Ipswich sink Norwich, Coventry hit five, Stevenage go top of League One & Colchester thump Chesterfield 6-2
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Championship
Sam Parry
Let’s start with two bits of bleak.
The first was in the Old Farm, as Norwich – who’ve lost every home game – not only lost on the road for the first time this season but, worse still, gave up an undefeated record against rivals Ipswich that extended back to April 2009. Cedric Kipré broke the deadlock, only for 19-year-old Oscar Schwartau to make it 1-1 moments later. But Jaden Philogene made magic out of thin air once again, and Ipswich controlled things after the break as Kipré marshalled a solid backline, reducing Norwich to a single shot on target, then Jack Clarke wrapped things up on 77’. Liam Manning’s side have conceded 9.4 xG in five games since their last win, in August. Worrying.
Second, and oh, how much bleaker.
Last season Chris Wilder said, “we just win” of a Sheffield United team that kept edging tight games. This was a tight 1-0 defeat to Hull, who scored from a deflected shot. Late in the game, the Tigers gave away a penalty and a confidence-stricken Harrison Burrows hit it tamely into the arms of Ivor Pandur, who had never saved a penalty before. Having lost eight of their first nine Championship matches (W1), this is the Blades’ joint-worst start in history. Right now, they just lose.
In many ways, Middlesbrough resemble last season’s Blades: cautious, compact, with clean sheets on their mind and the quality to pack a punch. They couldn’t land one on Portsmouth, as they broke Boro’s unbeaten start to the campaign. Within those fine margins of few chances – just a shot on target apiece – it was Yang Min-hyeok who made his count, giving a big shot in the arm to John Mousinho’s side.
That meant Coventry’s 5-0 dismantling of Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough carried extra weight. Frank Lampard’s side went top by scoring early and bombarding a sorry side unable to stem the tide – 21 Cov shots, with a total xG touching 5. Those blue skies for the Sky Blues are an ominous sign for the rest of the division.
Elsewhere, Millwall’s 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion was the pick of the stories. West Brom barely threatened, managing just a single shot on target, which came in the 83rd minute. Ryan Mason’s side weren’t carved open, yet Millwall struck with a glorious cocktail of brute-force set pieces, sublime strikes and fast breaks – some way to bounce back from a 4-0 home defeat to Coventry a few days earlier.
And finally to Deepdale, where Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston did to Charlton what Charlton so often do to others: squeezing them into submission. Thierry Small scored and celebrated not with the forlorn expression of a player who recently left the Addicks but with a big, bold burst of jubilation. Daniel Jebbison made it 2-0 with 10 minutes to go and that’s how it finished. PNE are 4th, and those memories of having to avoid relegation on the final day of last season must feel very distant.
League One
Huw Davies
We start with a sacking, as Blackpool’s 2-0 home defeat to AFC Wimbledon ended Steve Bruce’s sorry reign at Bloomfield Road. While Brucie’s boys were arguably unlucky that the offence for Wimbledon’s penalty was deemed inside the box, make no mistake: Blackpool were very, very, very bad. The Monday pod will cover Bruce’s exit properly; we’ll just note that he often put defeats down to his players missing chances, when in fact they’re overperforming their xG for the season, which is the lowest in League One, and their three shots here totalled less than 0.1 xG on FotMob. Wimbledon’s fourth consecutive win, with Danilo Orsi at the double, takes them to 5th.
Cardiff beat Leyton Orient 4-3 in an end-to-end goalfest that was just a question of who was ahead when the whistle went. Thanks in part to Nathan Trott again, it was the Bluebirds, despite Orient having more shots (26-16), shots on target (11-7) and big chances (6-5). The good: Dom Ballard using the high wind well to curl in a beauty; Cardiff’s eight-person move for the winner; and Dylan Lawlor grabbing his first senior goal by winning the ball in his own half, dribbling upfield and scoring from 20 yards. The bad: the testimonial-level defending for that goal, which is better in your imagination than on video, and Gabriel Osho gifting Aaron Connolly one goal and almost one or two more. The amusing: Lawlor convincing Trott to dive the wrong way as Connolly converted.
Meanwhile, top-four Lincoln were being sucker-punched 1-0 by Exeter, who scored a stoppage-time winner through Kevin McDonald (36) after their hosts had been denied by Joe Whitworth, the woodwork and their own wayward finishing. Those could be three valuable points for the Grecians, and for Gary Caldwell personally.
Huddersfield also remain in the top six despite defeat – their third in six games. The visitors, Stockport, led through a soft penalty, but two bookings in five minutes at the start of the second half turned Tyler Onyango into Bye-La’ Off-ya-go and the Terriers went on the attack. The result: another goal for their depleted opponents, before Lee Grant’s men scored a late consolation to make it 1-2. County held on in the rain, which was significant because they’ve already let 11 points slip through their fingers from winning positions this season.
So who are our new league leaders, and with a game in hand? That’d be Stevenage, who beat Luton 2-0 in the ‘Is This A Derby?’ Derby. Ignore any talk of weak renewals: a record of W8 D1 L1 is no fluke. Two great strikes by Chem Campbell and Jordan Roberts got the job done here, although the real hero is a defence that has conceded just once in five home games. Luton have now lost as many matches as they’ve won, and the natives are getting restless.
