Table-topping Bantams look heavyweight, Wednesday win, Boro remain unbeaten, and Barnet get busy against Grimsby
The biggest and best weekend football recap this side of the top 20.
Championship
Matt Watts
When it comes to EFL smiles, there aren’t many that shine brighter than a Rob Edwards smile – and Handsome Rob has plenty to smile about right now. On Friday night, his Middlesbrough side made it 16 points from a possible 18 by beating West Brom 2-1 at The Riverside, with summer signings David Strelec and Kaly Sène scoring their first goals for the club. Not only does Edwards look refreshed, but it feels as if everything he touches is turning to gold: in this game, his decision to replace Strelec with Sène at half-time took just over 15 minutes to bear fruit. Prior to this season, no Boro team in their 149-year history had won five of their opening six league games. Can they make it six from seven at Southampton next weekend?
Having done their bit on Friday night, Boro watched on as the teams in 2nd and 3rd fell to defeat on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Mark Robins’ Stoke lost 1-0 at QPR as Harvey Vale’s crisp, left-footed strike in the 75th minute proved to be the difference. Julien Stéphan’s R’s have now won three in a row after shipping seven at Coventry last month. On Sunday, Bristol City succumbed to a 3-1 defeat at home to Oxford with Przemy Płacheta and Anis Mehmeti trading long-range efforts. It was a first league defeat for the Robins and a first league victory for the U’s.
Elsewhere, the three relegated teams continue to stutter. Leicester couldn’t find a way past Carl Rushworth as they drew 0-0 with Coventry; Southampton are down in 19th after they lost 3-1 at Hull; and Ipswich were heading for defeat at Blackburn before the match was abandoned with 80 minutes on the clock. Rovers were 1-0 up and Kieran McKenna’s side were down to 10 men, but torrential rain resulted in a waterlogged pitch. What happens next? We’ll leave that to the powers that be!
Down at the bottom, it was a fantastic weekend for one of the Steel City clubs – just not the one you might have expected. Sheffield Wednesday secured their first league win of 2025/26 by beating Portsmouth 2-0 at Fratton Park, no less. A Barry Bannan free-kick and a first senior goal for George Brown gave the Owls all three points. Taking 25 shots but putting only five on target, Pompey didn’t have their shooting boots on, and Conor Shaughnessy pulled up at the worst possible moment.
As for Sheffield United, there was no new/old manager bounce as Chris Wilder’s Blades fell to defeat at home to Charlton. Tanto Olaofe’s stoppage-time winner gave Charlton their first away win of the season and their first victory since opening day. It’s now six games, six defeats and still only one goal scored for the blunt Blades, who go to Oxford – Wilder’s old club – next weekend.
League One
Huw Davies
Are we allowed to look at league tables yet? Because the headline fixture in League One pitted 1st against 2nd, and the headline result was Bradford winning 3-1 at Cardiff to steal their place at the top.
Bradford were superb. Two divisions separated these teams last season; you couldn’t tell. Cardiff’s defending may have been ragged, but only because it was run ragged by their visitors’ attacking movement. A surface-to-goal missile from Tommy Leigh set the tone, then Antoni Sarcevic converted a penalty daftly given away by Gabriel Osho on his Bluebirds debut, and Josh Neufville scored a deflected third before Callum Robinson poached a minor consolation. Cardiff fans need not panic, because their team missed good chances while the Bantams were clinical as well as classy, but it’s a little wake-up call after an opening seven league fixtures without losing nor even conceding a non-penalty goal.
Continuing the overachievers theme, Stevenage and Lincoln also leapfrogged Cardiff with victories (the former fighting on behalf of all towns and boroughs by breaking up an otherwise all-City top four). While Stevenage made relatively heavy work of a 2-1 home win against Exeter – albeit with two excellent goals in Harvey White’s free-kick and Jordan Roberts’ diving header from a delectable Phoenix Patterson cross – Lincoln just blew Luton away. When Jordan Clark’s deft equaliser could’ve nicked a point, Imps sub Justin Obikwu scored to reward Michael Skubala for his attacking intent, and Ben House added his second for 3-1. Back-to-back defeats for Luton.
