tranmere through a slick passing move finished emphatically by Justin Amaluzor. There was a loser, though, or rather another draw, as Tranmere found a fourth-tier foothold at just the right time to avoid relegation. Grimsby finished 7th – so who took 6th?
A straight shootout between Swindon and Chesterfield kept the permutations simple. Dilan Markanday missed a sitter and Ryan Stirk ballooned another chance over, but the Spireites eventually broke through when a fortunate slip-shot assist teed up Lee Bonis. Late in a half that Chesterfield dominated, Swindon hit back through Ben Middlemas after a brilliant solo run by Aaron Drinan, which jack-knifed the situation heading into a nervy second half.
Swindon gained momentum but allowed the tie to skid away as Armando Dobra, producing his own silky assist, squared to Markanday to put Chesterfield 2-1 up. A draw wouldn’t be enough for Swindon, who duly pushed for goals but met with too much resistance – so, 2-1 it finished.
Paul Cook’s side head into the post-season having beaten each of their play-off rivals twice, with an aggregate score of 11-3. How it looks:
Salford vs Grimsby
Notts County vs Chesterfield
And finally, the toughest chapter of the season. At times, relegation seemed inevitable for all five candidates for the final drop. Tranmere collapsed after a promising start, but one win in the last five under Pete Wild (W1 D1 L3), including a final-day draw, was enough to save them. Crawley never found rhythm under Scott Lindsey but Colin Kazim-Richards’ seven-game tenure returned nine points (W2 D3 L2), including a death-defying 0-0 against Salford, where one goal conceded would’ve meant relegation.
Barrow were sliding even before Andy Whing’s departure and then came freefall under Paul Gallagher, then Dino Maamria, then Sam Foley. They required goals on final day against Newport to have any sort of chance. That left Harrogate and Newport as the only real climbers; the sides that started badly, but whose late-season form offered a glimpse at both sides of hope.
If hope looked slim for Harrogate when Barnet scored early, it soon flickered when Simon Weaver’s side converted a penalty to level the game. They had further chances. Shawn McCoulsky shrugged off his marker, drove towards goal and saw his shot brilliantly tipped onto the post. Another opening followed when McCoulsky slipped Tobias Brennan through one-on-one, only for his lob attempt to go horribly wrong. Yet hope remained because, at half-time, Barrow were beating Newport 1-0.
Not only that, but a minute into the second half, Barrow won a penalty. Jordan Wright dived left, the spotkick was drilled centrally, and he somehow saved it with a dangling, relegation-busting boot. It woke Newport up. Not long after, Bobby Kamwa crashed one against the crossbar after darting inside. Then came chaos, as a mix-up gifted an equaliser that Tom Davies took with happy calm. Newport were safe… unless there was a goal at Harrogate. Which there was.
But not for Harrogate. Having missed the chance to take the lead, the Sulphurites allowed Phillip Chinedu, just off the bench, to put Barnet ahead and extinguish all remaining hope. As it turned out, a draw wouldn’t have been enough anyway because back in Barrow-in-Furness…
Lights. Kamwa.
Same angle. Same action.
This time, no crossbar. Saviour Bobby Kamwa smashed home a Hollywood finish for a fifth goal in his last eight starts, all in winning matches – one, an equaliser in a win, and four the actual winners themselves. If he’s the main character of this Newport story, Christian Fuchs has been the auteur director. What a job he has done. What an achievement. And what a tough day for Harrogate and Barrow, who came so close, took it so late, and almost escaped the gravity of the pyramid pushing down.
📊 STATS
🏆 Ravens soar — Bromley are League Two champions in just their second-ever EFL season.
📈 MK Dominance — No League Two side spent longer in front than MK Dons, who led for 46% of all minutes played this season.
🎟️ Mariners in the mix — Grimsby Town have finished in the League Two play-off places for the first time since 2005/06, when they also finished on 78 points.
🎯 Double-double Vernam — Charles Vernam is the only League Two player to record 10 goals and 10 assists in 2025/26, hitting both marks exactly.
⚡ ColU in a hurry — Colchester United scored three first-half away goals in an EFL game for the first time since May 2019 — also the final game of that season.
🛟 County survive — Newport County came from behind to beat Barrow and avoid relegation, winning back-to-back league games for the first time since February.
🎉 U’s go u’p — Cambridge United’s promotion-winning 82 points represent their best tally since winning the Third Division in 1990/91, and they did it conceding just 33 goals – the fewest of any team in League One since Shrewsbury 11 years ago.
📊 Draw ‘specialists’ — No side in League Two drew more games (16) or won fewer (8) than Crawley Town this season.
⏱️ Slow starters — Gillingham lost the opening 10 minutes of matches 10-0 on aggregate.
📺 HIGHLIGHTS
🧮 LEAGUE TABLE
▶️ NTT20 EFL Fantasy League —
The big winner?
Re the Stevenage goal, you say “It’s completely unreasonable to criticise the officials”. I’m sorry, but it really isn’t. Because they guessed on such a key decision. Obviously they have a really hard job and get no support from technology. But looking at the positions of the ref and linesman relative to the scrum of players, it can only be a guess as to whether the whole of the ball crossed the line, and that isn’t good enough for a season defining moment.
Luton were poor for two thirds of the season. And we only have ourselves to blame that WE weren’t good enough to make incidents like this irrelevant. But that decision (and the one v Lincoln, where our winner was disallowed after their keeper punched himself in the chest - look it up on YouTube!) are the ones that sting. Plus all the needless goals we gave away from our own incompetence!
Optimistic for next season as Wilshere and Powell eventually had a really positive impact and how they want to play, and the progression towards this is obvious (something you could never say about Matt Bloomfield). But who knows what the squad will look like in 3 months time!
Notts needed Cambridge to lose so I don't think were ever in the top 3, luckily in a sense as there are angles that make the Bedeau offside look very close...
No confidence or excitement for the 7th playoffs in 9 years, but at least some key players are getting back