League Two
Matt Watts
It’s 19 points from the last 21 available for League Two leaders Walsall, who came from behind to beat in-form Bristol Rovers 2-1. Fabrizio Cavegn’s fourth goal in four games opened the scoring, but a second-half brace from Aaron Pressley gave Mat Sadler’s Saddlers all three points. Walsall stay a point clear of Swindon, who beat Newport 1-0 thanks to a deft flick from Ollie Palmer.
Grimsby moved up to 3rd with a 2-0 victory over Salford. Evan Khouri’s goal after 37 seconds and a trademark strike from Charles Vernam in the 31st minute proved to be the difference. The Mariners have lost only two league games – both of them off the back of victories in the Carabao Cup.
After going 21 league games unbeaten, Gillingham have suffered back-to-back defeats. Some uncharacteristically shoddy Gills defending allowed MK Dons to take a 3-0 lead on home soil, before goals from Seb Palmer-Houlden and Jonny Williams took the score to 3-2, but it was too little, too late for a comeback.
An injury-ravaged Colchester secured their first home league win of the season – and they did it in style, as a first senior hat-trick for the talismanic Jack Payne helped them to a 6-2 victory over Chesterfield. Paul Cook’s lacklustre Spireites join Bristol Rovers in dropping out of the top seven, replaced by MK Dons and Cambridge.
Finally, Steve Cotterill’s Cheltenham climbed off the bottom and out of the relegation zone with a 2-0 victory over Fleetwood. Second-half strikes from Isaac Hutchinson and Josh Martin prompted jubilant scenes at full-time. In his first stint in charge, Cotterill took his hometown club from the sixth tier to the third; in fact, his final game in charge was a 3-1 victory over Rushden & Diamonds in the 2001/02 Division Three Play-Off Final. Fast-forward 23 and a half years and Cotterill would be content just to keep the Robins in League Two this season.
It’s now Newport who prop up the rest, following their defeat to Swindon. David Hughes’ County picked up four points from their first two games… and have taken one point from the nine games since then. Ouch.
🎦 Our Top 5 clips from the EFL weekend
Philogene is not my lover; just a man who made it Ipswich 2-1.
Femi curls one, Azeezy as 1, 2, 3
Just beat it — Burstow chops back and fires home for Bolton.
Tranmere’s man in the middle making a change from CB to ST with this overhead.
And finally, Tranmere’s penalty concession is BAD (really, really bad).
📊 Your Monday morning cheat sheet
🎯 Sky Blue Firepower — Coventry have 27 goals in 9 Championship games, their second-best start ever, behind only 1935/36.
🧱 Cooper Constant — With his first of the season this weekend, Millwall’s Jake Cooper has scored in nine straight Championship seasons – his 27 goals are five more than any other defender in that time.
⚡ Ngakia Double — Watford’s Jeremy Ngakia scored twice in 3 minutes 35 seconds, having netted just once in his previous 88 Championship games – and one was a corner!
🟥 Mad Hatters love a red — In 2025, Stockport have had a man sent off on three occasions in the league, and they’ve won all three matches (against Burton twice and now Huddersfield).
💙 WINbledon — AFC Wimbledon’s 2-0 win at Blackpool was their fourth in a row —their first run of 4 wins since April 2021.
⚪ Burstow Breakthrough — Bolton’s Mason Burstow hit his first EFL brace on his 80th appearance; his 7 League One goals this season put him behind only Erling Haaland, Haji Wright and Aaron Drinan (8 each).
🔥 Cheek by Goal — Michael Cheek has 30 goals in 56 EFL games; since last season, only Mohamed Salah (31) has scored more in England’s top four tiers.
🟠 Exiles exiling themselves — Newport have won just 1 of 20 league games (D5 L14) in 2025 and have lost 8 already in League Two.
🎩 Payne and gain — Colchester’s Jack Payne scored his first EFL hat-trick — the club’s first in the top four tiers since Jevani Brown in 2020 (v Stevenage).
🎨 Bannan Creator — Sheffield Wednesday’s Barry Bannan has created 25 chances in the Championship this season — joint-most with Sorba Thomas.
🧤 Belshaw Barrier — Harrogate keeper James Belshaw has already prevented 4.2 goals this season based on xG conceded.
Sky Bet Championship
Blackburn 1-1 Stoke
Bristol City 1-2 QPR
Derby 1-1 Southampton
Hull 1-0 Sheffield United
Ipswich 3-1 Norwich
Millwall 3-0 West Brom
Portsmouth 1-0 Middlesbrough
Preston 2-0 Charlton
Sheffield Wednesday 0-5 Coventry
Swansea 1-3 Leicester
Watford 2-1 Oxford
Wrexham 1-1 Birmingham
Sky Bet League One
Blackpool 0-2 AFC Wimbledon
Bolton 2-1 Peterborough
Cardiff 4-3 Leyton Orient
Doncaster 1-1 Burton Albion
Huddersfield 1-2 Stockport
Lincoln 0-1 Exeter
Plymouth 1-1 Wigan
Port Vale 0-0 Northampton
Reading 1-1 Mansfield
Rotherham 2-2 Bradford
Stevenage 2-0 Luton
Wycombe 2-2 Barnsley
Sky Bet League Two
Barnet 2-0 Accrington
Barrow 0-0 Shrewsbury
Bromley 3-3 Tranmere
Cambridge 3-1 Crawley Town
Cheltenham 2-0 Fleetwood
Colchester 6-2 Chesterfield
MK Dons 3-2 Gillingham
Newport 0-1 Swindon
Notts County 3-1 Oldham
Salford 0-2 Grimsby
Walsall 2-1 Bristol Rovers
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