Millwall joy, Argyle misery, Saddlers' steel and goals goals goals goals goals goals goals
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Championship
Matt Watts
Four 3-2s… No, we’re not counting down awkwardly to Christmas lights being turned on – we’re saying four games finished 3-2 in the Championship this weekend.
Sheffield United made it three wins (and nine goals scored) in a week by beating Leicester at the King Power. Sydie Peck’s volley put the Blades 3-0 up at half-time, before Stephy Mavididi and Jordan James gave Leicester false hope in the second half. The pressure on Martí Cifuentes continues to grow after back-to-back defeats.
The Den hosted a strong contender for game of the weekend as Millwall beat Southampton 3-2. Femi Azeez and Caleb Taylor’s strikes were ‘goals worthy of winning any game’ (especially Taylor’s, which had Alex Neil going full Jose Mourinho down the touchline), but it was Tristan Crama who won it for the Lions in the 97th minute. It’s a first defeat for Tonda Eckert, who’s still waiting to see if his interim spell will be made permanent.
West Bromwich Albion edged another five-goal thriller in a game of two halves with Swansea. Vitor Matos’ charges raced into a two-goal lead with Zan Vipotnik opening the scoring after 11 seconds, but a quadruple half-time change from Ryan Mason had the desired effect. An Aune Heggebø brace restored parity seven minutes into the second half, then Jayson Molumby – going from villain to hero after the previous weekend’s costly red card – secured a vital win for the Baggies and their young gaffer.
The final 3-2 saw Preston come from behind twice to beat Sheffield Wednesday, who are now 12 without a win and 21 points from safety. It could have been oh so different, had Charlie McNeill stuck away his second-half penalty to complete his hat-trick and put Wednesday ahead for a third time. But Daniel Iversen denied him and, three minutes later, Mads Frøkjaer-Jensen scored what proved to be the winner. Ouch.
Elsewhere, Coventry scored their 48th, 49th and 50th goals of their Championship season in coming from behind to beat Charlton 3-1. Raise your bat, Sky Blues, but remember we’re only 18 games in and there’s still work to be done. Middlesbrough also came from behind to beat Derby 2-1; they returned to 2nd off the back of this victory, in Kim Hellberg’s first game in charge, and Stoke’s 2-1 loss at home to Hull.
Philippe Clement picked up his first win, too, as Norwich beat QPR 3-1 to end a 13-match winless run and secure their first competitive home win since 3rd May. No doubt the Carrow Road faithful were delighted to see Ipswich lose on Friday night – they just wish that it wasn’t to their relegation rivals, Oxford…
League One
Sam Parry
Cardiff beat Mansfield to stay top. In fact, no team in the top six lost. In fact, the whole top half went undefeated, so instead we’re going to focus on what a big day it was at the other end of the table, where the bottom six all lost and by a combined score of 14-1.
Rock-bottom Port Vale made a fist of it at Lincoln, but Reeco Hackett separated the sides with a beauty from the edge of the box. Vale really should have equalised with their only shot on target. As usual, they did not.
In 23rd, Plymouth Argyle took a 3-0 hammering at home from Northampton. It began with a penalty awarded and then rescinded, which is rare. Rarer still is Argyle keeping the ball out of their net, and they didn’t bother with that, either. Tom Eaves opened the scoring with a gravity-defying header before Argyle’s Lorent Tolaj delivered the harbinger of doom with an elbow that earned him a simple red. He then leathered a ball off a cone into a fan and fell over. Exquisite. After that, the Cobblers helped themselves to goals from Elliot List and Jordan Willis. Is Tom Cleverley’s time up?
Blackpool, 22nd after two straight home wins, slipped back into Gloomfield Road mode thanks to Reading picking them off. Hayden Coulson and Andy Lyons should’ve put the Seasiders ahead before Kamari Doyle struck for Reading. The wide men were a menace all afternoon, and after Michael Ihiekwe brought down Daniel Kyerewaa in the box, Lewis Wing did the rest. Kyerewaa was involved again when Randell Williams – sold to Reading by Blackpool boss Ian Evatt – made it 3-0.
