Sunderland's Hullish weekend, Bolton's bouncebackability, and Cambridge 'two good' for Stockport - plus EFL Numberwang
24 February 2025 | Weekend Notes brings you the biggest stories, stats and insights from the EFL weekend.
● BIG STORIES ● CHEAT SHEET ● 5IVELIGHTS ● THE VIEW FROM ● FANTASY FOOTBALL ●
The great reversal…
The League Two results were funny this weekend. Smashing all expectations by delivering almost no surprises, with every side in the top half barring Wimbledon and Salford winning, and every side in the bottom half bar Swindon failing to win. It wasn’t the only quirk. Because we were treated to more than 20 fixtures across League One and League Two that were the direct reversal of the opening day slate—Ali’s looking into that in the View From.
Welcome to Weekend Notes.
🚨 Big Stories
A selection of decisive moments from across the EFL
📉 Big at both ends — Sunderland 0-1 Hull — You may remember George chatting to Ruben Selles a few weeks ago, where the Hull boss explained that, when playing against top sides, making sure his side’s possession number is around 40% - rather than 25-30% - gives them a much better chance of securing a result while maintaining their aggressive pressing identity. Against Sunderland, the Tigers had 40% possession, retaining a threat of their own while defending doggedly. They became the first team to win at the Stadium of Light this season.
This was a huge result at both ends of the Championship. The only goal was avoidable. Anthony Patterson, who should have done better for Leeds’ winner last Monday, flapped at a drilled corner to the near post, which clipped Patrick Roberts’ head and squirmed over the line. Despite their best efforts, the Black Cats couldn’t claw their way back. Isidor and Ballard missed big chances, but Hull have now stood firm away to both the Blades and Sunderland. With all their relegation rivals dropping points, Hull have opened up a three-point cushion above the drop zone. Meanwhile, barring an unlikely collapse from Sheffield United or Burnley, Regis Le Bris’ side look playoff-bound - eight points is a hefty gap with twelve games remaining.
📼 The No Gaffer Tapes — Swansea 3-0 Blackburn — In the battle of the manager-less Championship clubs, it was the Swans who ran out comfortable winners in South Wales. Goals from Zan Vipotnik, Myles Peart-Harris and Liam Cullen secured Swansea’s first home victory of 2025, whilst also moving them ten points clear of the bottom three. And breathe! On the flip side, this was a damaging defeat for Blackburn. They remain 6th but have Coventry, Norwich, Bristol City and Watford all breathing down their necks.
🐦⬛ The Earthy bird catches the worm — Bristol City 2-1 Middlesbrough — The Boro form worm continues headfirst into the mud. Albeit, they did go ahead in this one amidst an end-to-end first-half courtesy of Tommy Conway. It was the 63rd-minute introduction of George Earthy that flipped things. The 20-year-old loanee from West Ham bagged his first goals of the season ten minutes apart to take the game beyond a Boro side who now slide into the bottom half.
🎭 It’s behind Schu! — Bolton 2-1 Leyton Orient — We hear a lot about the ‘all-important’ first goal, but that doesn’t seem to apply to Steven Schumacher’s Bolton. “You’ve taken the lead against us? Toughsheet!” The Trotters came from behind to win for the third league game in a row. Second-half strikes from John McAtee and Aaron Morley (pen) completed the turnaround against Leyton Orient, who had gone in front just before half time through Charlie Kelman. The Orient Express will be looking to get back on track when it rolls into Birmingham on Tuesday night
🔥 You can’t Stoke a fire without a spark — Cambridge United 2-0 Stockport — New gaffer. New DoF. And cap doff to both Neil Harris and Mark Bonner. Cambridge came into this game with just one win in 13, while Stockport were in the kind of form that fuels promotion bids—six wins from seven. But Josh Stokes’ two first-half goals made the difference. He brings the quality Cambridge need in this scrap for survival, while Ryan Loft provided the physical edge up front and the defence threw themselves in the way of everything Stockport could muster. A huge improvement. With Crawley, Wigan, Peterborough, Northampton, Shrewsbury, and Burton still to come, the question lingers— they couldn’t, could they?
