Key events
Peep peep! The second halves are under way in the Championship. Things are looking for good for Coventry, bad for Luton, and for the rest it’s complicated.
A bit of half-time reading
As. It. Stands.
The half-time scores in the Championship
GOAL! Watford 1-1 Sheff Wed (Sissoko 45+1)
GOAL! Coventry 1-0 Middlesbrough (Rudoni 44)
A big goal at the CBS Arena. Both sides have had chances but it’s Coventry who have struck first. Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, a constant threat on the right, teased his man and flipped a lovely cross to the near post, where Jack Rudoni rose highest to guide a header into the far corner.
That goal, and results elsewhere, gives Coventry a bit of a cushion. For now, anyway; you’d imagine there will be another 5478 twists in the second half.
43 min: Bristol City 0-1 Preston It sounds like City haven’t played well at all in the first half. They’re still in the playoff places right now, but a goal for Millwall or Blackburn would change that.
GOAL! Swansea 1-1 Oxford (Leigh 40)
41 min: West Brom 3-1 Luton Things are looking bleak for Luton, who are facing back-to-back relegations. They came into this game in terrific form – three wins in a row, one defeat in the last nine – but they’ve been taken apart by West Brom.
The ups and downs as things stand
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Champions Burnley
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Promoted Leeds
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Playoffs Sheff Utd, Sunderland, Coventry, Bristol City
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Relegated Luton, Plymouth, Cardiff
Miss-of-the-season contender
36 min: Burnley 1-1 Millwall An untimely miss-of-the-season contender from Millwall’s Josh Coburn, who has poked wide of an open goal from about three yards. Sheesh, that will be swimming round his subconscious all summer if it costs Millwall a playoff place.
The latest scores
Coventry 0-0 Middlesbrough Still goalless in this one, but after a tough start Middlesbrough are beginning to create chances. As things stand, a goal for Boro would put them in the playoffs.
GOAL! West Brom 3-1 Luton (Fellows 33)
Luton are now officially in all sorts. Tom Fellows has put West Brom 3-1 up, finishing expertly after a classy passing move. If Luton lose, they will be down unless Hull – currently 1-0 up – lose at Portsmouth.
GOAL! West Brom 2-1 Luton (Dike 30)
Luton are in trouble now. The USA international Daryl Dike, starting his first league game in a couple of years, has headed West Brom in front at the Hawthorns. This is what it means at the bottom of the table.
The latest scores
Josh Windass has put Sheffield Wednesday ahead at Vicarage Road.
GOAL! Bristol City 0-1 Preston (Riis 28)
Well well, this changes the picture at both ends of the table. Emil Riis has put Preston ahead from a corner, a goal that lifts Preston from 21st to 17th. To say things are Spandex-tight would be an understatement.
The as-it-stands table after 25 minutes
GOALS! Norwich 3-0 Cardiff (Sainz 23); Swansea 1-0 Oxford (Eom 23)
Ji-Sung Eom’s goal for Swansea was extremely tasty, flashed into the top corner from the left edge of the area.
GOAL! Norwich 2-0 Cardiff (Nunez 17) Double jeopardy for Cardiff at Carrow Road. Calum Chambers was sent off for a last-man foul, and Marcelino Nunez curled the resulting free-kick into the top corner for his second goal.
GOAL! Plymouth 1-0 Leeds (Byram og 19)
Leeds are behind at Home Park, which means Burnley are champions as things stand. Musatapha Bundu turned Joe Rodon inside out and hit a shot that deflected in off Sam Byram.
GOAL! Portsmouth 0-1 Hull (Crooks 18)
Another twist at the bottom – Hull are ahead at Fratton Park, which is bad news for Luton in particular. Matt Crooks finished off from close range after a corner was touched across the area.
The latest scores
Marcelino Nunez has put Norwich ahead against Cardiff, who are down to 10 men after Calum Chambers was sent off for a Dogso. Lots of Arsenal alumni at Carrow Road today: the two managers are Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey.
GOALS! Burnley 1-1 Millwall (Brownhill, Ivanovic 11)
Millwall were ahead at Burnley… for about 20 seconds. Mihailo Ivanovic poked home at the end of an efficient counter-attack; then, almost straight from the kick-off, Josh Brownhill passed the ball into the net for his 17th goal of the season.
