Key events
Leyton Orient hit the bar! They are in the mood today.
“Hi Simon,” writes Simon McMahon. Hi Simon! “Scotland’s game of the day is at Easter Road, with Dundee United the visitors to face a Hibs side who lost for the first time in 18 league games last week at Aberdeen [Ed’s note: It’s already 1-0 to Hibs there, Martin Boyle with the goal in the third minute]. United are three points behind both Hibs and Aberdeen in fifth, and really need to win today if they want to have a chance of third, but a point wouldn’t be a disaster, with Aberdeen away to St Mirren and still to come to Tannadice on the last day. It’s all to play for, as it is tomorrow when Celtic go to Ibrox. A word for Falkirk who secured back to back promotions last night and will play in the SPL next season.”
Bert Fill responds to Chris Whiting’s contribution to our Crapico chat: “Chris is spot on about how rubbish the Premier League now is, but completely wrong to say relegation to League One was better than this,” he writes. “It really, really wasn’t!
As for his only having seen three Leicester goals this calendar year? Well that’s what you get for not going to the FA Cup third round game, when we scored six. Part-timer!”
GOAL! Huddersfield 0-1 Leyton Orient!
GOAL! Leyton Orient, who need to win today to secure a playoff place in League One, are already 1-0 up at Huddersfield! It’s a dreadful, dreadful back-pass that gives Orient a two-on-one break from the halfway line, and they make no mistake as Daniel Agyei is teed up to thrash into the roof of the net!
We’ve got a load of sweet, sweet content about today’s football flooding through already. Here’s Ben Fisher on Bristol City and Preston both getting what they needed from the final day of the Championship:
And here’s Paul MacInnes on Coventry’s playoff-clinching 2-0 home win over Middlesbrough:
Leicester and Southampton fans discuss ‘El Crapico’ (part three)
Will you bounce straight back next season? Will they?
CW: “I doubt we will. The only hope I have is that the gap has become so big that we end up being promoted again simply by being less rubbish than 21 other teams. Southampton and Ipswich will probably be the top two.”
SG: “We should be there or thereabouts, so long as the managerial appointment is a sound one. The one appointment the owners got right since buying the club was done via the previously-mentioned Wilcox, so hopefully his replacement, Johannes Spors, can repeat that trick this summer. As for Leicester, I get the unhappiness that fills the air there at the moment, but barring any significant EFL penalties, they’ll be title favourites again.”
Anything you envy about your opponents?
CW: “At least they can score goals. I’ve seen us score three in this calendar year and I’m a season ticket holder and regular away dayer. Honestly, getting relegated to League One for the first and only time in our history in 2008 was about ten times more enjoyable than this.”
SG: “I’d envy their recent history, I guess. We’re very similar clubs in so many ways – they basically have a blue St Mary’s, after all – and yet their fans have seen their team win League Cups, the FA Cup, the actual League, and have deep runs in Europe.”
So will you miss the Premier League?
CW: “No. It’s a broken division now. PSR has proven to be the Super League by stealth, there’s no point in getting promoted now when even the likes of Leicester and Southampton can’t lay a glove on the new ‘big 17’.”
SG: “Agree with that. We had a run of good performances in the autumn that were all spoiled by increasingly-nonsensical refereeing and VAR decisions and pretty much killed any outside hope we had of being competitive, and that’s without the PSR advantage the stable PL clubs already have built-in. Both ourselves and Leicester were allowed *less* leeway than the other 17 on PSR because of our year in the Championship, with a £20m tighter noose placed around our necks. And people wonder why the promoted clubs aren’t able to compete?!”
Leicester and Southampton fans discuss ‘El Crapico’ (part two)
What’s been your side’s biggest problem this season? Who is most to blame?
CW: “It says a lot that Ruud Van Nistelrooy barely scrapes into our top 10 biggest culprits, even with our laughably bad form since he took over. The fish is rotting from the head here – the guy at the, er, top, Khun Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, deserves the most flack. But there have been so many bad calls from so many people.”
SG: “Like handing Jannik Vestergaard a new three-year deal?”
CW: “Yes, like that. Honestly, Steve, if Vestergaard isn’t perfectly emblematic of the farcical decision-making here since Vichai’s passing then I don’t know what is. We beat you 9-0 in 2019, then two years later signed two of your back four – what other club would do that?! Fans have sort of given up on the idea that change is even possible – many are voting with their feet. It used to make me itch the thought of missing a Leicester game, but I had a ticket for the game at Molineux last Saturday and decided to go and watch Dulwich Hamlet instead. I’m only going on Saturday to say goodbye to Jamie Vardy. I couldn’t care less about the rest of them.”
SG: “For us it’s been about recruitment and PSR restrictions. We had to spend the thick end of £40m just to keep most of our promoted team together. We’ve been generally competitive in games (a ridiculous 28 points dropped from winning positions), but we have no depth beyond the starting XI and nearly every substitution makes us weaker. The blame for that ultimately lies with the board who believed that we didn’t need to replace director of football Jason Wilcox when he went to United, then appointed a manager who was the polar opposite to Russell Martin. It showed they hadn’t learned a thing from our last (more avoidable) relegation. Swap Ivan Juric for Nathan Jones and you basically have two guys cut from the same rubbish cloth.”