Peterborough look a more coherent outfit under Luke Williams but nonetheless slumped to back-to-back defeats as Doncaster finally won a game after 10 without victory. Jordan Gibson scored six goals in all competitions last season; he’s already on five for 2025/26 following a brace here, with a lovely outside-of-the-boot pass from Luke Molyneux setting up the first. Posh pulled one back in the second half but Thimothée Lo-Tutala’s late save protected the 2-1 scoreline.
Exeter, in 20th, gave high-flying Bradford a proper test, out-shooting their hosts and forcing Sam Walker into four good saves. This 1-0 defeat isn’t where their season will be decided. Jayden Wareham had a goal chalked off for offside and should have equalised after a loose back-pass, but Bradford’s charmed goal stayed untouched. That ended their six-game winless run – only Arsenal and Coventry have lost fewer matches in the top four tiers this season.
And Burton Albion (19th) suffered Brewers’ droop as Leyton Orient ended a five-match winless away run, with Aaron Connolly leaving tyre marks all over the Pirelli. He kicked things off with a solo run from the left and a tight-angle finish, before turning provider for Dom Ballard. Connolly then laid off another for Azeem Abdulai’s laser from distance, and Charlie Wellens finished it from the edge of the box: 4-0, and another lovely Sunday dinner in the Wellens household. They are four points off the play-offs and will hope to build something, having struggled on the road up to now.
League Two
Huw Davies
Goals! Goals everywhere! A John Buchaneering 39 strikes across League Two, one shy of the Championship’s 40 (though there’s another Championship fixture tonight). Shrewsbury drew 3-3 with Gillingham but Salford v Crawley went one better, and in proper ding-dong fashion each side had the lead twice: 0-1, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 3-3, 4-3. Young Matty Young saved a Harry McKirdy penalty in the middle of all that, too. Leading 3-2 late on, Crawley conceded twice in a minute and very nearly let in another, which is broadly why they’re 19th.
Walsall v Bromley was 1st v 3rd, and when Ben Krauhaus scored, Bromley spent a pleasant hour atop League Two. Omar Sowunmi even swapped thumping headers for an audacious assist attempt:
But after Michael Cheek’s tap-in for ‘2-0’ was ruled offside (useful angles there be none), Walsall showed their mettle. Two deep crosses from set pieces were headed back across goal for 1-1 and 2-1, then in the 100th minute, goalscorer Ryan Finnigan and supersub Uncle Albert Adomah pressed Bromley back to London from their own corner, allowing Courtney Clarke to make it 3-1. Walsall stay top, with Swindon a point behind them following a lively 2-1 win in Chesterfield.
Elsewhere, Notts County had Tyrese Hall sent off after 35 minutes and still won 1-0 at Bristol Rovers. Oh, Gas. Gas, Gas, Gas. They’ve been poor for a while – you don’t lose eight league games in a row by accident – but this, the eighth, was just one of those days. They hit the crossbar once, the post twice, and Kelle Roos four times all from central positions in the box, then Matthew Dennis’ shot at the other end took a huge deflection and looped in. For the second successive match, Rovers lost 1-0 to their opponents’ only shot on target (indeed, in their last 5 games they’ve conceded 14 goals from just 10 goal-bound efforts). Whatyagonnado? Sack Darrell Clarke, say some.
Cambridge dominated an injury-ridden Crewe but needed a 97th-minute freebie to win 2-1. Trailing to Emre Tezgel’s fifth goal in five games, the U’s fought back through a pair of substitutes, Ben Knight’s wayward shot being turned in by Mamadou Jobe before Knight himself placed his late penalty to perfection. Fittingly for a university town, Cambridge are quietly going about their business: they’ve snuck into the play-off places.
Finally, or rather firstly, Tranmere won 2-1 at Grimsby on Thursday with a goal in the 96th minute. Charlie Whitaker and Darragh Burns each picked their spot expertly from 20 yards for 1-1, and a trio of saves from Joe Murphy – two from very close range, including one in 5iveLights below – gave Tranmere the opportunity to steal an extra two points at the death. Sure enough, the ball fell to Kristian Dennis in the box and he could not, would not, did not miss. Grimsby are 12th and winless in five, yet calm heads must prevail: they had the better chances in three of those games and would be 6th right now if they’d won this. It’s tight.
