What just happened? And what happens next: Bank Holiday Monday in the EFL
Looking forwards and backwards over the Easter weekend.
Hope you’ve all had a cracking Easter. We are doing something a little different with Weekend Notes given the tightly-packed slate.
Huw Davies (Championship), Sam Parry (League One) and Ali Maxwell (League Two) will pick the standout fixtures from each league, with a bit of context after Friday’s games.
Before we get into that, a quick word on the first team outside of the Premier League’s top five to beat Arsenal this season. Southampton were not lucky in their 2-1 FA Cup victory. Shea Charles’ late goal secured a semi-final at Wembley, and Tonda Eckert’s side bloody deserved it.
As Nas almost put it: “EFL represent, represent.”
Championship
Huw Davies
AT THE TOP…
It’s a cracking line-up in the battle for automatic promotion.
Sorry to bring rugby into the conversation, but one great bit of sporting scheduling is the final day of the Six Nations. Rather than teams all playing simultaneously, as they would on the final day of a league season or group stage in football (which is certainly fairer), the three matches are played back-to-back-to-back. The result is much drama as each contender sees what their rivals have done and then tries to outdo them.
On Easter Monday we have:
1pm: Millwall v Norwich
3pm: Ipswich v Birmingham
5.30pm: Swansea v Middlesbrough
Yes, please.
Millwall host Norwich on Cloud 9, having come from behind on Good Friday to beat Middlesbrough and climb into 2nd. In a frankly sensational game, Boro had the better of the first half and Millwall had the better of the second, as was the case in their recent 1-1 draw with Ipswich… but this time they went one better, and won.
Boro had won the early intensity battle, personified by Luke Ayling’s huge tackle on a breaking Josh Coburn and Kim Hellberg’s even huger celebration of it. Dael Fry scored a minute later. In the second half, Millwall woke from their enforced daze and equalised through Coburn, who then curled a late winner past/under Sol Brynn’s despairing hand - a brace for the ex-Boro boy.
The stats will show Boro had three times as many touches in the opposition box (66-21), three times as many shots (32-11) and more than three times the xG (3.35 to 0.86), but, like horny dinosaurs on a hidden island, Millwall find a way.
Hellberg’s men have a chance to put things right against Swansea on Monday, though the Swans are on a high from their resurrection at Bramall Lane, where they drew 3-3 having trailed 3-1. Before that, a well-rested Ipswich face an out-of-sorts Birmingham.
AT THE BOTTOM…
All of the bottom six are playing each other.
Leicester must avoid a banana skin at Hillsborough, having failed to turn their dominance into three points in a 2-2 draw with Preston. First, Portsmouth v Oxford is the televised 12.30pm kick-off, and it could hardly be any bigger. Both drew 1-1 on Friday, Oxford proving wasteful against Hull while Portsmouth grabbed a useful point at Carrow Road thanks to Norwich’s Pelle Matsson scoring at both ends (well, the same end in different halves).
Those two will be glad that Blackburn and West Bromwich Albion are playing each other, because each of them are in decent form (Albion, DDWWD; Rovers, DLWDW) but one or both will have to drop points, such is the nature of things.
Blackburn were deserving 1-0 winners away to Birmingham on Friday. The Baggies, though, led a 2-0 lead slip as Wrexham cancelled out their pair of set-piece goals with a pair of very slick moves. In the final few minutes, Arthur Okonkwo made a superb save from point-blank range to keep it at 2-2 and Kieffer Moore felt he should’ve had a penalty for this unsubtle push by Nat Phillips.
AND ON TUESDAY…
There’s the small matter of Wrexham v Southampton going head-to-head in a direct shootout for 6th place.
Pure Hollywood.
League One
Sam Parry
Lincoln were big winners. We’ll get to them.
But first, the biggest losers in League One? The play-off hopefuls outside the play-offs. Stevenage (D), Wycombe (L) and Plymouth Argyle (L) all lost ground when playing against the teams in 22nd, 3rd and 5th.
3rd vs 5th, eh…?
Bolton (3rd) vs Stockport (5th)
Have Dave Challinor’s Stockport side finally clicked?
It’s not just three wins on the spin. The style of Stockport’s victories changes the tone. What has changed? Ben Osborn at left back in a 4-2-3-1 is a small shift away from the 3-4-3 that has defined most of the campaign. They were excellent in their 3-0 thumping of Wycombe, a side with real play-off ambitions themselves.
Tomorrow, a win against Bolton would put both sides on 69 points and all but lock in a play-off spot.
Bolton, though, are building something of their own.
