Championship final day LIVE: Results, final scores and reaction as Sheffield United and Luton win play-off places
Follow the live updates from all 12 Championship games as the final two play-off berths are confirmed
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Sheffield United thrashed champions Fulham 4-0 to book their place in the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.
Fulham had scored 106 goals in 45 games and hammered Luton 7-0 on Monday to secure the Championship title.
But Marco Silva’s side were cut apart by the Blades inside 25 minutes at Bramall Lane.
Morgan Gibbs-White, Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge all punished poor Fulham defending and Enda Stevens added another in the second period.
Fifth-placed Sheffield United will play Nottingham Forest in the play-offs, while Luton meet Huddersfield.
Luton sealed sixth place with a 1-0 home victory over Reading, in which Harry Cornick’s winner came in bizarre fashion on the stroke of half-time.
Royals goalkeeper Orjan Nyland rolled the ball out unaware that Cornick was behind him, and the Hatters striker pounced on the loose ball to score.
Middlesbrough’s promotion dream died with a 4-1 defeat at Preston. Follow all the reaction on the final day of the Championship season below:
Championship final day
For Boro it’s pretty straight-forward: win or forget the top six. A draw is no good and a win still requires one of the others above them to lose today - but if they do, Boro sneak in.
They must be feeling fairly hopeful that Fulham could prove strong enough.
A draw for Sheffield United or Luton means it all goes to goal difference, of course.
Five minutes to kick-off!
Championship final day
The side with the hardest task is of course Millwall, as they are eighth and need everything to go right - starting with a win at second-placed Bournemouth, which is tough enough.
They they’d be on 72 points, so need Sheffield United and Luton to both lose, plus Middlesbrough to do no better than a draw.
Even that isn’t quite enough - the Lions need to improve their goal difference by a swing of six on the Blades, either by a big win of their own or a heavy defeat for the Bramall Lane side.
Championship final day
The Blades are pushing the positive vibes as they look to get the job done on home soil. They have the hardest opponent, in champions Fulham, but they’ll also be hoping the top club in the Championship are either well below-strength or have their foot massively off the pedal, having claimed the crown on Monday.
No real margin for error though as they will drop out of the top six if they lose and Middlesbrough beat Preston away, or even if they draw and ‘Boro thrash their opponents by three or more.
Championship final day
League Two is also playing the final day later on, with their games all 3pm kick-off.
Forest Green and Exeter are already promoted and will play for the title, with Rovers a point ahead, as the real intrigue shifts to third place and an automatic promotion place.
Their respective opponents Mansfield and Port Vale still harbour automatic promotion hopes of their own but will need a slip-up from third-placed Northampton at Barrow as well as Bristol Rovers, fourth and level on points with the Cobblers. Rovers will look to rack up the goals against relegated Scunthorpe, with their goal difference five worse than Northampton’s.
Mansfield and Vale, though, could still miss out on the play-offs. They are on 76 and 75 points respectively, with Swindon on 74, Sutton 73 and ninth-placed Tranmere 72. Swindon could even dramatically snatch third place but would need to beat Walsall and hope Northampton and Bristol Rovers both lose and Mansfield and Vale do not win.
Oldham and the Iron are relegated.
Championship confirmed line-ups for teams chasing play-off spots
Sheffield United vs Fulham: Foderingham, Stevens, Fleck, Basham, Berge, Egan, Norwood, Robinson, Osborn, Gibbs-White, Ndiaye.
Luton Town vs Reading: Ingram; Bree, Burke, Bradley, Naismith, Bell; Lansbury, Campbell, Clark; Cornick, Jerome.
Middlesbrough vs Preston: Daniels, Dijksteel, Fry, Tavernier, Sporar, Howson, McNair, Watmore, Crooks, Jones, McGree.
Millwall vs Bournemouth: Bialkowski, McNamara, M Wallace, Hutchinson, Cooper, Burke, Saville, Leonard, Bennett, Afobe, B Mitchell
Dean Smith sets sights on Norwich winning Championship as relegation confirmed
Norwich boss Dean Smith immediately set his sights on winning the Championship next season after the Canaries’ Premier League relegation was confirmed in defeat to his old club Aston Villa.
