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GOAL! Middlesbrough 0-1 Lincoln City (Reach 12). Adam Reach strides in from the left, meeting his captain Tendayi Darikwa’s cutback from the right, and pearls a shot into the bottom right! That was worth the 65-year wait!
GOAL! Stoke City 1-0 Swansea City (Bocat 10). Eric Bocat swivels around on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box, before launching an unstoppable shot into the net.
Norwich City 0-0 West Bromwich Albion. Kenny McLean one-twos his way down the right with Anis Ben Slimane and bursts into the box, but can’t steer a shot into the bottom left. Lovely move by the Scotland international, though, the sort of thing that’ll catch the eye of Sébastien Pocognoli.
GOAL! Cambridge United 1-0 Wigan Athletic (Watts 3). Let’s mark the first goal of the 3pm season. Kell Watts pings a volley into the bottom left, and that’ll please one of our star columnists.
Middlesbrough 0-0 Lincoln City. Nearly a nightmare start for Lincoln, playing in the second tier for the first time since 1961. Luke Ayling whistles a long-range effort inches wide of the bottom-left corner.
In a few minutes, Lincoln City will play second-tier football for the first time in 65 years. To put that in some sort of context, the season they last played in the old Second Division, Alf Ramsey led Ipswich Town to promotion, Bill Shankly had just completed his first full campaign at Liverpool, and Brian Clough was leading the line at Middlesbrough. And now …
Scotland have qualified for three of the last four major tournaments, only to forget to turn up for any of them. Time to take a different tack … and the SFA appear to be doing that all right. Anyone see this coming?
Early results
Championship
Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Preston North End
League One
Notts County 1-1 Leicester City
Oxford United 2-2 MK Dons
Reading 3-4 Luton Town
League Two
Newport County 3-0 Rochdale
Oldham Athletic 2-0 Port Vale
FULL TIME: Reading 3-4 Luton Town. Luton celebrate a remarkable comeback from two goals down at the break! Too early to stake a claim for match of the season?
FULL TIME: Notts County 1-1 Leicester City. No flying start for Russell Martin and his League One Foxes.
GOAL! Reading 3-4 Luton Town (Kodua 90+6). Gideon Kodua completes the comeback for Luton! He comes in from the left and crashes a shot off the crossbar. The ball rebounds and bagatelles awhile, before Kodua has a second go, and slots from six yards! Luton were 3-1 down at the break!
FULL TIME: Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Preston North End. Bolton hold on for their first win over Preston since the glory days of Sam Allardyce.
GOAL! Notts County 1-1 Leicester City (Grant 81). Leicester may not have bottomed out quite yet. Conor Grant levels for the hosts at Meadow Lane.
GOAL! Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Preston North End (Erabi 86). Jusef Erabi heads home with time running out, and Preston’s long unbeaten run against Bolton, stretching back to 2001, isn’t snapped just yet.
The 3pm teamsheets
Bristol City: Tickle, Tanner, Dickie, Eissat, Atkinson, Knight, Randell, Hirakawa, Ballard, Greenwood, Tolaj.
Subs: Collins, Cardines, Williams, Yah, Wallace, Eile, Twine, Bell, Jakobsen.
Millwall: Jensen, Leonard, Taylor, Cooper, Sturge, De Norre, Metcalfe, Azeez, Neghli, Arconte, Coburn.
Subs: Crocombe, Baggott, Dykes, Kelly, Sykes, Lisbie, Batth, Cundle, Bangura-Williams.
Charlton Athletic: Mannion, McNamara, Jones, Koumetio, Bell, Coventry, Chalobah, Campbell, Carey, Ahearne-Grant, Godden.
Subs: Brooks, Knibbs, Leaburn, Mesik, Alli, Rankin-Costello, Sichenje, Apter, Nwamba.
Derby County: Zetterstrom, Langas, Sanderson, Taylor, Ward, Clark, Travis, Fraulo, Forsyth, Szmodics, Morris.
Subs: Vickers, Brewster, Bilbija, Salvesen, Mowatt, Johnston, Nyambe, Blackett-Taylor, Eames.
Middlesbrough: Vitek, Brittain, Ayling, Malanda, Borges, Kante, Berhalter, Whittaker, Castledine, Lankshear, Joseph.