Coventry 0-0 Middlesbrough Coventry are missing chances galore in the early stages of this one. Meanwhile…
GOAL! West Brom 1-1 Luton (Alli 9)
Luton are no longer in the bottom three. Millenic Alli has equalised straight away with a fine solo goal, one that he celebrated with a Beagrie backflip.
GOAL! West Brom 1-0 Luton (Kaminski og 8)
Luton have dropped into the bottom three of the as-it-stands table. Tom Fellows’ shot hits the post, then ricochets into the net off the back of the Luton keeper Thomas Kaminski.
5 min: Coventry 0-0 Middlesbrough It’s been a fast start from Coventry, with Ellis Simms cracking a shot just wide of the near post from a right-wing cross.
GOAL! Sunderland 0-1 QPR (Madsen 5)
The first goal of the day has come in one of the less important games – Nicolas Madsen has put QPR ahead at the Stadium of Light with a smart finish.
Sunderland will finish fourth regardless of today’s result, but they could do with a win.
Kick off
Peeeeeeeeeeep peeeeeeeeeep!
Parachute payments. Discuss.
The Football League’s hope that the new football regulator would intervene in the debate were also dashed when the sport minister, Stephanie Peacock, said in October that the government “absolutely [doesn’t] want [parachute payments] to be abolished”. It is understood that the system would be reviewed only if the regulator could establish a “direct causal link” between those payments and the risk of clubs facing insolvency. In other words, the arrangement is here to stay.
Coventry v Middlesbrough team news
Coventry (4-2-3-1) Wilson; van Ewijk, Thomas, Kitching, Bidwell; Grimes, Sheaf; Sakamoto, Rudoni, Wright; Simms.
Subs: Collins, Binks, Allen, Paterson, Borges Rodrigues, Latibeaudiere, Thomas-Asante, Eccles, Moore.
Middlesbrough (4-2-3-1) Travers; Dijksteel, Fry, Howson, Iling-Junior; Hackney, Morris; Whittaker, Borges, Azaz; Conway.
Subs: Glover, van den Berg, Barlaser, Iheanacho, Burgzorg, Forss, Edmundson, Lenihan, Giles.
Referee Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire)
Burnley v Millwall team news
Burnley (4-2-3-1) Trafford; Roberts, Egan-Riley, Esteve, Lucas Pires; Brownhill, Cullen; Edwards, Mejbri, Anthony; Barnes.
Subs: Hladky, Sonne, Worrall, Sarmiento, Redmond, Foster, Ramsey, Laurent, Koleosho.
Millwall (4-2-3-1) Evans; Crama, Tanganga, Cooper, Sturge; De Norre,
Saville; Honeyman, Ivanovic, Azeez; Coburn.
Subs: Przewozny, Wintle, Kelly, Langstaff, Leonard, Emakhu, Cundle, Harding, Matthews.
Referee Andrew Kitchen (Durham)
Derby v Stoke team news
Derby (3-5-2) Vickers; Langas, Phillips, Clarke, Wilson, Armstrong, Adams, Thompson, Forsyth; Yates, Harness.
Subs: Luthra, Barkhuizen, Osborn, Roofe, Mendez-Laing, Goudmijn, Jackson, Blackett-Taylor, Pieters.
Stoke (4-2-3-1) Johansson; Wilmot, Phillips, Gibson, Gooch; Burger, Baker; Lawal, Bae, Al Hamadi; Gallagher.
Subs: Bonham, Pearson, Seko, Moran, Koumas, Manhoef, Fawunmi, Lowe, Griffin.
Referee Oliver Langford (W Midlands)
Plymouth v Leeds team news
Plymouth (3-4-2-1) Hazard; Szucs, Palsson, Taloverov; Edwards, Roberts, Randell, Mumba; Hardie, Bundu; Tijani.
Subs: Grimshaw, Ogbeta, Houghton, Wright, Boateng, Katic, Sorinola, Baidoo, Issaka.
Leeds (4-2-3-1) Darlow; Bogle, Rodon, Ampadu, Byram; Tanaka, Gruev; Gnonto, Aaronson, Solomon, Piroe.
Subs: Meslier, Schmidt, Wober, Guilavogui, Rothwell, Ramazani, Gray, Fernandez, Bamford.
