Relegation, relief and ‘rubbish': A day on the brink in the Championship

New York Times

03-05-2025

There is no division quite like the Championship and on its season's final day there were half a dozen clubs still desperate not to leave it behind.
Only Cardiff City had seen relegation to League One confirmed, leaving two spots left to be filled. One, barring a mathematical miracle, would be Plymouth Argyle but relegation anxieties had remained with five other clubs all the way to the finish line.
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Hull City had begun the day in the bottom three, with Luton Town, Preston North End, Derby County and Stoke City fearful of an inglorious fall to English football's third tier. The swings would be inevitable and the tension abundant.
The bottom of the table, before kick-off, looked like this:
The Athletic was at four of the Championship's most important fixtures to watch a lunchtime finale not for the faint of heart.
It's quite surreal to watch a game riddled with tension and anger, that features eight goals, but what actually happens in it is almost completely irrelevant.
That was the experience of Luton's trip to West Brom, or at least the second half of it. By the time West Brom scored their fourth goal in the 57th minute of what would eventually be a 5-3 win, it was clear that everything rested on what happened in Portsmouth vs Hull, 160 miles away.
By that point Luton, with one of the more pathetic performances you'll see in a game with such high stakes, had ceded control of their own fate.
Before the game, the atmosphere among their fans had a couple of levels. On the surface, optimistic, relaxed even. A group of young lads had come dressed as Mario and Luigi. One man was wearing a soft top hat, with a mini straw boater on top of that, to support the Hatters. A hat-trick, perhaps? 'We'll be alright,' declared one fan, Steve. 'A draw should be enough…'
But underneath the optimism, a thick layer of fear. Their throats may have been boisterous, singing loud and long, but their eyes were shot with worry. Another fan, Johnny, managed to be simultaneously pessimistic and optimistic: 'I reckon we'll lose and still stay up.' As it turns out, he was half right.
The more positive emotions were partly caused by the safety net they were operating with. Luton have spent most of the second half of the season in the bottom three, but after a switch in system under new manager Matt Bloomfield, they had found some form. Just two losses in the previous 11 games, winning the last three in nervy, dramatic circumstances, meant they went into the final day outside the relegation zone, with a one-point cushion over Hull.
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Thus, they knew they didn't have to win to stay up: if they did, survival would have been certain, but equally they could have drawn or, as Johnny predicted, lost and still been fine.
'I don't think we'll ever know that,' said Bloomfield, when The Athletic asked if that was a factor in their performance. 'There were probably lots of contributory factors. We couldn't just sit back, go for a point and hope that we would get a result (elsewhere). It's just very frustrating and disappointing that the performance wasn't good enough.
'We apologise to our supporters. I totally understand the disappointment and the anger. We need to make sure we're better.'
West Brom took the lead, but were only ahead for 119 seconds before Millenic Alli equalised for Luton. But by the 33rd minute it was 3-1, USMNT international Daryl Dike even scoring his first league goal in 781 days for Albion.
The optimism from the away end had turned into fury. 'You're not fit to wear the shirt,' they sang, when they weren't booing. When Jordan Clark scored to make it 5-2 in the second half, they celebrated sarcastically.
'Further agony for Luton!' :flushed:
Daryl Dike has restored West Brom's lead and put Luton's survival hopes in even more jeopardy! :chart_with_downwards_trend: pic.twitter.com/4iVL5tvWf8
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 3, 2025
And for readers in the U.S.
Daryl Dike powers in a header at the back post for his first goal of the season for The Baggies :us::boom: pic.twitter.com/2XzY6Gl2h3
— CBS Sports Golazo :soccer:️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) May 3, 2025
When Portsmouth equalised, some hope returned. 'Play up Pompey' and 'if Pompey score we're on the pitch' sang the fans. But they had no cause to.
And so, Luton become the fourth team in the Premier League era to suffer a double relegation, from the top flight to League One in two years. They famously went from non-League to the Premier League in a decade: now they are halfway to doing the reverse.
