What a breathless final day that was. It was brilliant drama. Cardiff City have been promoted alongside Wolves, four years after being relegated from the Premier League, and Bolton Wanderers have somehow managed to stay up at the expense of Burton Albion and Barnsley, who join Sunderland in League One. As for Fulham, it was a deflating end to their 23-match unbeaten run. They’ll need to dust themselves down for the play-offs. Their semi-final is against sixth-placed Derby County. The other one is between fourth-placed Aston Villa, who will have the luxury of the second leg at Villa Park, and Tony Pulis’s Middlesbrough. That’s all from me. Thanks for reading. Bye!
Here’s Stuart James with the all-important verdict on Cardiff’s promotion.
Here’s Ben Fisher’s report on Birmingham’s 3-1 win over Fulham.
In the directors’ box, Vincent Tan is having a good time. Premier League fans will be delighted to see the return of Big Vinny T.
Neil Warnock speaks! “It’s the biggest achievement in my 38-year career by an absolute mile. I’ve got a great bunch of lads. Nobody gave us a chance. I’m so proud of them. In the end we did enough. I’ve had some great promotions and squads but because of the circumstances when I came here, second bottom, it’s the proudest achievement of my life. All credit to everybody. At my age you’re not going to get many more chances. I owe Sharon [Warnock’s wife] a lot.”
Neil Warnock - who still looks like Livia Soprano - is beaming in the tunnel. The Cardiff fans are enjoying themselves on the pitch.
“We’ll probably have a couple of drinks,” Morrison predicts. “A couple. Just a couple.”
“It’s been an incredible year!” Sean Morrison, Cardiff’s captain, says. “To finish on 90 points is fantastic. The gaffer has rallied us all year. I can’t explain how happy I am. We were hearing things during the game. You try to block it out of your mind. Five minutes to go, you hear it’s 5-1, you thank your lucky stars.”
Full-time: Sheffield Wednesday 5-1 Norwich
One to forget for the visitors.
Pitch invasions everywhere! The Championship, eh?
GOAL! Sheffield Wednesday 5-1 Norwich (Nuhiu pen, 90min+3)
Adite Nuhiu completes his hat-trick.
Full-time: Birmingham 3-1 Fulham
A disappointing day for Fulham. They’ll need to recover quickly for the play-offs after finishing third. As for Birmingham, they escape relegation again.
Full-time: Cardiff 0-0 Reading
It wasn’t pretty but Cardiff have been promoted to the Premier League! Time for a pitch invasion! What a job Neil Warnock’s done!
Full-time: Bolton 3-2 Nottingham Forest
It’s all over! Bolton have avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth! They were going down with three minutes to go, only for goals from David Wheater and Aaron Wilbraham to save them! Barnsley and Burton Albion are relegated along with Sunderland.
Updated
GOAL! Ipswich 2-2 Middlesbrough (Bamford, 90 min+6)
Heartbreak for Ipswich!
Full-time: Brentford 1-1 Hull
The big one.
Full-time: Preston 2-1 Burton Albion
Burton are relegated.
Forest go close to an equaliser. But the ball loops over the Bolton goal. They’re almost there.
The Cardiff fans are celebrating. Cardiff could concede and they’d still be going up.
Updated
Full-time: Millwall 1-0 Aston Villa
Millwall have missed out on a play-off spot but they’ve still had a great season.
Full-time: Derby 4-1 Barnsley
Derby make the play-offs. Barnsley are down unless Nottingham Forest equalise against Bolton.
GOAL! Preston North End 2-1 Burton (Moult, 90 min+3)
10-man Preston score on the break and Burton are going down.
Updated
There will be five added minutes at Bolton. But...
Full-time: Sunderland 3-0 Wolves
Wolves wanted 100 points. Er.
GOAL! Birmingham 3-1 Fulham (Adams, 90 min)
Cardiff are going up!
GOAL! Bolton 3-2 Nottingham Forest (Wilbraham, 88 min)
Le Fondre runs dart the right and his cross is headed in at the near post by Aaron Wilbraham! Bolton are turned it around in the space of a minute! They’re safe unless Burton score.
Fulham are pushing like mad for an equaliser against Birmingham. They’ve had a couple of good chances since Cairney’s goal.