In fact, all three relegated sides lost, because Peterborough climbed off the bottom by winning 1-0 at Plymouth. A home defeat to 24th is not what Tom Cleverley needed, but he can’t do much about a) the lack of goal-line technology possibly denying his team an equaliser, b) Lorent Tolaj hitting the post from a yard out, and c) Alex Bass making an unbelievable reaction save in the second half. Luca Ashby-Hammond had another lively game in the other goal, conceding a penalty, saving that penalty, then later parrying a shot meekly for Jimmy-Jay Morgan to score Posh’s winner. Cleverley’s Argyle have won 3 and lost 6.
Happier times for a former Pilgrim at Bolton, though, as Steven Schumacher’s side beat Wigan 4-1 – a doubly cathartic result, as not only have Bolton deserved more points from their performances but because they’d lost their last three home meetings with their local rivals by an aggregate score of 10-0. Thierry Gale scored, then set up Marcus Forss; Forss scored, then indirectly set up Mason Burstow; then Wigan’s defenders decided to set up another goal for Forss themselves. Paul Mullin’s curled strike to make it 4-1 was as sweet yet meaningless as a Wes Anderson film.
League Two
Sam Parry
A tuck fun of goals in League Two, but we start at the wrong end of the table with the first managerial casualty in the division this season. Oldham twice struck the post before finally scoring on 34 minutes against Cheltenham. A soft shirt tug gave them a penalty on 75, and in stoppage time Joe Day spilled a tame shot straight to Joe Quigley who sealed a comfortable 3-0 win.
Cheltenham managed just one effort in the box, on 7 minutes. Blunt up top and shaky at the back, Michael Flynn called his squad “probably the worst group of players I’ve had,” before carrying the can. What’s inside the can is flat and rooted to the bottom. They now search for a new boss. Oldham, on the other hand, look solid, with four clean sheets to their name already.
MK Dons were big favourites pre-season, while Accrington Stanley were written off by the bookies. A nice narrative flip here: MK started bright, two early efforts testing Oliver Wright, but faded fast. Accy’s opener was a lovely one-touch, three-pass move, Isaac Sinclair finishing emphatically. The post denied them a second before Alex Gilbey punished a keeping error to level. John Doolan’s side weren’t done, though: Isaac Heath burst down the left and Charlie Caton tapped in his cross. With the game drifting away, Luke Offord’s rash lunge summed up another poor day at Stadium MK — no win in September, and just one point from four games.
Right, those goals we promised. Notts County 4-0 Crawley brought a quad of clichés: Scott Robertson’s left-foot ‘laser’ opened the scoring, a ‘blistering counter’ made it two, Alassana Jatta’s ‘striker’s goal’ made it three, and Tyrese Hall ‘passed it in’ for four. Hall, a Spurs loanee, bagged a brace in 23 minutes – get those highlights watched.
Swindon were caught sleeping as Salford’s Jorge Grant looped in a beauty after four minutes. Karl Robinson’s side doubled their lead from a scrappy midfield win, and Swindon’s four-game streak looked done.
But rain helped a rather soft header to skid past the Salford stopper for 2-1, and then sloppy Salford defending let the Robins back to 2-2. Rain – quite clear MOTM – had one more trick to play. In the dying embers (water will put out fire), Will Wright’s sliding clearance in the wet kept the ball alive for Salford and after the resulting cross and header, the ball stuck in the six-yard box and Kallum Cesay nicked his first for the club to help them leapfrog Swindon into 2nd.
Another biggie. Grimsby have been main characters in League Two this season, but Barnet proved they could be real antagonists. Dean Brennan’s side made all of the running — 10 first-half shots to 5, and 2 on target to 0 — and scored via a Beckham-to-Scholes corner routine which delivered the perfect result from imperfect, bizarre and bouncy execution. Their press forced Grimsby into an Icarus Concession at the back for the second, and Nnamdi Ofoborh smashed home a 25-yard third. None of the three were crafted from glittering build-up but Barnet dominated in this 3-0 win, so KEEP AN EYE.
