Championship
• As you were, then, at the top, as Middlesbrough, Burnley and Derby followed Brighton and Hull in winning, with varying degrees of difficulty. Boro certainly left it latest, with Jordan Rhodes doubling his goal tally for the club at already-relegated Bolton, including a stoppage-time winner, to sneak a 2-1 victory. Aitor Karanka said of the match-winner, who has struggled for form since signing from Blackburn in January: “I don’t think it’s been easy for him. He’s not a strong character, you can see it in his face.” Those words are perhaps not entirely morale-boosting.
• Tuesday night’s meeting of the top two at Turf Moor assumes massive proportions, after Andre Gray – who has never gone more than four games without a goal this season, and has 24 in 40 appearances in all competitions – scored the winner for Burnley at Birmingham. Boro’s lead is slender and their last four opponents are all in the top nine, including the sides in second and third place. Hull, a not enormously encouraging eight points behind Brighton, by contrast play only one team currently in the top half – and that’s 12th-placed Leeds – and have a game in hand. It’s still a four-way fight, but only just.
• Saturday was potentially decisive for the teams still hoping to sneak into the play-off places. One of them, Ipswich, was playing the side currently in sixth position, Sheffield Wednesday; they may have been eight points behind the Owls with a significant goal-difference disadvantage, but victory would have given hope to both them and Cardiff, a further three points closer to the top six. In the end Ipswich got a draw but nobody took advantage, as of the sides that started the day between sixth and 12th only Birmingham didn’t draw, and they lost to Burnley. Leeds thus nudged into the top half courtesy of a 3-2 win over Reading in which Chris Wood scored twice.
• Charlton lost once again, 1-0 at home to Derby, and will in effect be relegated on Tuesday – when a thoroughly miserable trip to Bolton’s Macron Stadium is scheduled – unless they win and Rotherham – who drew 0-0 with Nottingham Forest, a ninth match unbeaten – lose at home to Huddersfield. A draw for the Millers and Charlton are down, whatever they do. MK Dons visit Hillsborough on Tuesday and must at least match Rotherham’s result to sustain their own survival hopes. It could have been worse: they needed a miraculous late penalty save from striker-cum-emergency-stand-in-goalkeeper Alex Revell – forced to don the gloves when Cody Cropper was sent off for fouling Eoin Doyle after Karl Robinson had used all his substitutions – to earn a 1-1 draw at Preston.
League One
• As in the Championship, the top two meet on Tuesday in a potentially decisive encounter, but unlike in the second flight neither of them could win today. Burton’s inability to beat Barnsley – they played out a 0-0 draw – was not entirely surprising given that they had scored one goal and taken two points from their four previous games. Wigan’s defeat at Doncaster appeared lavishly improbable before kick-off. Doncaster had not won since 2 January, since when they had taken four of a possible 48 points in the league, while Wigan had not lost since 12 December, since when they had drawn seven and won 13, including all of their previous five. When Will Grigg scored in the 41st minute, his 24th goal of the season, to give Wigan a half-time lead everything seemed to be going predictably, but two Andy Butler goals in four minutes and a late Andy Williams penalty have the home side a 3-1 win and sustained their hopes of avoiding relegation. They remain six points from safety but at least can enter their final fixtures with some optimism, and may yet exert a further influence on the promotion race – they host Burton on the final day.
• After a sustained rocky spell Walsall have won five of their last seven and still have a chance of automatic promotion. They needed an 88th-minute header from Jordy Hiwula – and a favourable refereeing decision as the ball bounced down from the bar and onto the line – to earn a 1-0 home win over Southend, but now sit three points behind Burton with a game – against 20th-placed Shrewsbury – in hand. Next Saturday’s visit to fourth-placed Bradford looks a key hurdle for them.
• As in the Championship, the already-relegated bottom side host the second-bottom side on Tuesday, when the visitors could be relegated. Colchester lost 4-1 at home to Peterborough, and if they lose at Crewe on Tuesday while Shrewsbury and Fleetwood – who both drew 1-1 today, at home to Bradford and Oldham respectively – both get a point, their battle will be lost.
League Two
• Farewell, then, Dagenham & Redbridge. Defeat to Leyton Orient confirmed their relegation, and they will head into the National League next season. And welcome back Cheltenham, who beat Halifax 2-0 to confirm their return to the Football League at the first time of asking.
• The Daggers didn’t leave without a fight. Many Orient fans stayed outside the ground until the seventh minute, a protest against the management of the club, marking the seven managers they have had in the last two years, and they all missed the opening goal, as Jay Simpson scored in the third minute. He added another to put the home side two up at the break, but Dagenham & Redbridge fought back, Jamie Cureton and Clévid Dikamona scoring twice in a minute to haul their side level. Five minutes later Armand Gnanduillet put Orient back in front, and 3-2 was how it stayed.
• Northampton are champions! It was only ever a matter of time, and in the end they flopped over the line with a goalless draw at Exeter while Oxford lost a see-sawing match against Luton Town 3-2 at home. The rest of the promotion places remain not so much up in the air as floating in the stratosphere: Oxford have a one-point cushion from Bristol Rovers, who returned to the top three with a 2-1 win over Yeovil, and Accrington, who dropped out after a 2-2 home draw with Morecambe. Plymouth are a point further back, having apparently ended Portsmouth’s top-three ambitions with a 2-1 win at Fratton Park. There are then four teams within two points of each other in the scrap for sixth, Wimbledon’s 1-0 win over Crawley giving them a small gap over Wycombe, Exeter – who both drew– and Orient.
• York lost again, 2-1 at Hartlepool, and will be relegated on Tuesday unless they beat Portsmouth. Even if they do, they need results at Newport, who face Oxford, and Stevenage, who host Bristol Rovers, to go their way in order to sustain even a thoroughly ludicrous but mathematically undiscountable chance of survival.
