📈 EFL Review: Championship basement battle and Wrexham woes | OneFootball

The Football League served up its usual helping of brilliant goals and astonishing late drama this weekend.

Here are our highlights.

Championship

Moment of the weekend

There was a huge game at the bottom of the Championship this weekend as Huddersfield, in 22nd place, took on 23rd placed Sheffield Wednesday.

The Terriers had sacked Darren Moore earlier in the week after a disastrous few months in west Yorkshire and opted to make a change before arguably their biggest match of the season so far.

And it worked to perfection as Huddersfield beat their relegation rivals 4-0 thanks to a quartet of late goals at the John Smith’s Stadium.

The victory means that they are now up to 21st and just a point behind Stoke and Birmingham.

Notable mentions: Five-star Leicester impress at Stoke; Preston stun Ipswich; QPR leave it late for shock win

Player of the weekend

Joe Hodge had been a QPR player for all of seven minutes before he made the ultimate impact on Saturday.

The Wolves loanee joined the west London club on deadline day and was immediately named in the matchday squad for their clash with Blackburn.

The R’s have endured a pretty torrid campaign so far, winning just six games and sitting in the relegation zone.

But with their game at Ewood Park on a knife-edge QPR turned to their on loan midfielder.

As the ball opened up inside the area on 64 minutes, the 21-year-old calmly opened his body and finished to secure his new club’s first away win of 2024.

Notable mentions: Borja Sainz (Norwich); Patson Daka (Leicester); Adam Forshaw (Plymouth)

League One

Moment of the weekend

Former Premier League midfielder Charlie Adam was named as Fleetwood boss on New Year’s Eve.

And finally, at the sixth time of asking, the Cod Army won a game under their big-name boss.

Fleetwood have impressed in losing endeavours to Derby and Portsmouth over recent weeks but this weekend at home to Port Vale, everything coalesced.

Jayden Stockley got things rolling with a goal inside the opening 10 minutes before Ronan Coughlan and Ryan Broom added some sheen to the scoreline with two late strikes.

Notable mentions: Wigan win Peterborough stunner; Lincoln win derby; Reading net late equaliser at Oxford

Player of the weekend

Thelo Aasgaard was like a Norse god in the heart of the Wigan midfield on Saturday.

The Latics went to Peterborough with the hosts having shot up the table over Christmas with a string of impressive wins.

But Wigan put on one of their very best performances of the season so far with Aasgaard starring from the off in their 3-2 victory.

The Liverpool-born, Noway youth international, netted twice including the third in the 85th minute.

Notable mentions: Paddy Lane (Portsmouth); Jayden Stockley (Fleetwood); Jack Grimmer (Wycombe)

League Two

Moment of the weekend

Karl Robinson’s stock was at something of a low after he almost led Oxford to relegation in 2022/23.

External factors led the Scouse coach to fall on hard times with the League One side but his coaching ability was never really in doubt.

Salford then, picked up something of a coup when he joined last month and since Robinson’s arrival, the Greater Manchester have been on a brilliant unbeaten run of five games.

The best of those results came this weekend as Salford blew big-money Wrexham away with a sterling 3-1 win.

Salford are now up to 19th and away from the relegation places.

Notable mentions: Six-goal thriller at Colchester; Barrow win again; Newport leave it late to win M4 derby

Player of the weekend

It was the Nottinghamshire derby on Saturday as high-flying Mansfield hosted their near neighbours Notts County.

County, after their great start to the season, have struggled in recent weeks whilst the Stags have gone in the opposite direction.

Mansfield sat in second place in League Two before this weekend and they stayed there thanks to KD Davis’s first half goal which saw the hosts claim a narrow 1-0 win.

Notable mentions: Joe Ironside (Doncaster); Ciaran Kelly (Bradford); Alistair Smith (Colchester)