🫖 Brewing up — Lincoln 0-1 Burton — Charlie Webster did it again. Same scoreline, same scorer. After Ali raved about him midweek, he popped up with a last-minute winner to sink Lincoln. Burton’s resurgence isn’t just built on beating strugglers either—their five wins in eight have come against sides sitting 9th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 16th, with draws against 10th and 11th. They’re proving they can mix it with the mid-table pack, and with that kind of form, there aren’t many fixtures left to fear.
5️⃣0️⃣ League Two’s Nifty Fifties — Grimsby 2-1 Fleetwood — Two superlative strikes jolted a lifeless game into action and tightened the pack in League Two between 2nd and 8th. George McEachran’s brilliant dipping effort gave the Mariners the lead in a drab first half. Fleetwood’s equaliser after the break was a thing of beauty, starting from the back with slick one-touch play, flicks, tricks, and a perfectly weighted dink over the top. Ryan Graydon latched onto it, finished with a lob, and threw in a salty celebration towards his own fans for good measure. The winner came in the 64th minute, a well-worked set-piece nodded home by Danny Rose sealing Grimsby’s first-ever run of four consecutive EFL wins, having now accrued more points than last season already. They needed it, too. Every team in the top eight won on Saturday, barring Wimbledon.
📊 Monday Morning… EFL Numberwang
Hello and welcome to EFL Numberwang, the maths quiz that simply everyone is talking about. Our contestants today are the Championship, League One and League Two — but what numbers will they call?
🔢 Burnley kept their 12th clean sheet in a row, scoring four times from just seven shots in a 4-0 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday. That closes the gap to the automatic spots to two points as they Numberwang their way up the table.
🔟 Josh Sargent, on a red-hot run of seven goals in six games, hit double digits for the season in Norwich’s 4-2 win over Stoke—before making it 11 soon after.
9️⃣ Tranmere’s defeat to Notts County extends their winless run to nine games, their worst since 2019-20. Meanwhile, for just the third time in club history, Bradford City have won nine home league games in a row.
8️⃣ A late Col U equaliser keeps their unbeaten streak alive at eight games, while Walsall made it back-to-back wins to maintain an eight-point cushion at the summit.
7️⃣ Jack Rudoni has been thriving under Frank Lampard at Coventry, racking up seven assists in his last 16 games, Wrexham’s 22-year-old CB Max Cleworth has become the club’s joint top scorer with 7 goals, and in League Two, Gillingham’s away woes continue—winless in their last seven on the road (D4 L3).
6️⃣ Huddersfield stretched their miserable home run to six league games without a win, the opposite of MK Dons, who are now six away league games without victory (D1 L5) and remain the only League Two side yet to keep a clean sheet on the road.
5️⃣ Millwall claimed their fifth straight win over Derby at Pride Park, while Middlesbrough’s slump continued—they’ve now lost five in a row.
4️⃣ Port Vale have won four consecutive home league games—their best streak at Vale Park since 2021.
3️⃣ Bromley have strung together three straight EFL wins for the first time, while Wrexham have won three away league games in a row for the first time since August 2003.
2️⃣ Shrewsbury slumped to yet another defeat—just two wins in their last nine Saturday league matches (D1 L6).
1️⃣ A few firsts: Coventry’s first league win over Preston since 2007, Peterborough’s first away clean sheet this season, Blackpool’s first home win since September, and Donny’s first away league victory at Accrington.
0️⃣ Finally, Sheffield United remain unbeaten at home when leading at half-time this season (W7 D1), while Leeds have yet to lose an away game when ahead at the break. Will a first-half goal make the difference tonight?
That’s Numberwang!
🎦 5ivelights
In no particular order, a collection of our favourite goals or clips from across the 72.
Unequal under Murphy’s Law — Pompey’s in-form wide-man smashes in the first against QPR.
Dunne Roamin’ — It didn’t count for much, but Jimmy Dunne’s cheeky chip for QPR showed lovely deftness.
Marinade me in it — Mariner’s George McEachran moves hearts, minds and the football with a wobbling drive.
Give an inch and take a Miles Leaburn — Charlton’s striker dances through the underworld of a Grecian defence.
Stoked for Cambridge — And Stokes for Cambridge with a belter from the D to put the W on the U’s name.
The View From…
Every August, the new season has endorphins overflowing.
On the cusp of the 24/25 season, I had big plans for NTT20. Lofty hopes and expectations all mapped out. At the end? Success. Glory. More paid subscribers. Surely, this was going to be our year.