They beat a resurgent Argyle side on Friday despite playing the entire second half with 10 men after John McAtee’s red card. OK, it helped that they were gifted a penalty. And it helped that, after Ronan Curtis equalised for Argyle, Sam Dalby bundled in a winner that looked a simple claim for the keeper. Not exactly pretty, but a super backs-to-walls success. Not many teams beat this version of Argyle. Former manager Steven Schumacher seems to have the knack – he’s P4 W4 against them.
All of that sets up a proper play-off game. Bit of local edge. And if Cardiff wobble, both will dream of keeping the Bluebirds honest.
Reading (6th) vs Lincoln (1st)
Royals vs Imps. 6th vs 1st. This is Game of Thrones stuff.
Lincoln need a single point to make it official. In truth, Ryan Oné’s 88th-minute winner on Good Friday has all but settled promotion, although the pesky maths says otherwise.
But Reading won’t roll out the red carpet. They have already fended off Huddersfield over the Easter Weekend (1-1) to hold onto the final play-off position (62pts). Lewis Wing scored from the spot to register a double-double for the season: 10 goals and 11 assists. Wing reached the milestone about 10 minutes after Stoke’s Sorba Thomas became the first in the EFL to do it in 2025/26. He’s a player capable of shifting a game on his own, even if the task is of another magnitude now. Should they lose, there are battalions ready to go over the top:
“Chaos”, as Game of Thrones’ Petyr Baelish put it, “is a ladder”:
AFC Wimbledon vs Luton (11th/58pts)
Barnsley vs Plymouth Argyle (9th/59pts)
Leyton Orient vs Huddersfield (10th/58pts)
Stevenage (7th/61pts) vs Blackpool
and…
Wycombe (8th/59pts) vs Bradford (4th)
Bradford’s 1–0 victory over Northampton on Good Friday came on home turf. At Valley Parade, they’ve been formidable, racking up points at 2.40 per game. On the road, however, it’s a very different story: 20 games have yielded just 20 points (W5, D5, L5). A real case of chalk and cheese.
Wycombe, meanwhile, have a chance to close the gap on the play-off places. With a win, and results elsewhere going in their favour, they could even climb into 6th. Of course, that’s all hypothetical. But we like hypotheticals, so here’s a biggie…
If Bradford were to slip up, would there be enough games left for Graham Alexander to start feeling uneasy about their top-six position? By full-time tomorrow, their cushion to 7th could stretch to as much as 10 points or shrink to just four.
Exeter (21st) vs Doncaster (17th)
Down at the bottom…
The doors of the last chance saloon are open for Exeter, and by Monday evening, we’ll know if they’ve swung back in their face.
After losing to Blackpool on Friday, the Grecians would find themselves in desperate trouble with another defeat. They could end the weekend anywhere between a 0-, 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-point gap to safety.
It will be a maximum of 4 points if they can overcome Donny. But given Exeter haven’t won in 15, you’d think Grant McCann’s side will be hungry to secure their own survival and wind down into the final 5 games.
Northampton (23rd) vs Wigan (20th)
Finally, a word on Wigan, who didn’t even need to win to come out of Friday as one of the biggest winners at the bottom. After drawing with Leyton Orient, they watched on as Rotherham drew, Northampton lost, Exeter lost and Burton drew.
Sometimes survival is about standing still. Swap “survival” for “relegation”, and you could level that accusation at the Cobblers. They’ve amassed 6 points from a possible 45 and have only the faintest of survival chances: win every game. Simple, eh?
League Two
Ali Maxwell
The top five winners of Good Friday in League Two? Salford, Chesterfield, Oldham, Crawley and Harrogate. Each are mentioned in this breakdown of Monday’s four most impactful fixtures…
Oldham (8th) vs MK Dons (2nd)
I would absolutely hate to be playing against Oldham right now. Seven weeks ago, the Latics were in 16th place with eight league wins all season. Since then, it’s 9 wins in 11 games, conceding only 4 goals and picking up six points more than the next best team in that same timeframe: Bristol Rovers. After last gasp defeat to Crewe the previous weekend, Micky Mellon’s side bounced back fruitfully to dispose of Colchester in Essex on Good Friday – Jamie Robson playing the role of vicar, delivering graceful crosses onto grateful foreheads. 3-1, thanks for coming. One point off the play-offs. Next?
Next is MK Dons. One of the most expensively assembled League Two teams ever, they spent the start of 2026 bulldozing everything in their path – 33 points from 13 games, leaders Bromley in their sights. Then they lost to Barnet. Then Salford. Then, on Good Friday, they drew 0-0 at home to Barrow in frustrating fashion: one off the post, one off the line, two brilliant saves, no goals. One point from three games. Time for MK to flex their squad depth muscles and stop the wobble.
