League Two goes haywire, Burton believe, Argyle rally, and the Wycombeback is on...
14 April 2025 | Weekend Notes brings you the biggest stories, stats and insights from the EFL weekend.
● BIG STORIES ● CHEAT SHEET ● 5IVELIGHTS ● THE VIEW FROM ● FORM BOOK ● FANTASY FOOTBALL ●
Screw it…
A bonkers slate. A truly mad, bad and beautifully bonkers slate replete with headbutts and halfway-line goals, 111th-minute equalisers and most of League Two’s promotion hopefuls tossing it off, and then Birmingham City being so good they won the title without playing a league game.
What a weekend. Delirium, delinquency and dream endings to what once were nightmare seasons (looking at you Tranmere). For reasons good and bad, some people need to find their head and screw it back on.
Welcome to Weekend Notes.
🚨 Big Stories
Huw Davies covers the decisive moments from the EFL weekend
🧨 League Two goes f**king mental (Pt.1) — The promotion punch-up between Doncaster and Wimbledon had an early red card, an even earlier goal, Billy Sharp getting sent off within a minute of coming on and then Donny grabbing an equaliser, and it wasn’t even close to being the maddest 12.30pm kick-off in League Two.
Over in Swindon, Calum Kavanagh’s first-half hat-trick of goals from long throws gave Bradford a 3-1 lead with 10 men, and Graham Alexander clearly told his players to “slow it”. This did not happen. Swindon scored in first-half stoppage time, then exchanged goals and yellow cards with the visitors before equalising on 90’ (a second Harry Smith goal, this one a cracker) and winning it on 90’+5 (a second Bradford own goal, this one a crapper). The banterous Bantams had scored four in the right net, more than in their previous seven league away games combined, and still lost. Who could’ve seen that coming? This man, writing in the TLS WhatsApp chat as Ian Holloway’s Swindon got it back to 2-1:
💥 League Two goes f**king mental (Pt.2) — So, with that lunchtime mayhem in the promotion battle following Notts County’s defeat to Salford on Friday night, Port Vale and Walsall kicked off at 3pm atop a pile of bodies. The result(s)? Vale rose to the occasion, cutting Bromley to ribbons – 5-0, their biggest league win in 12 years – while Walsall shrunk. Their performance at Barrow was one of their worst this season, and losing 2-0 takes them to nine games without a win. With 14 points from their last 17 matches, they’re on course to pick up less than a point per game across nearly half a season. Yet they’re still in the top three… for now.
⌚ The late, late shows — Newport 0-2 Colchester, Harrogate 2-2 Grimsby — The biggest five minutes or so in this season’s League Two play-off battle? Grimsby led 2-0 after 84 minutes and Colchester were still drawing after 87. Then the Mariners conceded to a beaut from Ellis Taylor – the second-best goal of the game, after Kieran Green evolved into his final form by scoring from his own half – and an own goal from Danny Rose, and while that was happening, Colchester scored twice very late on. Fiacre Kelleher glanced a free-kick in off the post, Anthony Scully scored a breakaway and suddenly Col U are one point behind 7th-placed Grimsby instead of five. However, they were inexplicably playing in red rather than blue and white against an amber-clad Newport, so we await news of a points deduction for that.
😰 Pressure? What pressure? – Plymouth Argyle 2-1 Sheffield United – Miron Muslic had said pre-match, “I think we’re going to win this game” yet it was his observation that, “There is also pressure on them” which upset Chris Wilder, who called it ‘nonsense’ while sort-of agreeing with him. The pressure was on Argyle when they trailed to a Jes Rak-Sakyi pearler, but they knuckled down and nutted up. Ryan Hardie hit the bar, then the back of the net, and after Tyrese Campbell rashly flashed wide, Muhamed Tijani calmly snaffled a Plymouth winner. They’re now just three points (and a lot of goals) from safety, due to damaging defeats for Cardiff and Luton, combined with Derby conceding a stoppage-time equaliser at Portsmouth. Somehow, Argyle are back in this. As for Blades, three straight defeats puts them five points off 2nd.
🔁 The Wycomeback is on – Wycombe 1-0 Stevenage, Wigan 0-0 Wrexham – In League One, Wrexham handed Birmingham the title and Wycombe a lifeline, failing to even have a shot on target at Wigan while their opponents spurned the game’s best chance (from a Wrexham corner, no less). Wycombe, though, got the job done against A Stubborn Stevenage, to give them their full name, as Caleb Taylor tackled the ball into the net in stoppage time. Their last five scorelines have been 1-0, 0-0, 0-1, 1-0 and 1-0, and now the points gap to 2nd-placed Wrexham is just 1 as well.
🍵 Brewing up a storm — Burton Albion 3-0 Huddersfield — 16-5 in shots, 6-0 in shots on target, 5-1 in big chances and 3-0 in goals – it says plenty about the trajectories of both Burton and Huddersfield that this comfortable win for 21st over 9th was neither unexpected nor undeserved. Just look at the un-Terrier-like defending for Julian Larsson’s goal:
And the Brewers aren’t 21st any more – they’re out of the dropzone, for the first time since September (to be sung to the tune of that song from Frozen). It’s been a long time coming, but cometh it has, thanks to Bristol Rovers taking their losing run to six matches with a 2-1 reverse at home to Exeter. The Gas had a 9pt buffer only a month ago; now, in the words of manager Inigo Calderon, “I don’t know if everybody knew before but it’s quite clear, at this moment, we are a League Two team.” Shots fired, inwards.