GOAL! Bolton 2-2 Nottingham Forest (Wheater, 87 min)
David Wheater equalises for Bolton! Another goal saves them!
GOAL! Sheffield Wednesday 4-1 Norwich (Klose, 83 min)
Dignity.
Plot twist!
Your wrong, it’s the advertisement board, look very closely pic.twitter.com/k9TF0bHTSF
— Matthew (@minstrel69) May 6, 2018
GOAL! Birmingham 2-1 Fulham (Cairney, 84 min)
Two more Fulham goals and they go up! Is it on?
GOAL! Ipswich 2-1 Middlesbrough (Waghorn pen, 83 min)
Waghorn restores Ipswich’s lead.
GOAL! Derby 4-1 Barnsley (Moncur, 80 min)
This is no consolation. Barnsley are down unless Burton concede against Preston.
GOAL! Bolton 1-2 Nottingham Forest (Colback, 79 min)
Colback volleys home from 15 yards and Bolton are slipping away.
GOAL! Bristol City 2-3 Sheffield United (Bryan, 75 min)
A lovely free-kick from Joe Byran.
Updated
At St Andrew’s, Fulham are doing nothing. Birmingham could be three or four up. Cardiff, who are still drawing 0-0 with Reading, are surely going up in second place.
Updated
GOAL! Derby 4-0 Barnsley (Lawrence, 70 min)
Barnsley are surely going down.
GOAL! Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Nottingham Forest (Osborn, 70 min)
Ben Osborn charges down the left and slams a low shot into the far corner from 20 yards! Bolton had only been safe for three minutes! Burton are out of the bottom three again! The Bolton fans are stunned.
Updated
GOAL! Ipswich 1-1 Middlesbrough (Downing, 71 min)
The winger pulls the visitors level.
GOAL! Bolton Wanderers 1-0 Nottingham Forest (Le Fondre, 67 min)
A loose ball falls to Le Fondre in the Forest area and the substitute loops a volley into the top-left corner! Bolton are out of the bottom three! Burton are back in it - unless they can score again against 10-man Preston!
GOAL! Derby 3-0 Barnsley (Nugent, 68 min)
Vydra turns provider, crossing for Nugent to head home.
Updated
Wolves, by the way, thought they were getting to 100 points today. Sunderland had other ideas.
GOAL! Sunderland 3-0 Wolves (McNair, 66 min)
Sunderland are back!
Updated
GOAL! Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 Norwich (Nuhiu, 60 min)
That’s four.
GOAL! Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Norwich (Venacio, 58 min)
That’s three.
GOAL! Bristol City 1-3 Sheffield United (Flint, 60 min)
That’s one back.
Updated
GOAL! Preston North End 1-1 Burton Albion (Akpan, 63 min)
Hope Akpan curls a a brilliant shot into the top corner and the away fans are going wild! Burton are staying up as it stands. Barnsley are going down. It will change if Bolton can score against Nottingham Forest.
Reading have a penalty appeal waved away, Cardiff’s Sol Bamba getting away with a slight push on Liam Moore at a corner. Cardiff are still toiling but Fulham are still two down.
Having conceded a penalty with a foul on Hull City’s Fraizer Campbell, Brentford’s Luke Daniels redeems himself with a superb save from Harry Wilson.
This is absurd!
Did anyone else notice this? 👀
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 6, 2018
Bobby Madley certainly didn't!
A bit of confusion as to where the touchline is in the Cardiff City Stadium sunshine today! 😂☀
Watch Cardiff's push for Premier League promotion live on Sky Sports Football now! https://t.co/WqGAjfhNH3 pic.twitter.com/Bt0xCUcR6C
GOAL! Derby 2-0 Barnsley (Vydra, 55 min)
Jerome rolls down the right and centres for Vydra, the league’s top scorer, to double Derby’s lead. Barnsley are relying on Preston denying Burton now.
Updated
“I’m hoping for another couple penalty shouts turned down for Cardiff then a late, late Reading winner (combined with an unlikely Fulham comeback victory),” says JR in Illinois. “Then I’m hoping on the final whistle Paul Clement runs out on to the pitch to celebrate instead of shaking Neil Warnock’s hand. Pretty sure Warnock’s head would explode. There’s not many things funnier than an enraged Neil Warnock.”