Good news for suspended Harry Kane – he might not miss out on Bayern winning the league after all! Needing a point to wrap things up they’ve just gone 1-0 down at RB Leipzig. Hell of a finish from Benjamin Sesko, from distance with the outside of his right foot.
Leicester and Southampton fans discuss ‘El Crapico’ (part one)
Leicester: Chris Whiting, 29
First match attended: “Leicester 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday, 2002/03. I won the tickets for completing a primary school football course supported by the club – back when they didn’t treat us with contempt.”
Best match attended: “Leicester 3-1 Everton, 2015/16. I could have picked a few others but seeing us lift the Premier League trophy can’t really be topped.”
Southampton: Steve Grant, 41
First match attended: “Saints 0-3 Manchester City, November 1991. A cold rainy afternoon at the Dell where Jon Gittens scored an own goal while sat on his backside in our six yard box. Start as you mean to go on…”
Best match attended: “Liverpool 0-1 Saints, EFL Cup semi-final second leg, January 2017. We went to Anfield expecting them to easily overturn the one-goal deficit – then Shane Long scored on the break in injury-time.”
People have been calling this match ‘El Crapico’ – unfair, or about right?
CW: “I think it’s unfair on crap to be honest.”
SG: “Can I say ‘both’? In the context of the Premier League as it now is, we are two teams unfit to compete. But up against promoted teams from years gone by (and yes, I’m very much including 2007’s Derby County) both of us would wipe the floor with them. So it could be worse.”
In the early Premier League game Youri Tielemans’ goal was enough to earn Aston Villa a maximal point return from their home game against Fulham, which they won 1-0.
Leeds United win the Championship
The final whistle blows at Plymouth, where Leeds have secured three points and thereby pipped Burnley to the title on goal difference.
Below them there’s a pitch invasion at Bristol City, where the home side came back from two down to draw 2-2 with Preston, and with neither Blackburn (who drew 1-1 at Sheffield United) or Millwall (who lost 3-1 at Burnley) getting three points, they join Coventry, Sunderland and Sheffield United in the playoffs!
Luton Town relegated to League One
Luton, needing at least a point, playing a West Brom side with one win in nine and nothing but pride to play for, have lost 5-3. Hull City got a point at Portsmouth to send them spinning through ye olde relegatione trapdoor.
Just minutes left in the Championship season, and Rob Smyth is watching things play out:
Premier League teams
The line-ups for the two 3pm Premier League games have been announced, and here they are:
Everton v Ipswich
Everton: Pickford, Patterson, O’Brien, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gueye, Garner, McNeil, Alcaraz, Ndiaye, Beto. Subs: Virginia, Keane, Calvert-Lewin, Harrison, Chermiti, Young, Broja, Coleman, Iroegbunam.
Ipswich: Palmer, O’Shea, Woolfenden, Burgess, Greaves, Morsy, Jack Taylor, Hutchinson, Chaplin, Enciso, Delap. Subs: Walton, Phillips, Cajuste, Luongo, Hirst, Tuanzebe, Godfrey, Clarke, Boniface.
Referee: Lewis Smith.
Leicester v Southampton
Leicester: Stolarczyk, Justin, Faes, Coady, Thomas, Ndidi, Skipp, McAteer, El Khannous, Ayew, Vardy. Subs: Iversen, Okoli, Kristiansen, Daka, Soumare, Coulibaly, Golding, Evans, Monga.
Southampton: Ramsdale, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens, Walker-Peters, Downes, Ugochukwu, Manning, Fernandes, Sulemana, Stewart. Subs: McCarthy, Aribo, Smallbone, Bree, Wood-Gordon, Archer, Onuachu, Dibling, Robinson.
Referee: David Webb.
Hello world!
Welcome to a massive afternoon of springtimely football, with questions to be answered including:
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Will Southampton win any more points?
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Will Leicester score any more home goals?
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Will Leyton Orient or Reading claim the final League One playoff spot?
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Who’s going straight up from League Two with Doncaster and Port Vale?
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Which two of AFC Wimbledon, Salford, Grimsby and Chesterfield will make the playoffs?
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Is Harry Kane winning his first major title today?
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Can Kortrijk avoid relegation at Cercle Brugge?
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Yeah, OK, I probably won’t mention the last one again
Here are the 3pm fixtures from the Football League:
Premier League
League One
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Blackpool v Bristol Rovers
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Bolton Wanderers v Stevenage
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Cambridge United v Birmingham City
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Charlton Athletic v Burton Albion
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Huddersfield Town v Leyton Orient
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Lincoln City v Wrexham
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Mansfield Town v Exeter City
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Northampton Town v Wigan Athletic
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Reading v Barnsley
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Rotherham United v Peterborough United
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Shrewsbury Town v Crawley Town
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Wycombe Wanderers v Stockport County
League Two
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Accrington Stanley v Chesterfield
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Bradford City v Fleetwood Town
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Bromley v Cheltenham Town
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Carlisle United v Salford City
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Colchester United v Barrow
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Crewe Alexandra v Walsall
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Grimsby Town v AFC Wimbledon
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Morecambe v Harrogate Town
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Newport County AFC v Tranmere Rovers
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Notts County v Doncaster Rovers
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Port Vale v Gillingham
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Swindon Town v Milton Keynes Dons
Scottish Premiership
Bottom Six
Top six
