Wrexham beat Blades 5-3, managerless Oxford defrock Saints, Mansfield & Bromley nick 3-2 comeback wins + League One hands out hidings
All of the important EFL headlines and results from Boxing Day – welcome to Festive Notes
Huw Davies
Hungover? Not sure what day it is? Saw your own team’s game but have no idea what happened elsewhere? Fret not – here’s a cracker-sized run-down of the EFL Boxing Day action you may have missed…
Championship
We start at the end. Wrexham v Sheffield United was the televised late kick-off and it promised plenty, given their previous meetings of the Hollywood era had finished 3-3, 3-1 and 4-2. If anything, it overdelivered: 1-1 after 10 minutes and 3-1 to Blades after 25, with Femi Seriki assisting Pat Bamford twice from right-back. Then Wrexham roared back to win 5-3, echoing their National League goalfests under Phil Parkinson and leaving Chris Wilder stunned. Kieffer Moore scoring a brace added salt to the wound, though the former Blade did at least assist one of their goals first.
Oxford, led by caretaker manager Craig Short following Gary Rowett’s departure, shocked Southampton. Tyler Goodrham’s floor-to-net missile, in 5iveLights below, put the Yellows 1-0 up but they were quickly pegged back. Jamie Cumming’s heroics kept the scores level, however, which allowed Stan Mills to net a breakaway winner in the 89th minute, more than earning the shirt-off treatment. Hell, we might’ve dropped trou.
In the two away wins, Bristol City beat a wasteful West Bromwich Albion 2-1, while Leicester surrendered a lead at home to Watford in a 2-1 defeat that was notable for Abdul Fatawu trying to make The Godfather Part II and failing.
The rest of the second tier featured six draws, most of them less madcap than Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Hull (the Tigers twice clawing back the Owls) and Birmingham 1-1 Derby (a goal apiece, a red card apiece, and eight saves by Jacob Widell Zetterström in the visitors’ net). Dropped points for Middlesbrough and Ipswich allowed Coventry to streak eight points clear of 2nd and 13 clear of 3rd with a 1-0 win over Swansea. Book the bus, order the ribbons.
League One
The EFL’s forgotten middle child acted out on Boxing Day: four thrashings, four last-minute winners, three goals per game, two red cards for one team and a party for Stags at Barnsley.
The Tykes were 2-0 up within a quarter of an hour, but Louis Reed’s penalty gave Mansfield a sniff and they sneezed all over Barnsley. After half-time, Stephen McLaughlin made it 2-2, Aaron Lewis 2-3, and Nigel Clough could celebrate a first league win since October.
Reading’s comeback in Plymouth was more straightforward. Joe Ralls was sent off early on and Lewis Wing scored from the spot, before he and Kamari Doyle put the visitors 3-0 up within 20 minutes. A few Argyle fans would’ve wanted to deck the Ralls after that. Xavier Amaechi reduced the deficit and Lorent Tolaj could’ve made things interesting, but his penalty was saved and Jack Marriott settled the tab: 4-1 to Reading, bursting Argyle’s bubble after three wins in a row.
Speaking of 4-1 – and that’s how to segué – Burton Albion led Northampton by that scoreline as early as half-time. It finished 5-1, Tyrese Shade doubling his tally to put the two teams level on points and goal difference in 15th/16th. Exciting! It was one-way traffic in Luton, too, as they thumped Wycombe 4-0 by restricting the Chairboys to three shots all game.
Meanwhile, Darren Moore was being haunted by the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present as his former club, Huddersfield, beat his current one, Port Vale, 5-0 with all goals scored before the hour mark. Vale are now 10 points from safety and visit 3rd-placed Bradford on Monday. For Moore, is the worst Yet To Come?
Finally in League One, there were late winners for Bolton (beating Rotherham 2-1 on 90+3’ having conceded an equaliser on 90’), Bradford (seeing off nine-man Wigan at the death) and Peterborough (1-0 over Leyton Orient, scoring in the 94th minute). Yet the most significant was Rob Street’s 92nd-minute penalty to give Lincoln a 2-1 victory at stuttering Stockport, because it keeps Michael Skubala’s men within three points of table-topping Cardiff. Impish.
And how’s this for a bonkers league table? Ninth place sits just four points above the relegation zone.
