Championship final day: Farke proud of champions Leeds but Luton face ‘painful’ relegation

Daniel Farke described Leeds’s Championship title triumph as “a proud day and an emotionally moving day” after he saw his side clinch top spot in dramatic fashion thanks to Manor Solomon’s injury-time winner against Plymouth at Home Park. The 2-1 win meant they held off Burnley, who beat Millwall 3-1, on goal difference to seal top spot with a century of points. At the other end of the table, Luton suffered a second successive relegation after a 5-3 loss at West Brom.

As the Leeds players and fans celebrated, Farke initially sat alone in the dugout. “I was too tired to celebrate even at the final whistle because I was so focused on winning promotion,” he said. “I really wanted to win this match and win the title for everyone at the club.

“Of course, I’m happy that we won this game in the final stages and are officially allowed to label ourselves as champions and be the best team during the whole season. It’s a proud day and an emotionally moving day because we have invested so much and wanted to crown ourselves with some silverware.”

It is the first time two sides have reached 100 points in the same Championship season but Solomon’s goal pooped the nascent party at Turf Moor. Scott Parker, though, was determined to remain positive.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” said the Burnley manager. “The main objective was to get three points and end the season on 100 points. Two defeats all season, 33 games unbeaten, 16 goals conceded, that’s all I could ask for .

“If you’d said to us at any point that 100 points this year wouldn’t get you the title we’d all be thinking, ‘no chance’. To lose the title on goal difference is a little disappointing but I won’t let that overshadow a remarkable season.”

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Either side reaching three figures looked in doubt early in the day, with Mihailo Ivanovic giving Millwall an early lead and a Sam Byram own goal doing likewise for Argyle. But the division’s two outstanding teams clawed their way back. Josh Brownhill soon equalised for Burnley and they seemed destined for a second Championship title in three seasons when Jaidon Anthony put them ahead, with Leeds having pulled the score back to 1-1 thanks to Wilfried Gnonto and time ticking away.

But in the first minute of injury time Solomon swept home in front of the packed away end to spark delirium. Brownhill added a third for Burnley, but the atmosphere was largely punctured at Turf Moor.

At the bottom, Luton, who began the day in 21st, a point ahead of Hull in the final relegation place, drop down into League One after a wild 5-3 defeat at West Brom, while Hull held on for a 1-1 draw at Portsmouth to secure their Championship status. Plymouth’s relegation was also confirmed.

Luton were plunged into the bottom three by Tom Fellows’s early goal for West Brom, briefly out again thanks to Millenic Alli’s equaliser two minutes later but back in when Matt Crooks gave Hull the lead at Fratton Park and there they stayed.

Daryl Dike, Fellows and a Callum Styles double put a previously out-of-sorts Albion into a 5-1 lead just after the hour mark, leaving Luton hoping for a Pompey comeback. Christian Saydee did equalise to leave Hull sweating, but the visitors held on and though Jordan Clark and Alli reduced the arrears at the Hawthorns there was to be no miracle.

“It was a particularly painful day for everyone involved at our club,” said the Luton manager, Matt Bloomfield, whose team had come into the game having won three on the bounce to give themselves hope of an unlikely escape. “We apologise to our supporters because a second relegation in a row is particularly painful for them.

“We were poor and it was very disappointing. Over the previous couple of months we have dragged ourselves right back into it and the performances have been particularly good. But this club comes back fighting and we will do again.”

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Derby and Stoke, who both began the day in relegation danger, played out a 0-0 draw at Pride Park.

A dramatic day in the playoff race ended with Coventry and Bristol City taking fifth and sixth spots respectively, with Blackburn, Millwall and Middlesbrough missing out.

Coventry’s ultimately comfortable 2-0 win over Boro was enough to make their place safe and set up a two-legged semi-final against fourth-placed Sunderland, who lost at home to QPR, their fifth defeat on the bounce. “It is human after five defeats to think now you are weak, but it is not the reality,” said the Sunderland manager, Regis Le Bris. “We have to find the right rhythm to win again.”

The Robins, meanwhile, had to come from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with struggling Preston at Ashton Gate and line up a semi-final with third-placed Sheffield United, who scuppered Blackburn’s hopes with a 1-1 draw at Bramall Lane, Anel Ahmedhodzic’s second-half equaliser proving crucial in the final reckoning.

The interim Norwich manager, Jack Wilshere, came out on top in the battle between former Arsenal teammates at Carrow Road, with Aaron Ramsey’s already relegated Cardiff on the wrong end of a 4-2 scoreline, having been reduced to 10 men by Calum Chambers’s 16th-minute red card.

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Wilshere said he was keen on taking on a long-term role. “I feel like I am ready to make an impact at this level,” he said. “I don’t know what the process is [for appointing a new coach] but I guess over the next few days I will find out.”

Swansea and Oxford ended their seasons in entertaining fashion with a 3-3 draw in south Wales, while Sheffield Wednesday secured a first top-half Championship finish since 2019 with a 1-1 draw at Watford.

Source: theguardian.com