Nick Miller
At the end of last season, Hull missed out on the play-offs by three points.
So, you can forgive their supporters for waking up in the early hours of Saturday morning to board one of the 17 coaches departing the MKM Stadium at 4am for Portsmouth wondering where it has all gone wrong in the last 12 months.
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The players must have thought the same at the beginning of this week, as they were not paid on time, only adding to the drama before a pivotal match.
'Relegation would be devastating, especially after going from three points off the play-offs last season to this,' Owen Waugh, dressed as Luigi, said before the match. 'We can only hope for the best.'
As all 2,161 of their fans entered Fratton Park, the nerves were palpable — but there was an air of confidence. 'The day has been good, but I am scared,' says Kai Naulls, dressed as Super Mario. 'It's make or break, but I feel like we're going to win. Pompey have nothing to play for.'
To contrast the emotions being felt by anyone associated with Hull, a relaxed John Mousinho, the Portsmouth manager, was posing for pictures with the home supporters before kick-off.
As the Hull players emerged from the tunnel, they were greeted by a sea of amber, with inflatable palm trees, bananas and rubber rings bouncing around.
The club's owner, Acun Ilicali, who paid for the 17 coaches, was in the directors' box and only needed to wait a handful of minutes before the away end erupted in a chant of, 'We are staying up!', following West Brom's early goal against Luton.
That joy was short-lived, though, as Luton pegged them back but it was bedlam in the 18th minute in the away end. Joao Pedro's header from a corner was met by Matt Crooks, who scored from close range.
Matt Crooks scores for Hull and Luton are sunk into the relegation zone! :scream: pic.twitter.com/UFCZ92tYN5
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 3, 2025
Even though Luton's collapse, coupled with Hull winning, appeared to extinguish the jeopardy, Ruben Selles, their head coach appointed in December to keep them in the league, could not relax.
Selles continued to maraud around his technical area and used a break in play in the 29th minute to deliver a team talk to all 10 outfield players.
'We should definitely keep him,' Waugh said of Selles. 'He's a great manager. He's winning games, so hopefully we can carry that on into next season.'
Ten minutes after the restart, the mood in the away end changed. Christian Saydee equalised for Portsmouth and it meant the rest of the match was going to be agonising.
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With Luton shipping five, all Hull had to do was hold on — and they did, just. Crooks was the first to run over to the away end, who were singing, 'We are staying up!'
The rest of the squad eventually made their way over, and Selles, who had been unable to stand still and was jumping around in the final minutes, let all of his pent-up stress out.
'When the referee blew the whistle, my first thought was to be sure we were 100 per cent secure,' Selles said. 'But then the feeling was amazing. We need to celebrate in the proper way.'
Selles stood in the middle of the pitch, watching on as the away end danced to Gala's Freed from Desire, soaking it all in, having completed the task of keeping the club in the Championship.
The dressing room at full time was a scene of jubilation and relief. 'It's relief, really,' Crooks said. 'It wasn't football utopia for most of the game, but we managed to do it.'
Daniel Sheldon
Among the sensations at Ashton Gate, irony wasn't at the forefront of people's minds.
Bristol City and Preston North End, the Championship's longest-serving sides having been promoted together in 2015, went into the game with different ambitions: Bristol City staring at the play-off places; Preston fighting for survival.
The facade was one of drama but for Preston, the reality has been a slow, weary decline. Having been 15th in February, 11 points above the relegation zone, a run of one win in 14 — including damaging results against teams around them — saw them dragged into the mire.
Some have said they've been sleepwalking towards the trap door but Preston have been very much aware of their situation. Somehow, though, their stuttering vehicle was able to ignite, if only into second gear, to guide them to safety on the final day. In the end, a 2-2 draw was enough.
Preston had taken the initiative; a contrast to the previous few months. Emil Riis and Milutin Osmajic haven't had many opportunities to gel this season but scored a goal apiece. Two-nil up — only the 10th time they had scored more than once in a game all season.