Goals from Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings – the latter cruelly set up by Norwich’s former player of the year Emi Buendia – gave the hosts a 2-0 win on Smith’s return to Villa Park, though by the time the second went in, Norwich were already heading down thanks to Burnley’s 2-1 win at Watford.
Though the relegation comes as little surprise, it was still a painful moment for Smith, who had never previously experienced the drop.
“Obviously I’m bitterly disappointed and I fully take my responsibility as well,” he said. “I think over the last four to five weeks there’s probably been an inevitability about it.
“I’m disappointed that we got relegated today because I thought our performance was good, but unfortunately over the season, the performances have not been good enough and we’ve lacked the quality required in this league.
“(The players) are very down, very dejected. I won’t know my own feeling on getting relegated until I’ve felt it over a few weeks but we have to reflect and move on very quickly now to planning to get back up.”
Dean Smith sets sights on Norwich winning Championship as relegation confirmed
Goals from Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings gave the hosts a 2-0 win on Smith’s return to Villa Park.
Fulham star Fabio Carvalho quiet on summer Liverpool switch
Fabio Carvalho says that he is unsure about his Fulham future after being linked with a summer move away from the club.
The 19-year-old, whose contract expires at the end of the season, came close to a move to Liverpool in January, who have again been connected with the young winger.
Carvalho has scored ten times in the league, playing a key role as Marco Silva’s side cruised to promotion.
The free-scoring London club sealed the Championship title with a 7-0 thrashing of Luton on Monday night, with Carvalho on the scoresheet.
But he was keeping any prospective move under wraps when asked about his next step after the game.
Fulham star Fabio Carvalho quiet on summer Liverpool switch
Carvalho came close to joining Liverpool in January
Championship final day fixtures
And the remaining fixtures in the second tier today:
Birmingham vs Blackburn
Huddersfield vs Bristol City
Hull vs Nottingham Forest
Peterborough vs Blackpool
Stoke vs Coventry
West Brom vs Barnsley
Derby vs Cardiff
Swansea vs QPR.
Again, all are 12:30pm kick-off; the main focus here will be those games involving the play-off places but we’ll keep you updated on the others throughout.
Championship final day fixtures
Here’s what we’re looking at today, with the play-off race. Everything is a 12:30pm BST kick-off.
Bournemouth vs Millwall
Luton vs Reading
Preston vs Middlesbrough
Sheffield United vs Fulham.
And here’s how the teams stand in the league table ahead of kick-off:
5th - Sheffield United, 72 pts, +14GD
6th - Luton, 72 pts, +7
7th - Middlesbrough, 70 pts, +12
8th - Millwall, 69 pts, +9
Championship final day: Fulham crowned champions
Ahead of the play-off spots taking centre-stage today, a quick look back at the start of the week as Fulham confirmed their status as champions - and their star striker hit a record-breaking strike.
Aleksandar Mitrovic took his Championship goal tally for the season to 43 as Fulham sealed the title in devastating fashion with a 7-0 mauling of Luton at Craven Cottage on Monday evening.
Captain Tom Cairney opened the scoring in the 29th minute - the Cottagers’ 100th league goal of the campaign - and Kenny Tete made it two 10 minutes later to ensure the hosts, who sealed promotion to the Premier League on April 19, were in control at the break.
The floodgates opened in the second half with goals from Fabio Carvalho, Bobby Decordova-Reid, substitute Jean Michael Seri and a brace from Mitrovic - confirming a record haul in the second tier for the Serbia striker.
It marked the third time this term that Marco Silva’s side have netted seven goals.
Aleksandar Mitrovic secures Championship goal record as Fulham clinch title in style
Fulham 7-0 Luton: The Cottagers lifted the Championship title in style as Mitrovic struck late to take his goal tally to 43 for the season
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