Cardiff have been relegated on a dramatic day at the bottom of the Championship, with Plymouth left on the brink and Hull pulled into the bottom three. Cardiff were held 0-0 at home by West Brom and are now bottom after Plymouth won 2-1 at Preston. However, Argyle’s poor goal difference means they stand no real chance of survival.
Cardiff returned to the third tier after 22 years, six years after they had been playing in the Premier League. They had Aaron Ramsey in interim charge, while Albion had James Morrison in temporary control after Tony Mowbray was sacked on Monday. Both sides had chances with Albion’s Isaac Price making a goalline clearance from Calum Chambers and having a first-half effort that bounced back off a post. The result ended West Brom’s playoff hopes.
Nat Phillips struck six minutes from time as Derby took a massive step towards survival at the expense of Hull. In a low-quality contest between two sides immediately above the bottom three at the start of the day, Phillips’s late header gave the Rams a priceless 1-0 win.
Quick Guide
League One roundup: Cambridge relegated; Crawley and Rovers on brink
Show
Burton beat Cambridge United 2-1 with an added-time goal from Dylan Williams that sent down the losers and left Crawley and Bristol Rovers all but relegated.
Crawley, who beat Northampton 3-0, and Bristol Rovers, who lost 2-0 at home to Reading, trail Burton by three points and have one game each left. But Crawley’s goal difference is -27 and Rovers is -29, compared with Burton’s -15. Burton also have a game in hand. Shrewsbury, who had already gone down, won 2-1 at Barnsley.
Stockport came from 2-0 down to beat Lincoln 3-2, with Jayden Fevrier, Will Collar and Isaac Oloafe their scorers. Leyton Orient remain on course for the playoffs after a 1-0 win over faltering Wycombe, who lost third place to Stockport. Orient’s fifth straight victory leaves them ahead of seventh-placed Reading on goal difference.
Peterborough drew 1-1 with Bolton and it also finished 1-1 between Wigan and Blackpool. PA Media
This story will be updated shortly
Derby need to beat Stoke on the last day of the season next Saturday to guarantee their second-tier status and that could have a significant say on whether Hull also stay up. If the Tigers, now 22nd, win at Portsmouth in their final game, that will be enough to finish ahead of the loser of Derby v Stoke, who are one and two points clear respectively of Hull.
Preston’s future hangs in the balance after slumping to a 2-1 defeat against Plymouth. Mustapha Bundu put Argyle ahead in the 14th minute and Callum Wright came off the bench to seal victory with a 75th-minute second. Emil Riis scored in the final minutes as Plymouth failed to clear a corner, but Plymouth held on. Preston are level on points with Luton and Derby.
Luton enjoyed a 90th-minute 1-0 victory against Coventry that moved them out of the bottom three at lunchtime and their place was ultimately taken by Hull. It looked as if Luton were going to be held to a frustrating stalemate, as they had been playing against 10 men when Jay Dasilva was sent off on 12 minutes.
The Luton midfielder Liam Walsh was shown red midway through the second period, though, but as the clock was about to tick into 90, Shandon Baptiste’s effort somehow got past Luis Binks on the line to ensure Luton will be out of the bottom three going into the final game of the season.
Matt Bloomfield, the Luton manager, said: “If you’re asking me to sum it up I’m going to struggle. It was a whole range of emotions and a lovely moment for Shandon. It’s tough when the game changes so early, it’s a completely different game to the one we expected.”
Dasilva was shown a straight red by the referee, Oliver Langford, when he clipped the heels of Millenic Alli who was latching on to Thelo Aasgaard’s ball over the top. The numbers were evened up in the 68th minute when Walsh, having just been booked, shoved Binks, who went down theatrically. The Luton midfielder was shown a straight red by Langford.
Quick Guide
League Two roundup: Doncaster and Port Vale up, Carlisle down
Show
Carlisle were relegated from the EFL on Saturday, while Doncaster and Port Vale both secured their promotion to League One.
The Cumbrian club’s 20-year stay in the EFL was ended by a 3-2 defeat at Cheltenham, with George Miller scoring for the home side in time added on.
Tranmere secured their own League Two status after a 2-0 win over Crewe, who finished with nine men while Rovers also had a player sent off in stoppage time. Tom Davies and Kristian Dennis were the heroes for Tranmere.
The evergreen Billy Sharp scored the decisive second as Doncaster ended a three-season stay in the fourth tier with a 2-1 win over Bradford, who still have a chance of going up next weekend.
Port Vale secured an immediate return to League One with a 2-0 win at AFC Wimbledon, with Jayden Stockley and Jaheim Headley on target.
Notts County guaranteed their playoff place with a 3-1 victory at Harrogate, where Conor Grant scored a second-half brace, but Walsall’s slump continued with a 1-0 home defeat by Accrington, finishing with 10 men, to stay fourth and a point behind Bradford.