But Preston have been curtailed by their soft underbelly all season. They had dropped 28 points from winning positions, the second-most in the division, and went on to drop two more when Ross McCrorie scored twice for a 2-2 draw.
For 45 games and 74 minutes, things had been in Preston's hands. Now they were relying on results from elsewhere. As it was, Luton's thrashing kept them up.
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So, for what the demise? Departures of key players. Injuries to others. Osmajic was banned for eight games for biting Blackburn's Owen Beck in October. Heckingbottom bemoaned refereeing decisions, too.
For supporters, though, a lot of the frustation has been directed towards director Peter Ridsdale.
'The recruitment's been poor,' says Keith Harrison, a Preston fan and author of North End Souls. 'The set-up behind the scenes, the structure of the club, it just does not resemble what a functioning championship club should look like.
'We're all crying out really for change, for some sort of modernisation, hopefully, it won't take relegation for that to happen. But if it does, that's the only silver lining we can cling to that will be significant changes. Heckingbottom has said before the match 'that no matter what happens, it will be a real wake-up call for the club.'
Heckingbottom bit back at fan discontent. 'When I came in, there was a negativity around the place and that's reared a little bit because we've been dragged into it. If there are some fans out there who want to be losing millions of pounds every year, they can take over and do it.'
With 14 players out of contract, a big summer awaits.
'There's a core there that we need to add to,' Heckingbottom said. 'We need to keep some of the key characteristics. But loans are going to be important. Free transfers. As many permanents as possible. But the competition for those players will be immense.
'Now the season's over, my wife thinks she's got me, but from Monday the work will begin right until the end of the window.'
For Preston, a reprieve. Now, time for a reset.
Richard Amofa
The front cover of Derby's matchday programme captured the defiance that accompanied the club into the season's final day.
Nat Phillips' celebrations — mid-air and fists clenched — late in the 1-0 win away to Hull seven days earlier spoke of a mood transformed after much of the campaign had been spent fearing an immediate return to League One.
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Derby had recorded back-to-back away victories after winning only two of 21 games on their travels. John Eustace had praised his side for 'scrapping and fighting… to stay in the division' just two months after they had found themselves bottom and seven points adrift.
Eustace has pushed hard down on Derby's chest since the middle of March and found a pulse. He had walked away from a top-six challenge with Blackburn Rovers in February for a very different challenge but needed one last result for vindication.
The same for Stoke City and Mark Robins, another manager tasked with keeping relegation demons at bay when appointed on New Year's Day. Enough results had been collected to ensure the Championship's perennial underachievers began the day sitting most comfortably but tension was still a travel companion on the 40-mile trip to the East Midlands.
Stoke knew a point would be sufficient, keeping at least Derby beneath them, and played as such. The game was low-risk and lower in quality.
All sections of a sell-out crowd north of 32,000, in truth, were appreciative of that small mercy. Word of Luton leaking goals had both home and away fans chanting of survival with increasing volume. Jeopardy was primarily being kept away by West Brom but Derby, the more proactive of the two, had the better chances to mark survival with a victory.
Twice they hit the woodwork in quick succession in the second half, first through Jerry Yates and then Phillips, but it was a contest that routinely felt destined to end goalless.
'The game was so lacking in quality it was frightening,' Robins said. 'It was rubbish but we both got what we needed.'
Robins had more interest in a summer he hopes will see days like these avoided. 'We shouldn't be talking about Stoke being anywhere near the bottom,' he said. 'This is a mid-table team at worst.'
Eustace could afford to find greater satisfaction after leading his squad on a lap of appreciation inside Pride Park. 'I'm very proud of the group,' he said after a crucial haul of seven points from the last nine available. 'We're fighters, not victims.'
And another club determined to look upwards in the Championship next season. 'The potential of this club is unbelievable,' Eustace added. Staying up, just as Robins outlined, can be the first step to bigger things.
Philip Buckingham