5 Things You Might've Missed: EFL Matchweek 9 & 10
While the Premier League was busy with its own nonsense, the EFL served up a Yorkshire derby that nobody will agree on, a south coast derby that'll be talked about for years, and a goodbye to one of the great lower-league strikers.
Let's get into it.
Corner! actually No, Wait... Penalty!
For 88 minutes, this was Huddersfield's afternoon. Joe Taylor scored seconds into the second half after a mix-up between Joe Lumley and Reece James, and Derensili Sanches Fernandes doubled it midway through the half, his second goal in as many Saturdays. 2-0, 3 points banked, home in time for tea.
Then the 88th minute. Substitute Jaden Heskey whipped a cross in, Ibane Bowat turned it into his own net, and suddenly the Owls had a sniff.
What happened next is the bit everyone's still arguing about.
Deep into stoppage time, Liam Cooper won a header in the box and took Marcus Harness's boot flush in the face. Referee Ed Duckworth pointed for a corner. Cooper was still on the floor. Roughly 2 minutes of treatment, confusion and a chat with his linesman later, the corner had become a penalty, and Jamal Lowe tucked it away in the 98th minute. 2-2.
Town boss Martin Drury called it bizarre, said he'd never seen a foul given minutes after the incident rather than seconds at this level, and then very sensibly stopped talking, explaining that "my wife and kids need money." The FA's loss is the Drury household's gain.
Bogey Team, Bogey Ground
Saturday was supposed to be a fresh start for Wycombe. Tom Hounsell, who'd been holding the fort since Michael Duff was sacked after a 3-3 draw with MK Dons, was confirmed as permanent head coach on the morning of the game. Wycombe were unbeaten in 6 in all competitions and a win would've lifted them towards the play-off places.
The opponent? Luton.
Kasey Palmer and Jamie Donley had Luton 2 up inside half an hour. Nahki Wells made it 3 in the 46th minute, Devante Cole tapped in a fourth on 84, and Jack Grimmer's goal in the 95th minute was about as consolation as consolations get. Beaten 4-1 at home on appointment day.
And it isn't a one-off. Wycombe have now hosted Luton 17 times, counting an FA Cup tie back in December 2004, and they've never beaten them. 7 draws, 10 Luton wins. Luton's local paper reckons it's the longest unbeaten run any club has at a single ground in the Football League.
Jack Wilshere admitted before the game that he didn't want to be reminded about it, because he didn't fancy being the manager who ended it. No danger of that.
Some Week to Be Tonda Eckert
On Wednesday, the FA handed Southampton's head coach his Spygate verdict. On Sunday, he was in the dugout for the south coast derby. In between, I'd guess, not a lot of sleep.
Quick refresher if you'd blocked it out: Saints were thrown out of last season's play-off final and docked 4 points this season after admitting to spying on Middlesbrough and two other clubs, and an EFL commission ruled back in May that Eckert had personally authorised it. The FA's verdict this week was a £28,000 fine, a reprimand, and a six-week ban that's suspended until the end of 2027/28.
Translation: he keeps his job, as long as he keeps his binoculars at home.
Then Portsmouth came to St Mary's. James Bree, a right-back, made a run in behind on 20 minutes, controlled Finn Azaz's clipped ball with his right foot and slotted it in off the post with his left. On 44 minutes, Cameron Bragg, already booked for a sliding tackle on Ebou Adams, pulled Adams's shirt and went for a second yellow. Saints had to play the entire second half with ten men.
Pompey had 66% of the ball after the break and didn't manage a single shot on target. By the end, Bree was playing in a bandage.
It was Saints' first league win over Portsmouth since November 2004, and Bree, who said he'd had a feeling all week he'd score, did so to be fair.
Billy Sharp's 299 and Done
Working at St Mary's as a Sky Sports pundit that day was Billy Sharp, who used the pre-match coverage to announce, live on air, that he's retired. He's 40, it's been 22 years, and the final tally is 299 goals across 10 clubs.
He went out the way you'd want to: a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Peterborough in his last game for Doncaster, during his fourth spell at the club. Before that, he'd chipped in 9 league goals as Donny won League Two in 2024/25.
But it's Sheffield United where he'll be remembered most. 377 appearances and 129 goals across three spells, and three promotions: 30 goals as the Blades won League One with 100 points in 2016/17, 23 more as they went up from the Championship in 2018/19, and one last promotion in 2022/23.
He said he wanted to finish on his own terms after seeing mates' careers ended by injury, and that while he'd have liked the 300th, he's had an unbelievable career regardless. He also described himself as someone who wasn't the most talented or best-liked player on the pitch, which is exactly the kind of thing the best-liked player on the pitch would say.
Surely he could've got ONE more?
So Close to Half-Time
Lincoln hosted West Ham on Wednesday night and were down to ten men inside 3 minutes, when Tom Hamer got a straight red for a reckless lunge on Joel Veltman. In the 23rd minute, Conor McGrandles misplaced a backpass, Jarrod Bowen was through, and McGrandles pulled him back. Nine men, with more than an hour still to play, against West Ham.
And for a while, they held. 22 minutes of proper backs-to-the-wall stuff, and they were nearly at half-time with it still 0-0 when Mavropanos headed in a Bowen corner in the 45th minute. Nuno said afterwards that Lincoln were still in the game even with a man down, and he wasn't wrong.
The second half was less fun if you're an Imp. Edvin Austbø in the 48th minute, Bowen in the 50th, Pablo on 75, and a late double from Tomáš Souček made it 6-0. That equals West Ham's record away win, a 6-0 at Leicester's Filbert Street on 15 February 1923.
In fairness to Lincoln, it took 2 red cards inside 23 minutes to get anywhere near it.
That's your lot. Anything from League Two or the Championship that we've slept on? Drop it in the comments.