🎦 Our Top 5 clips from the EFL weekend
Millwall’s Caleb Taylor gives it the Cantona celebration after his first career goal.
The Watchmen: Sydie Peck and Sorba Thomas get a good look before striking.
Just Jamming — Jordan James smacks in a wobble-seam for Leicester.
Just a proper striker’s header from Tom Eaves for Cobblers.
Tranmere’s Got A Save Machine — Joe Murphy at 44, ladies and gents…
📊 Your Monday morning cheat sheet
🔟 Ten for Ten — In the Championship, 10 players have made 10 goal contributions already. They are:
Brandon Thomas-Asante — 13 (10G, 3A)
Anis Mehmeti — 12 (6G, 6A)
Sorba Thomas — 12 (5G, 7A)
Joe Gelhardt — 11 (9G, 2A)
Adam Armstrong — 10 (7G, 3A)
Jay Stansfield — 10 (8G, 2A)
Imran Louza — 10 (6G, 2A)
Carlton Morris — 10 (10G)
Callum O’Hare — 10 (4G, 6A)
Victor Torp — 10 (7G, 3A)
⚽ Gelhardt or go home — Hull’s Joe Gelhardt has 9 goal involvements in 9 Championship matches (7G, 2A), scoring the winner in all five of Hull’s victories in that run.
⚡ Lightning Start — Žan Vipotnik’s goal for Swansea after just 11 seconds was the second-fastest in Championship history (since 2013/14), behind Yakou Méïté’s 9-second strike for Reading in 2020.
🔥 Stop it now Cov — Coventry have hit 50 goals in 18 Championship games, the quickest a second-tier side has done so since Sheffield Wednesday in 1958/59.
🔴 Out of the Wilderness? — Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United have won three in a week; it’s the first time they’ve scored 3+ in 3 consecutive games since January 2019.
🕰️ Owl Drought — Sheffield Wednesday are winless in 11 home league games, their longest such run since 1975.
🧱 Millers Marching — Despite injury issues, Rotherham have put together an unbeaten run of 9 matches in League One.
🏟️ Dons Delight — MK Dons have won 4 consecutive home league games – more than in their previous 18 at Stadium MK (W3 D5 L10).
🔴 Crawley Chaos — Crawley’s 3-4 reverse at Salford was their fifth defeat despite scoring 3+ goals since the start of last season.
💪 Col U believe it — Colchester have won 6 of their last 8 league games (D1 L1), double their total from the 19 before that (W3).
⬇️ Argyle Angst — No League One team has lost more league games in 2025/26 than Plymouth, with only Sheffield Wednesday and Newport County (12 each) racking up more across the EFL as a whole.
❌ Exiles on Skid Row — On that note: Newport have played 18 home games in all competitions since they last won one (3-0 against Harrogate Town on 15th March).
SkyBet Championship
Blackburn 1-1 Wrexham
Coventry 3-1 Charlton
Leicester 2-3 Sheffield United
Middlesbrough 2-1 Derby
Millwall 3-2 Southampton
Norwich 3-1 QPR
Oxford 2-1 Ipswich
Portsmouth 0-1 Bristol City
Sheffield Wednesday 2-3 Preston
Stoke 1-2 Hull
West Brom 3-2 Swansea
Sky Bet League One
Blackpool 0-3 Reading
Bradford 1-0 Exeter
Burton Albion 0-4 Leyton Orient
Cardiff 3-0 Mansfield
Doncaster 2-1 Peterborough
Huddersfield 3-3 AFC Wimbledon
Lincoln 1-0 Port Vale
Luton 1-1 Bolton
Plymouth 0-3 Northampton
Rotherham 1-1 Wycombe
Stockport 1-1 Barnsley
Wigan 0-0 Stevenage
Sky Bet League Two
Accrington Stanley 1-0 Oldham
Barnet 1-1 Harrogate
Bristol Rovers 0-1 Notts County
Cambridge 2-1 Crewe
Chesterfield 1-2 Swindon
Colchester 2-0 Cheltenham
Grimsby 1-2 Tranmere
MK Dons 2-1 Fleetwood
Newport County 2-2 Barrow
Salford 4-3 Crawley
Shrewsbury 3-3 Gillingham
Walsall 3-1 Bromley
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