It’s a feeling shared across each club in the 72. Managers hired, squads built (ish). Freshness. Hope. Success. Glory. Promotion.
But football often has other plans.
The weekend’s matches in League Two, and most of those in League One, were the reverse fixtures from Opening Day, and contrasting that August weekend to the slate just past provides a timely reminder of Football’s Other Plans.
For Northampton and Bristol Rovers, Blackpool and Crawley, Carlisle and Gillingham, Saturday’s meetings were akin to a belated second date with someone that, since the first, has had multiple cosmetic procedures rendering them practically unrecognisable.
But in each instance, there’s no place for judgement. A glance in the mirror for each club reflects a similar level of reconstruction - major surgery, partly by choice, partly enforced, most of it an attempt to repair the damage done by a previous procedure.
But just as the eyes can’t hide the truth, the league table doesn’t lie at this stage of the season. All of these sides have been actively striving for a better look, but are they helping or hindering themselves? Let’s go through it.
At Sixfields, Kevin Nolan’s Northampton came from behind to beat Iñigo Calderón’s Bristol Rovers 2-1, sweet revenge for that dramatic Gas victory at The Mem in August, won in injury time when Bryant Bilongo headed past Lee Burge. Burge and Bilongo weren’t on the pitch this time, while Jon Brady and Matt Taylor’s only presence in the dugout was in ghost form. Each side had four starters on Saturday who had started on Opening Day. For Cobblers: McGowan, McGeehan, Pinnock and Hoskins. The Rovers Four were Wilson, Hutchinson, Thomas and Sinclair. This result puts the sides four and three points above the relegation zone, respectively. This is their final form for 24/25 - have they done enough?
In Blackpool, where the home side successfully avenged their own opening-day defeat, there were 6 familiar starters in tangerine: Casey, Husband, Coulson, Carey, Evans, and Hamilton. Directing them from the sidelines was Steve Bruce rather than Neil Critchley, himself giving Hearts a lift. For Crawley, plundered by Milton Keynes, among others, it was just 3 starters: Wollacott, Anderson, Hepburn-Murphy. The club underwent an enforced managerial transplant in the form of Rob Elliot, and a partial reshaping of the team - nips and tucks are just a part of weekly life for Crawley Town.
Then there’s Carlisle. They’ve tried everything. Treatments, injections, peels, surgeries, constant contouring - they’ve barely taken a breath in their quest to look better. But the more they have done, the more they have needed to do. Paul Simpson. Mike Williamson. Now Mark Hughes. 42 players used in League Two this season, and only two starters here from the team that lost 1-4 at Priestfield in August: Archie Davies and Terrell Thomas. As for Gillingham, it was five: Hutton, Ehmer, Clark, McKenzie, Little. Since that four-goal haul, which surely signified the start of a bright new era under Mark Bonner, they’ve scored 22 goals in 30 league matches. Bonner became Coleman. Rowe, Nolan and Wakeling has become Nevitt and Gbode, with Dack off the bench. Winless in 12, with six goals in that time.
Carlisle and Gillingham drew 0-0. Both have spent the last 6-12 months becoming increasingly distorted versions of themselves, and neither has experienced the lift they crave.
Across these six teams, for whom football had other plans, only 24 of the 66 Opening Day starters, or 36%, were in the XI. None of the six original managers - with their pre-seasons of promise and their careful strategic route to success - are still there.
Manager changes, transfers in and out - it’s all cosmetic. You do it, in part, because everybody else is doing it. Sometimes it makes you look and feel better, but often it doesn’t have anything like the impact you expected.
But you can’t do much to the blood that runs through your veins. As ever, it’s the fans (and Sam Hoskins) that survive and sustain, and very little else.
You can plan, implement process and hope for progress. But, generally speaking, football has other plans.
🏆 Fantasy Football
Go head-to-head against team NTT20 in our EFL Fantasy Football league
The gaffer was Matt Watts. The striker was cheeky. The midfield was wiley. The card was red (for Cardiff’s Goutas). The points were strong: sixty-four of em in a double game week.
And NTT20 have cracked the top 100. It shouldn’t go unsaid that the top performers in our league reflect most of the top performers in the overall EFL league. Table-topping Mr Browne’s Boys are second in the overall competition with 2,739 points. We’ve got some good eggs and some very clever eggs, and the biggest egghead of the week was Gotham Pirates with 96 points.