Salford got themselves into the playoff places with a 4-1 win over Colchester, whose own top-seven chances faded.
Bromley fought back to draw 3-3 at Barrow with a stoppage-time goal from Omar Sowunmi, while Chesterfield thumped relegated Morecambe 4-1 and remain in the playoff hunt themselves.
Fleetwood beat managerless Newport 2-0 while Gillingham had two players sent off during stoppage time in their 1-1 draw against Swindon and it finished goalless between MK Dons and Grimsby. PA Media
In the last minute of the normal time, Bradley Collins in Coventry’s goal needlessly came for a long ball forward only to collide with his own defender Liam Kitching. That allowed Baptiste to sidefoot goalwards, where the covering Binks appeared to have it under control, until he somehow diverted the ball into his own net.
Frank Lampard said of his Coventry players: “I’m disappointed for them as they absolutely gave everything and they deserved something out of the game. There were some circumstances in the game that affected it, of course the big circumstances, but the players make mistakes at this level and late in games, and they’re crucial.
“I can’t argue with the red card as when a player’s running through. It probably was the right decision.”
Oxford’s two centre-halves were on target as they beat Sunderland 2-0 to secure their safety. Ben Nelson met Will Vaulks’s free-kick from the left with an emphatic header past Anthony Patterson in the 29th minute with his first goal for the club. That helped to ease the U’s nerves and Michal Helik doubled the lead from close range three minutes into the second half, following up after Patterson found Cameron Brannagan’s free-kick too hot to handle.
Millwall moved level on points with the Championship playoff positions as George Saville’s first goal in nearly 18 months earned a 1-0 victory over Swansea. The Lions are now behind sixth-placed Coventry on goal difference thanks to their fifth successive home win and will head to Burnley on the final day of the regular campaign with a chance of extending their season.
Quick Guide
Non-league roundup: Barnet back in Football League
Show
Barnet will play in League Two next season after winning the National League with a game to spare, beating Aldershot 4-0. Mark Shelton settled nerves at the Hive with a seventh-minute penalty and he scored from the spot again after 20 minutes. Callum Stead then scored twice in the second half, leaving second-placed York – 2-0 winners against Solihull Moors – to contest the playoffs.
Truro City, meanwhile, won promotion from National League South. Six teams could have won the division at kick-off but the Cornwall side beat St Albans 5-2 to edge out Torquay – 4-1 winners at Hemel Hempstead – on goal difference. Guardian sport
Blackburn kept their playoff hopes alive after coming from behind to defeat Watford 2-1. After a lacklustre first half, Watford dealt their hosts a blow through Mattie Pollock’s headed opener. But Rovers came roaring back in impressive fashion and two ruthless finishes – a sumptuous low volley from Todd Cantwell and Tyrhys Dolan’s second in the space of a week in the 74th minute – put Blackburn tantalisingly close to sixth-placed Coventry, who sit a point ahead of them.
Jack Wilshere’s first game in interim charge of Norwich ended in a 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough that dealt the home side another major setback in the race for the playoffs. Wilshere took over this week when Johannes Hoff Thorup was sacked after a run of three straight defeats and one win in 10 games.
Norwich looked much improved under the former Arsenal and England midfielder and created the better of the chances at the Riverside. Boro have now won one of their past five games and their playoff hopes are hanging by a thread. They slipped to ninth and need to beat Coventry and hope Millwall and Blackburn fail to win.
Zian Flemming and Jeremy Sarmiento both scored twice as Burnley emphatically maintained their title hopes by hammering QPR 5-0. Josh Cullen also netted in a one-sided game as Burnley, already promoted along with Leeds, won with ease to move to the top of the table.
However, Leeds, who are at home to Bristol City on Monday evening, have a superior goal difference and know winning their final two matches will almost certainly seal the title. Both teams could finish the campaign with 100 points.
Burnleye are unbeaten in 32 league games, have lost twice this season and conceded 15 goals. They have 30 clean sheets, equalling Port Vale’s record from 1953-54 in Third Division North. James Trafford has 29 of those, equalling the record of Port Vale’s Ray King and Jim Stannard of Gillingham in 1995-96.
Parker said: “We were incredible. It was arguably one of our best performances. One left now. We’ll go into that game in front of our home fans and try to replicate this performance.”
Sheffield Wednesday and Portsmouth fought out a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough. The home side took an early lead through Callum Paterson before Harvey Blair levelled for Pompey, who had secured survival on Easter Monday.
The game was played against a backdrop of discontent among the home supporters, with protests aimed at Wednesday’s owner, Dejphon Chansiri, taking place outside the stadium before kick-off. As the players walked out, yellow balloons with the printed message “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” were launched from the stands.