League Two
Thankfully for some, i.e. me, League Two was deathly quiet. Four 1-0 home wins. Two 0-0s, two 1-1s. Less than two goals per game in total. The day after Christmas, barely a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Of course, there were some noisy exceptions. Accrington scored a last-gasp goal to beat Barrow 2-1 and pull away from trouble, while MK Dons crept up on top-three Swindon by defeating them 1-0 through Aaron Nemane’s great solo effort (below). Chesterfield’s 2-0 win over Notts County puts the pair level on points in a tight, tight top seven.
But I’m burying the lede. Red cards don’t come much costlier than Shaq Forde’s in the 53rd minute of Bristol Rovers v Bromley, which came at 2-0 in a game that ended 2-3 to the Londoners. Goalscorer Fabrizio Cavegn missed a golden chance to give the 10 men a 3-0 lead, whereupon Bromley made him, Forde and Steve Evans pay. Nicke Kabamba sweeps home – bish! Ben Thompson’s in acres, just after coming on – bash! Thompson’s inexplicably unmarked again – bosh!
For the fans, away wins don’t come better.
🎦 Our Top 5 clips from the EFL weekend
For here’s a jolly Goodrham strike, and so say all of U’s.
Walking down Nemane Street – Aaron settles MK Dons v Swindon in style.
Bamford: balletic (and then the game went crazy)
You can’t beat top quality from marksman Sparkes at Christmas.
O Maamma, he’s brought out the trivela.
📊 Your Monday morning cheat sheet
💥 GOOOOOAAALLLLL — This was the 12th meeting between Wrexham and Sheffield United; those 12 matches have produced 54 goals (4.5 per game).
🥱 NO GOOOOAALLLS — There were just 22 goals in the 12 League Two games, making this the lowest-scoring set of Boxing Day fixtures ever in the fourth tier (when 12 have been played).
🍺 BREWERS FOUR-X — Burton Albion’s 4-0 half-time lead over Northampton represented the most goals they’ve scored in the first 45 minutes of a match since October 2014.
🔄 DO CALL IT A COMEBACK — Watford’s come-from-behind win against Leicester takes them to 23 points picked up from losing positions in 2025/26 – the most in the EFL.
🙃 UPSIDE-DOWN YELLOWS — After playing everybody once, Oxford United have picked up 73% of their points this season (16/22) against sides currently in the top half.
🦌 STRUTTING STAGS — Mansfield won a Football League away fixture from 2-0 down for the first time since January 2019, when they beat Colchester United 3-2.
🔥 ON FIRE — After scoring 4 goals in his first 32 appearances in League Two, Tranmere’s Charlie Whitaker now has 7 in his last 8.
🐕 TERRIER-VISION — Huddersfield’s 5-0 pantsing of Port Vale was their biggest league win in just under a decade, going back to January 2016’s 5-0 victory over Charlton in the Championship.
🔥 SKY-BLUE THINKING — Coventry are only the second team to have picked up 50+ points (51) and scored 50+ goals (54) at the halfway stage of a Championship season, following Wolves in 2008/09.
SkyBet Championship
Birmingham 1-1 Derby
Coventry 1-0 Swansea
Leicester 1-2 Watford
Middlesbrough 0-0 Blackburn
Millwall 0-0 Ipswich
Norwich 1-0 Charlton
Oxford 2-1 Southampton
Portsmouth 1-1 QPR
Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Hull
Stoke 0-0 Preston
West Brom 1-2 Bristol City
Wrexham 5-3 Sheffield United
Sky Bet League One
AFC Wimbledon 0-0 Stevenage
Barnsley 2-3 Mansfield
Blackpool 1-0 Doncaster
Bolton 2-1 Rotherham
Bradford 2-1 Wigan
Burton Albion 5-1 Northampton
Cardiff 1-0 Exeter
Huddersfield 5-0 Port Vale
Luton 4-0 Wycombe
Peterborough 1-0 Leyton Orient
Plymouth Argyle 1-4 Reading
Stockport 1-2 Lincoln
Sky Bet League Two
Accrington 2-1 Barrow
Bristol Rovers 2-3 Bromley
Cheltenham 3-1 Shrewsbury
Chesterfield 2-0 Notts County
Crawley 1-1 Colchester
Gillingham 1-1 Cambridge
Grimsby 0-0 Oldham
MK Dons 1-0 Swindon
Newport 0-0 Barnet
Salford 1-0 Harrogate
Tranmere 1-0 Fleetwood
Walsall 1-0 Crewe
Thanks for reading!
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