Bodin’s brainless dismissal is a huge boost for Burton. The Brewers have plenty of time to find the equalising goal that would - as it stands - keep them up and their opponents are down to 10 men.
Preston’s Billy Bodin is sent off!
And it’s one of the best red cards of all time. He was booked for handling the ball into the net in the first half and now he’s picked up a second yellow for diving in the Burton area. Cheerio!
GOAL! Leeds 2-0 QPR (Phillips, 47 min)
That should be that.
Fulham have brought on Aboubakar Kamara at St Andrew’s. He made a difference in their win over Sunderland.
Peep! Off we go again.
As it stands ... Cardiff are going up, Fulham aren’t, Derby are going to finish sixth, Birmingham, Reading and Barnsley are staying up, Burton and Bolton are going down. But things can change.
Half-time: Leeds 1-0 QPR
Did you know Leeds were in a Champions League semi-final once?
Half-time: Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Norwich
Wednesday are finishing on a high.
Half-time: Bristol City 0-3 Sheffield United
What a half from the Blades!
Half-time: Derby 1-0 Barnsley
Barnsley are lucky to only trail by a goal. Derby have been very good and look certain to seal sixth place.
Half-time: Bolton 0-0 Nottingham Forest
Scores elsewhere mean that Bolton will stay up if they win. They are not winning.
Half-time: Birmingham 2-0 Fulham
Fulham would be 45 minutes away from promotion if they were winning. They’re not.
Half-time: Cardiff 0-0 Reading
Cardiff haven’t been great but they’re still going up as it stands.
Half-time: Preston 1-0 Burton
Burton are going down at the moment.
Half-time: Brentford 1-1 Hull
As you were.
GOAL! Brentford 1-1 Hull (Bowen, 45 min+2)
The visitors equalise just before half-time.
Half-time: Ipswich 1-0 Middlesbrough
The hosts lead thanks to an early strike from Freddie Sears.
Half-time: Sunderland 2-0 Wolves
Take promotion away from Wolves.
Half-time: Millwall 1-0 Aston Villa
A Shaun Williams penalty separates the sides.
GOAL! Sunderland 2-0 Wolves (Fletcher, 45 min)
What a team!
GOAL! Birmingham 2-0 Fulham (Dean, 43 min)
Jota beats a couple of men on the left and his cross finds Harlee Dean, who heads home for his first Birmingham goal! It’s looking like the play-offs for Fulham.
Updated
It’s all Cardiff. No breakthrough yet, though. Fulham will be kicking themselves unless something changes soon.
GOAL! Bristol City 0-3 Sheffield United (Freeman, 34 min)
Ouch.
Bryson sees a volley deflected wide at the Cardiff City Stadium. It’s been frustrating for Cardiff so far. Luckily Fulham are still losing at St Andrew’s.
GOAL! Leeds 1-0 QPR (Roofe, 30 min)
A clever overhead kick gives the hosts the lead.
Updated
Bolton have just hit the bar and had a goal disallowed. Uh oh.
GOAL! Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Norwich (Forestieri, 30 min)
The little Argentinian doubles the home team’s lead.
GOAL! Millwall 1-0 Aston Villa (Williams pen, 30 min)
It’s unlikely to be enough for the Lions to make the play-offs.
Updated
GOAL! Bristol City 0-2 Sheffield United (Sharp, 29 min)
A superb volley from Billy Sharp doubles the Blades’ lead.
Junior Hoilett falls in the Reading area. Tommy Elphick, already on a booking, seems to bring him down from behind. Nothing doing, though. Neil Warnock is unamused.
With Burton and Barnsley losing, Bolton will be out of the bottom three if they can score against Nottingham Forest. What tension!
GOAL! Preston North End 1-0 Burton Albion (Robinson, 26 min)
Callum Robinson converts from a corner, which means Burton drop back into the bottom three.
Updated
Camerone Jerome has a second for Derby disallowed for handball. Richard Keogh’s shot had crashed off the bar and fallen to the striker, but he controlled with an arm before scoring.
GOAL! Sunderland 1-0 Wolves (Ejaria, 19 min)
Well, this makes no sense.
Junior Hoilett, who was once going to be the best winger in England, goes close for Cardiff. Reading are living dangerously.