Referee Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire)
Portsmouth v Hull team news
Portsmouth (4-2-3-1) Killip; Devlin, Shaughnessy, Atkinson, Ogilvie; Potts, Lang; Blair, Pack, Murphy; Bishop.
Subs: Schmid, Poole, Bramall, Dozzell, Hayden, Gordon, Ritchie, Saydee, O’Mahony.
Hull (4-2-3-1) Pandur; Lewie Coyle, Egan, Hughes, McLoughlin; Crooks, Puerta; Kamara, Gelhardt, Joseph; Joao Pedro.
Subs: Lo-Tutala, Jones, Lincoln, Burns, Alzate, Drameh, Amrabat, Palmer, Burstow.
Referee John Busby (Oxfordshire)
Bristol City v Preston North End team news
Bristol City (3-4-2-1) O’Leary; Tanner, Vyner, Dickie; Hirakawa, Williams, Knight, McCrorie; Twine, Bird; Wells.
Subs: Bajic, Roberts, Morrison, McGuane, Earthy, Bell, Mehmeti, Armstrong.
Preston North End (3-1-4-2) Cornell; Storey, Lindsay, Gibson; Whiteman; Kesler-Hayden, Ledson, Brady, Hughes; Osmajic, Jakobsen.
Subs: Stowell, Porteous, Bauer, Meghoma, Thordarson, Greenwood, Evans, Mawene.
Referee James Linington (Isle of Wight)
Sheff Utd v Blackburn team news
Sheff Utd (possible 4-2-3-1) Adam Davies, Gilchrist, Ahmedhodzic, Holding, McCallum; Vinicius Souza, Peck; Brooks, O’Hare, Brooks; Cannon.
Subs: Faxon, Brewster, Moore, Burrows, Robinson, Tom Davies, Campbell, Seriki, One.
Blackburn (4-2-3-1) Toth; Brittain, Hyam, Batth, Yuri Ribeiro; Tronstad, Travis; Dolan, Cantwell, Hedges; Ohashi.
Subs: Pears, Sanderson, Carter, Pickering, Forshaw, Kargbo, Woodrow, Dennis, Gueye.
Referee Farai Hallam (Surrey)
Relegation permutations
Hull start in 22nd place, one point adrift of Luton, Preston and Derby, and two behind Stoke. Derby play Luton, which adds to the intrigue and means Hull will definitely stay up if they win at Portsmouth.
West Brom v Luton team news
West Brom (4-2-3-1) Griffiths; Furlong, Bartley, Heggem, Styles; Diakite, Mowatt; Fellows, Price, Ahearne-Grant; Dike.
Subs: Wildsmith, Ajayi, Molumby, Whitwell, Johnston, Diangana, Lankshear, Armstrong, Cole.
Luton (3-4-3) Kaminski; Makosso, McGuinness, Mengi; Jones, Clark, Walsh, Bell; Alli, Morris, Aasgaard.
Subs: Krul, Andersen, Naismith, Chong, Burke, Dabo, Baptiste, Nelson, Nordas.
Referee Darren Bond (Lancashire)
Playoff permutations
In short, all five teams in contention need to win to be guaranteed a playoff place. But a draw or even a defeat could be enough for some teams. The fact two of the contenders have extremely tough games – Millwall are at Burnley, Blackburn at Sheff Utd – means even ninth-placed Middlesbrough have a realistic chance of qualifying if they win at Coventry.
Bristol City are in pole position, aka fifth, and will be guaranteed a playoff semi-final against Sunderland if they win. They could theoretically lose and still make the cut.
As I type, Ben Fisher is doing an EFL Q&A over on our matchday live blog. Pop along if you’d like to ask him any questions.
Mind the trapdoor
Today’s fixtures
The ones in bold are our featured games.
Preamble
Twelve out of 24 ain’t bad. That’s how many teams have something significant to play for on the last day of the regular Championship season. All 12 games kick off at 12.30pm, and we’ll be following all the action here. Before we look at the fixtures, let’s see what’s at stake.
Title Leeds and Burnley are aiming to become champions.
Playoffs Two of Bristol City, Coventry, Millwall, Blackburn and Middlesbrough will join Sheffield United and Sunderland in the playoffs.
Relegation One of Hull City, Luton Town, Preston North End, Derby County and Stoke City will join Cardiff and Plymouth in League One next season.
Look, one way or another, it’s going to be dramatic.