Subs: Brynn, Jones, McGree, Peart-Harris, Sarmiento, Arfsten, Edmundson, Ibeh, Cartwright.
Lincoln City: Wickens, Darikwa, Hamer, Towler, Elerewe, Reach, Jefferies, McGrandles, Varfolomeyev, Draper, House.
Subs: Gauci, Coubis, Hackett, Bayliss, Melia, Street, Olaofe, Honohan, Elder.
Norwich City: Kovacevic, Fisher, Darling, Cordoba, Chrisene, Mattsson, McLean, Brooks, Ben Slimane, Maghoma, Toure.
Subs: Grimshaw, Stacey, McConville, Wright, Diallo, Field, Bruno Alves, Schwartau, Kvistgaarden.
West Bromwich Albion: O’Leary, Galves, Phillips, Campbell, Styles, Whitwell, Diakite, Myhre, Price, Heggebo, Morgan.
Subs: Ingram, Williams, Mepham, Bielik, Townsend, Johnston, Molumby, Stewart, Nzingoula.
Portsmouth: Schmid, Devlin, Poole, Shaughnessy, Swanson, Segecic, Adams, Shein, Brooke-Smith, Bishop, Kamara.
Subs: Bielica, Arthur, Dia, Swift, Le Roux, Bailey, Murphy, Milovanovic, Kavuma-McQueen.
Queens Park Rangers: Charles, Mbengue, Dunne, Clarke-Salter, Kemper, Vale, Edwards, Poku, Chair, Burrell, Saito.
Subs: Ward, Adamson, Morrison, Smyth, Lloyd, Kamara, Kone, Varane, Alemayehu.
Stoke City: Johansson, Wilmot, Lawal, Graham, Bocat, Galbraith, Ingelsson, Manhoef, Rigo, Thomas, Gallagher.
Subs: Griffiths, Pearson, Bozenik, Bae, Gibson, Soumare, Talovierov, Anderson, Martin.
Swansea City: Vigouroux, Lissah, Cabango, Welsh, Tymon, Fulton, Stamenic, Opoku, Just, Yeo, Vipotnik.
Subs: Fisher, Key, Widell, Eom, Parente, Walta, Idah, Ronald, Heywood.
The 2015-16 Premier League champions Leicester City are now slumming it in League One, having suffered successive relegations. Now they’ve got Russell Martin as manager, and things have to bottom out at some point, so having been seriously examined by Notts County during the first half at Meadow Lane, the Foxes have taken the lead thanks to Jayden Joseph. Ten years, though.
Down in League One, there’s a real humdinger going on at the Madejski Stadium. Reading were 3-1 up against Luton Town at the break, thanks to a Jack Marriott hat-trick – Jake Richards had given the Hatters an early lead, as well – but since the break, the visitors have hit back hard. Two goals in as many minutes from Kasey Palmer, and it’s 3-3 with more than half-an-hour still to play. I was going to while away the time until the 3pms with the Preston-Bolton game, but plans change. The big M4-M1 showdown it is.
During that aforementioned – well, alluded-to – first season of the Football League, Preston had the measure of their county rivals Bolton. They won 3-1 at home, and 5-2 away. But it’s not going so well for them today. First-half goals from Sam Dalby (14) and Thierry Gale (25) have seen the Trotters bolt out of the gate, and as it stands, Steven Schumacher’s newly-promoted side are top of the Championship. Too early to go with the table? Ah, let’s start as we mean to go on.
Preamble
The 2026-27 Championship race started dramatically last night …
… but it really gets going now. Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End are already partying like it’s 1888-89, having kicked off an hour ago, and we’ll have more of that Victorian-adjacent malarkey in a minute. But! Wait!! Here’s the 3pm card!!!
Bristol City v Millwall
Charlton Athletic v Derby County
Middlesbrough v Lincoln City
Norwich City v West Bromwich Albion
Portsmouth v Queens Park Rangers
Stoke City v Swansea City
Other important news from elsewhere will be mentioned*, as a new season opens out before us, to a world of possibilities. It’s on!
* not necessarily
#Middlesbrough #Lincoln #Bristol #City #Millwall #Norwich #West #Bromwich #Albion #football #live #Championship