News of Birmingham’s goal has filtered through to the Cardiff City Stadium, where a huge roar has just gone up from the home fans. If that doesn’t rouse Cardiff nothing will.
GOAL! Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Norwich (Nuhiu, 14 min)
Nuhiu heads home from close range.
GOAL! Birmingham 1-0 Fulham (Jutkiewicz, 15 min)
A huge goal at both ends of the table! Birmingham break down the right and Lukas Jutkiewicz darts to the near post to lift a cross into the roof of the net! Fulham are up against it now.
GOAL! Derby 1-0 Barnsley (Jerome, 14 min)
Cameron Jerome bursts through and slams the ball into the roof of the net. It’s a deserved lead. As it stands Barnsley are going down.
Updated
GOAL! Brentford 1-0 Hull (Canos, 12 min)
It’s another goal in a game that doesn’t really concern us.
Cardiff look a little edgy. Reading have had a couple of promising moments.
GOAL! Bristol City 0-1 Sheffield United (Clarke, 8 min)
Leon Clarke’s fantastic shot from 25 yards zooms into the top left.
GOAL! Ipswich 1-0 Middlesbrough (Sears, 8 min)
Freddie Sears bursts into the box from the right and drills a low shot into the bottom corner. This is a bit of nothing game: Ipswich are playing for pride and Middlesbrough are guaranteed a play-off spot.
Derby’s Marcus Olsson creeps forward and lets fly from 25 yards. His rising shot’s pushed wide. Barnsley are second best at the iPro Stadium at the moment.
Cardiff have made a high-intensity start. Reading are going to be placed under a lot of physical pressure. At St Andrew’s, meanwhile, Targett zips a low cross to the far post and Piazon, sliding in, turns the ball wide from close range! Fulham were so close to the perfect start.
There have been no goals yet. Nothing has changed. Disgrace.
Peep! Off we go! The final day of the Championship season is underway.
The teams are coming out. There’s a buzzing atmosphere at the Cardiff City Stadium. The home fans clearly fancy this. But is there a twist on the way?
This is the third time in five seasons that Birmingham have gone into the final day in relegation bother. Which isn’t very good.
Neil Warnock speaks! “I think it is easy for me to say it’s a normal day because it’s not a normal day. But the preparation has been the same. They’ve just to give me their best. It’s been good enough a lot of the time. We’ve got to try and win today and if we can’t we’ve got to try and win those play-offs. We’ve got to expect Fulham to win and budget for that. They’re in good spirits, the lads. One or two nerves. We’ll give it our best shot and see where it takes us.”
On Sky, Keith Andrews calls Reading “a five-a-side team trying to play 11-a-side”. The Royals, of course, were play-off finalists last year and only lost on penalties to Huddersfield at Wembley. But things went very wrong under Jaap Stam this season and they’re in a lot of bother after losing 4-0 at home to Ipswich last week. Paul Clement’s side have the toughest fixture of all the struggling sides today. It’s just as well they’re not in the bottom three. But if they lose to promotion-chasing Cardiff, they’ll be relying on others to do them a hand.
Preston v Burton team news
Preston: Rudd, Cunningham, Pearson, Clarke, Browne, Harrop, Fisher, Huntington, Maguire, Robinson, Bodin. Subs: Maxwell, Spurr, Earl, Gallagher, Johnson, Barkhuizen, Moult.
Burton: Bywater, Brayford, McFadzean, Murphy, Akins, Flanagan, Naylor, Sordell, Davenport, Akpan, Boyce. Subs: Campbell, Allen, Bent, Dyer, Samuelsen, Buxton, Sbarra.
Bolton v Nottingham Forest team news
Bolton: Alnwick, Little, Beevers, Vela, Ameobi, Robinson, Wilbraham, Pratley, Morais, Henry, Wheater. Subs: Howard, Taylor, Karacan, Le Fondre, Buckley, Noone, Burke.
N Forest: Kapino, Bridcutt, Osborn, Fox, Tomlin, Brereton, Colback, Lolley, Hobbs, Darikwa, Watson. Subs: Smith, Lichah, Mancienne, Guedioura, Cash, Bouchalakis, Vellios.