And finally, Gillingham did not win-to-nil but nonetheless eased past Newport 3-1 away. As Matt wrote last week, Gareth Ainsworth’s side are “remarkably consistent”, and they remain top of League Two.
🎦 Our Top 5 clips from the EFL weekend
Wet Wet Wet. Match abandoned at Ewood Park/Lake.
A delightful angle of Barry Bannan’s free-kick.
Tommy Leigh’s im-peck-able strike for the Bantams.
David Beckham? Meet Jorge Grant.
Uncle Albert - an oldie, but a goodie!
📊 Your Monday morning cheat sheet
📈 Unbeaten streaks — 7 EFL sides are setting unbeaten streaks of 5+ games: Coventry (6), Middlesbrough (6), Bolton (8), Lincoln (7), Bristol Rovers (6), Gillingham (9) and Walsall (5).
⏱️ Fast Starters — The top of the “first-half tables” in each league so far this season: Norwich (13 pts), Lincoln (24 pts), Walsall (19 pts).
🚫 Saints Stumble — Southampton are winless in 9 away league games (D3 L6), losing back-to-back meetings with Hull for the first time since 1951.
☝️ Thorough Boro — Middlesbrough’s 16 points from 6 is their best ever start to a league campaign; they are the only Championship side with a 100% record at home.
🔵 Gills Record — Gillingham are 21 unbeaten (W10 D11), a new all-time club record in the top four tiers.
⚽ Weir Double — Walsall’s Evan Weir netted his first EFL brace — he scored 12 in the National League last season from CB.
🌟 Devine’s intervention — Preston’s Alfie Devine has 2 goals in 4, matching the two goals scored from his first 36 EFL appearances.
⬇️ Blades Blunted — Sheffield United have now lost their opening 6 Championship games, a feat last seen by Wycombe (2020–21) & Peterborough (2012–13)… both went down.
✈️ Posh Lift-off — Peterborough’s 1-0 loss at Plymouth ended an 8-game away drought (L6 D1).
⚫ Magpies Rising — Notts County have won four of their last six league games (D1 L1), more victories than across their previous 13 matches in League Two (W3 D3 L7).
🎯 Muldoon Mark — Since 2020, only Andy Cook (77) has scored more League Two goals for one club (Bradford) than Jack Muldoon has for Harrogate (46).
⏰ Last-Gasp — Jordan Brown’s 98th-minute winner for Blackpool v Barnsley is the latest goal of the EFL season; the loss to nil was just the second time in 18 games that the Tykes have failed to score.
Sky Bet Championship
Birmingham 1-0 Swansea
Blackburn A-A Ipswich
Bristol City 1-3 Oxford
Derby 0-1 Preston
Hull 3-1 Southampton
Leicester 0-0 Coventry
Middlesbrough 2-1 West Brom
Norwich 2-3 Wrexham
Portsmouth 0-2 Sheffield Wednesday
QPR 1-0 Stoke
Sheffield United 0-1 Charlton
Sky Bet League One
Blackpool 1-0 Barnsley
Bolton 4-1 Wigan
Cardiff 1-3 Bradford
Doncaster 1-2 AFC Wimbledon
Huddersfield 0-0 Burton Albion
Lincoln 3-1 Luton
Plymouth 0-1 Peterborough
Port Vale 2-1 Mansfield
Reading 2-1 Leyton Orient
Rotherham 0-1 Stockport
Stevenage 2-1 Exeter
Wycombe 2-0 Northampton
Sky Bet League Two
Barnet 3-0 Grimsby
Barrow 1-0 Crewe
Bromley 2-2 Chesterfield
Cambridge 2-1 Fleetwood
Cheltenham 0-3 Oldham
Colchester 1-1 Bristol Rovers
Harrogate 2-0 Shrewsbury
MK Dons 1-2 Accrington
Newport 1-3 Gillingham
Notts County 4-0 Crawley
Salford 3-2 Swindon
Walsall 4-2 Tranmere
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