Best for them not to worry, for now, about Bromley. The league leaders did the sort of thing that champions do: a 101st-minute equaliser against Barnet, scored by academy striker George Evans with just his 11th touch as a Bromley player. Machedaaaaaa, anyone?! A hugely significant goal that maintains their five-point lead at the top. They play Shrewsbury on Tuesday.
More pressingly for Milton Keynes, three teams are just two points behind…
Crewe (9th) vs Salford (5th)
One of them is Salford City, the only top seven team to win on Good Friday, and in bonkers circumstances. 0-0 when the board went up for stoppage time, 2-1 at full time, six minutes later. Three set-piece goals, ending with a second straight winner scored by Matt Butcher. Magpies to the slaughter, despite the best efforts of James Belshaw. Now, this piece is more narrative-driven than tactical, but I notice that Karl Robinson appeared to switch to a back four here, and late-season tactical tweaks are always intriguing to me.
Over the last 6 games, Salford have picked up four more points than anyone else in the automatic promotion picture, and are now level with Cambridge and Notts County in third place, with a vastly inferior goal difference.
But this game is not just about them. After winning back-to-back against Shrewsbury and Oldham, Crewe Alex moved into 7th and appeared to be banishing the ghosts of recent springs.
But on Friday, they lost 0-2 against an Accrington side winless in eight, taking just four shots total in the game. Blimey. Lee Bell’s side won at Salford on opening day, and realistically need a result here – they’ve played a game less than Chesterfield and Oldham, who jumped above them on Friday, and two more than Grimsby, one point back…
Crawley (20th) vs Grimsby (10th)
… a Grimsby side that were on the wrong end of Good Friday’s biggest shock result: a 1-3 defeat to Harrogate. It was, you have to say, “one of them”.
One of them where Harrogate scored with their first two shots of the first half, a beauty from Tobias Brenan and Jack Evans’ powerful drive which the generally-excellent Jackson Smith couldn’t keep out. And yet, after Kieran Green pulled one back on 39’, Andy Cook had the chance to equalise before half-time from the spot. Get back to the dressing room at 2-2, and pull away in the second half.
It was one of them.
One where Cook’s penalty was saved by Henry Gray. Where the stuffing was knocked out of the Mariners. And where, after some huffing and puffing early in the second half, Bryn Morris thumped home another perfect strike from range. Harrogate used up half a season’s worth of top-notch finishing to log a huge three points in their bid for survival.
Grimsby, who do seem to suffer badly from 'one-of-them-itis’ have work to do to reignite the play-off tilt, still with a game or two in hand over most. They travel to Sussex to face Colin Kazim Richards’ in-form Crawley Town! A second straight 2-0 win for them, this time in a relegation six-pointer at Rodney Parade — Harry McKirdy at the double, celebrating with a panache that reflects Kazim Richards’ own positive, confident energy since his appointment. What a difference two weeks make. After Tranmere’s defeat to Shrewsbury, Crawley are now out the bottom four.
Barrow (23rd) vs Chesterfield (7th)
The impressiveness of Crawley’s six points against Gillingham and Newport is surely matched by Barrow collecting four points from games against the league’s top two: Bromley and MK Dons. Barrow ticked all the boxes for a gritty away clean sheet: dogged defensive shape, make blocks — 9 of Milton Keynes’ 16 shots to be precise, including an amazing goal-line clearance from Angus MacDonald — and mix in some quality Wyll Stanway saves. One point off safety and seemingly buoyed by Sam Foley’s leadership, they have a home game on Monday against Chesterfield.
Paul Cook’s side were, along with Oldham, the big winners of Good Friday in the play-off picture, with a 1-0 win at home to Cheltenham. Mr Reliable (or should that be Mr Versatile?) Liam Mandeville sent across a peach of a ball for Will Dickson to finish. Like Matt Butcher, that was his second straight match-winning goal. If a 1-0 scoreline makes it sound like a tight one, here’s an extra piece of detail: Chesterfield also hit the woodwork four times.
This is only the third time Chesterfield have won back-to-back league games all season. Can they find that elusive consistency just when they need it? Or will it be ‘Holy moley, Sam Foley’ in the midst of 30mph winds on the peninsula?
Whatever happens, the fourth tier is providing top tier drama, and we can’t wait. Full recap on Not The Top 20 Podcast on Tuesday at 4:30pm, on podcast platforms and on YouTube.
Got to be over for Hourihane now. Yes the main problem is the owners but his tombola machine strategy is not working.