Derby v Barnsley team news
Derby: Carson, Forsyth, Keogh, Lawrence, Wisdom, Johnson, Weimann, Olsson, Jerome, Davies, Huddlestone. Subs: Roos, Palmer, Pearce, Vydra, Hanson, Nugent, Ledley.
Barnsley: Walton, Yiadom, Pinnock, Lindsay, Fryers, Potts, Gardner, Hammill, Mahoney, Moore, McBurnie. Subs: Davies, Cavare, Pearson, Moncur, Mallan, Bradshaw, Thiam.
Updated
Millwall v Aston Villa team news
Millwall: Archer, Meredith, Hutchinson, Williams, Onyedinma, Wallace, Tunnicliffe, Morison, O’Brien, Cooper, Marshall. Subs: Martini, Thompson, Gregory, Ferguson, Elliot, Shackell, Toffolo.
Aston Villa: Bunn, Bree, Chester, Jedinak, Hutton, Hourihane, Lansbury, Onomah Adomah, Hogan, Kodjia. Subs: Sarkic, Terry, Elmohamady, Whelan, Snodgrass, Grealish, Grabban.
Birmingham v Fulham team news
Birmingham: Stockdale, Harding, Morrison, Dean, Colin, Jota, Davis, Kieftenbeld, Maghoma; Jutkiewicz, Gallagher. Subs: Kuszczak, Robinson, Roberts, Ndoye, Adams, Gardner, Dacres-Cogley.
Fulham: Bettinelli, Fredericks, Ream, Odoi, Targett, McDonald, Johansen; Piazon, Cairney, Sessegnon, Mitrovic. Subs: Button, Christie, Kalas, Kamara, Ayite, Norwood, Fonte.
Updated
Cardiff v Reading teams
Cardiff: Etheridge, Peltier, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett, Bryson, Ralls, Paterson, Hoilett, Mendez-Laing, Zohore. Subs: Murphy, Ecuele-Manga, Richards, Pilkington, Grujic, Ward, Madine.
Reading: Mannone, Gunter, Elphick, Moore, Ilori, Van den Berg, Edwards, Bacuna, Aluko, Barrow, Böðvarsson. Subs: Jaakkola, McShane, Evans, Swift, Kermorgant, Martin, Kelly.
Pre-match reading
Preamble
It’s a Clockwatch! On a Sunday! Which can only mean that it’s the final day of the Championship season!
Excitement awaits, especially at the top of the table, where the final automatic promotion place is still up for grabs. Fulham, unbeaten since 1973, have charmed neutrals up and down the country this season, playing football that is so easy on the eye. You can’t help but love watching Ryan Sessegnon and Tom Cairney, while Aleksandar Mitrovic has been inspirational since joining on loan in January. But their fate isn’t in their hands. Victory over Birmingham City won’t be enough for Slavisa Jokanovic’s side if Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City win at home to Reading or match their result. Fulham could finish on 91 points. Cardiff could finish on 92.
But it pays to expect a few shocks in this league. It’s not over yet. After all, look at Burton Albion, who currently occupy the final relegation spot. They looked toast not so long ago but now they have an outside chance of staying in the Championship. They’re at seventh-placed Preston North End, who are hoping to sneak into the play-offs at Derby’s expense (eight-placed Millwall, who host Aston Villa, need a 10-goal swing to knock the Rams out of sixth place), and Burton could yet drag one of the teams above them into the bottom three. They’re level on points with Barnsley, who will be thinking about protecting their goal difference at Derby, and two below ... Birmingham and Reading. Cardiff and Fulham should both expect a tough battle. Nobody can relax yet. Even Bolton Wanderers, 22nd in the table, haven’t given up hope of climbing out of the bottom three. They host Nottingham Forest and are a point below Burton and Barnsley.
In summary: a lot could stay the same, a lot could change. Confused? Excited? Good. That’s the Championship for you.
The below fixtures all kick off at: 12.30pm BST.
Birmingham v Fulham
Bolton v Nottingham Forest
Brentford v Hull City
Bristol City v Sheffield United
Cardiff v Reading
Derby v Barnsley
Ipswich v Middlesbrough
Leeds v QPR
Millwall v Aston Villa
Preston v Burton
Sheffield Wednesday v Norwich
Sunderland v Wolves
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