🙇♂️ Neil before your God – Millwall 1-0 Middlesbrough – Never write off Millwall. With this win, Alex Neil’s Lions drew level with Boro just two points behind 6th-placed Coventry, who play Hull tonight. Millwall just about edged it, though they did have Lukas Jensen to thank for an astonishing stoppage-time save from Marcus Forss; Boro must step up if they’re to take advantage of three easier fixtures coming up next.
🔪 Murder on Death Row – Morecambe 0-2 Carlisle – This, you feel, Is It. Carlisle leapfrogged (leaptfrog?) the Shrimps to renew hopes of a last-minute pardon while Morecambe face the firing squad. We can only hope the club survives as an entity, if not a Football League club, because Morecambe’s off-field state is even more depressing than their marking for the two goals here. Carlisle themselves are still in big trouble, six points adrift with four games to play, but it would’ve been eight points if not for Tranmere’s incredible comeback to draw 3-3 at Accrington (check out those scenes in 5iveLights) – and the Cumbrians host Accy on Easter Monday.
📊 Monday Morning Cheat Sheet
From the WhatsApp group to the watercooler: stats to keep you ahead of the game.
🎬 Charlie and the Football Factory — Charlie Kelman’s brace for Leyton Orient against Crawley – including Orient’s first penalty of the season – took him to 19 league goals in 2024/25, overtaking Jay Stansfield and Richard Kone (18 each) and surpassing his combined total from his previous six EFL campaigns (18).
💊 Take a Mill Pill — Millwall have won 9 of their last 15 league games under Alex Neil (D2 L4); no team has won more Championship matches in that period.
📉 Saddler Slide — Walsall have won just two of their last 17 league games (D8 L7), and failed to record a single shot on target in a League Two match for the first time this season during their 2-0 defeat to Barrow.
🎩 Madtrick — Rob Atkinson became the first player to score twice and bag an own goal in a single Championship match since Lewis Grabban did it for Sunderland against Norwich in August 2017.
🎭 Badtrick — And then… Calum Kavanagh became the first player to score a hat-trick and still lose in the top four tiers since Troy Deeney for Forest Green against Notts County in September 2023.
🔙 B2Bs for L2 Cs — Carlisle have recorded back-to-back league wins for the first time in over two years, last doing so on March 4th and 11th, 2023.
🔒 Oxford Lockdown — Oxford have won three of their last five league games: beating Owls to complete a Sheffield double made it one more victory than in their previous 13 matches combined (2).
🌙 Owl at the moon — Sheffield Wednesday, meanwhile, have lost five straight home league matches – their worst run at Hillsborough for more than 15 years.
🚌 Bantams bus wheels — Following the last-gasp loss to Swindon, Bradford have won just four of their last 20 away league games.
⚽ Tolaj too good — Against Bromley, Port Vale’s Lorent Tolaj made it 5 goals in his last 3 games, hitting perfect form at the perfect time.
🎯 Vale-entine's Accuracy — Port Vale scored their five goals from just 10 (ten!!!!!) shots in that win – a better hit rate than Cupid’s arrow.
💁 Perfect symmetry — Losing 5-0 wasn’t ideal for Bromley, of course… or was it? The scoreline did at least take them to a beautifully even record for the season, and that’s what really matters.
🎦 5ivelights
In no particular order, a collection of our favourite goals or clips from across the 72.
The most ludicrous three-goal comeback in the history of three-goal comebacks: Tranmere put a horrible season behind them.
Nothing to see here – just a low-xG chance finished by Kieran Green.
Brutal celebrations in the face of Bradford’s Jack Shepherd, led by Harry Smith after the two had tussled a few minutes earlier.
Tricks, flicks and final flourishes as QPR score a lovely team goal.
Teenage kicks as Harvey Mills’ set-piece put a Posh spin on the EFL trophy.
The View From…
Have you seen the film Threads?
A bomb drops in Yorkshire. Everyone panics. The world spirals in one sweeping, depressing arc. OK, it’s not the perfect metaphor for the fallout from Saturday’s 12.30pm madness, but it’s the one I’m sticking with given the number of Yorkshire protagonists.
Across three different games, it was as if everyone had their finger on the nuclear button… and just kept pressing it. Again and again. Which was baffling, because there was something riding on it for Bradford, for AFC Wimbledon, for Doncaster Rovers and for Sheffield United. Not just something, either, but promotion. None of them won. And all of them had a moment:
12’ — Richie Smallwood (c) sent off for Bradford — high and lungy
28’ — Jake Reeves (c) sent off for AFC Wimbledon — high and stampy
72’ — Billy Sharp sent off for Doncaster Rovers — head and butty
Post-match — Chris Wilder squares up to Mustapha Bundu — cringe and worthy
What’s strange is how all four hopefuls saw their leaders — two captains, one old pro and a manager — behave, with varying degrees of culpability, as though they were trying to sabotage their own seasons. And all of that before the three-o’clocks had ticked around. Breathless. Fun. Funny. Mad. Bad. Stupid.
Anyroad, I’m not a fan of his pies, patriotism nor poetry, but when it comes to teams blowing a gasket, Mr Kipling is always exceedingly quotable:
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs… (then you might just give your team that marginal advantage towards the end of the season.)”
🏆 Fantasy Football
Go head-to-head against team NTT20 in our EFL Fantasy Football league
Matt Watts in the metaphorical dugout this week. And it’s got to be said, he’s made some inspired decisions.
Solid scoring, despite Notts and Blades letting the side down and Dan James picking up an injury. Gah. It was, generally, a low-scoring week, with 89 points enough to give Harvey’s Pesky Imps the top berth for the GW36. Of course, Mr Browne’s Boys are still plodding along in 1st place.