That’s all from us! Head over to join Barry Glendenning for his minute-by-minute coverage of Arsenal vs Brentford. Have a great evening!
More news on Eddie Howe here:
And here is the report for Aston Villa’s win over Southampton at St Mary’s…
Will Unwin was at the City Ground as Everton clinched a late win over Nottingham Forest…
Updated
Scottish Premiership results
Celtic 5-1 Kilmarnock
Dundee United 1-0 St. Johnstone
St. Mirren 3-2 Ross County
Motherwell 0-0 Hearts
Bundesliga results
Hoffenheim 2-0 Mainz
Borussia Monchengladbach 1-2 Freiburg
Bochum 1-2 Augsburg
Bayer Leverkusen 0-0 Union Berlin
A huge match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund is about to kick off.
Ed Aarons was at the Amex Stadium this afternoon for Brighton vs Leicester…
Eddie Howe will be absent from the Premier League match between Newcastle and Manchester United tomorrow due to illness. The head coach was admitted to hospital on Friday night.
A statement from Newcastle read: “The Magpies’ head coach was admitted to hospital late on Friday evening having felt unwell for a number of days. Everyone at Newcastle United extends their best wishes to Eddie for a speedy recovery, and further updates will follow in due course.”
League Two results
Doncaster 1-1 Wimbledon
Swindon 5-4 Bradford
Morecambe 0-2 Carlisle
Newport County 0-2 Colchester
Gillingham 1-0 MK Dons
Barrow 2-0 Walsall
Chesterfield 3-0 Fleetwood
Accrington Stanley 3-3 Tranmere
Port Vale 5-0 Bromley
Harrogate 2-2 Grimsby
League One results
Wigan 0-0 Wrexham
Wycombe 1-0 Stevenage
Northampton 0-0 Reading
Lincoln 1-1 Shrewsbury
Stockport 3-1 Rotherham
Burton 3-0 Huddersfield
Crawley 1-3 Leyton Orient
Cambridge United 0-1 Charlton
Barnsley 4-1 Bolton
Bristol Rovers 1-2 Exeter City
Championship results
Leeds 2-1 Preston
Plymouth Argyle 2-1 Sheffield United
Sunderland 0-1 Swansea
Cardiff City 0-1 Stoke City
West Brom 2-1 Watford
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Oxford United
Luton 0-1 Blackburn
QPR 1-1 Bristol City
Portsmouth 2-2 Derby County
Updated
Premier League results
Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
Southampton 0-3 Aston Villa
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Everton
Brighton 2-2 Leicester
Simon has emailed in with an update from the Scottish Premiership:
“Late drama in Scotland as St. Mirren claim the final top six place with a late winner at home to Ross County, while Hearts could only draw at Motherwell. Dundee United held on to beat St. Johnstone, who remain bottom, 1-0.”
GOAL! Southampton 0-3 Aston Villa (McGinn, 90+5)
Marco Asensio steps up to take his second penalty but it is saved again by Aaron Ramsdale. However, John McGinn is there to score the rebound.
Updated
GOAL! Nottingham Forest 0-1 Everton (Doucouré, 90+4)
Abdoulaye Doucouré surely wins it for Everton in added time!
Dwight McNeil steals the ball from Murillo on the halfway line and drives forward before threading his pass through to Doucouré, who calmly fires his shot into the top corner!
Updated
Another penalty to Aston Villa! Marco Asensio is up to take again…
There’s less than five minutes to play in most fixtures across the EFL and Premier League…
Huge chance for Leicester! Bilal El Khannouss hits the post! It’s still 2-2 at the Amex Stadium.
It’s still goalless at the City Ground. Nothing splits Nottingham Forest and Everton as things stand.
GOAL! Southampton 0-2 Aston Villa (Malen, 79)
Villa are flying now! Donyell Malen extends the advantage.
Morgan Rogers receives the ball from Amadou Onana in midfield before turning and driving forward. He plays the ball to Donyell Malen on his right who fires his shot across Ramsdale and into the bottom-left corner.
Updated
GOAL! Brighton 2-2 Leicester (Okoli, 74)
Leicester are level through Caleb Okoli!
Bilal El Khannouss sends a free kick into the box and the defender runs in behind at the back post to head it home! Poor defending from the hosts.
Updated
GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Aston Villa (Watkins, 73)
The deadlock has finally been broken at St Mary’s! And it’s super-sub Ollie Watkins with the goal!
Youri Tielemans sends a lofted pass over the Southampton defence to the striker, who makes a run into the box. Watkins then simply flicks his shot over Ramsdale on the volley to give his team the advantage!
Updated
Two goals in quick succession see Portsmouth draw level with Derby at Fratton Park. Jerry Yates had put Derby 1-0 up in the 70th minute, but a matter of moments later Robert Atkinson fired home the equaliser.
PENALTY SAVED! Southampton 0-0 Aston Villa
Aaron Ramsdale saves a penalty from Marco Asensio! It remains level at St Mary’s.
Updated
Penalty to Aston Villa. Ollie Watkins wins it just moments after coming off the bench.
Updated
The deadlock has finally been broken at the Den with Camiel Neghli firing Millwall to a 1-0 lead.
West Brom have extended their lead over Watford thanks to Mikey Johnston. 2-0 at the Hawthorns.
Swansea have just gone 1-0 up against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Ben Cabango with the goal.
Blackburn are down to 10 men. Kristi Montgomery receives his second yellow card. Luton have a one-man advantage now so they will be confident that they can get something from this.
Updated
GOAL! Brighton 2-1 Leicester (J,Pedro, 55)
João Pedro steps up to take the spot kick and converts, sending Mads Hermansen the wrong way and firing the ball into the top-right corner.
Updated
Penalty to Brighton…
Blackburn have taken the lead against Luton. Yuki Ohashi breaks the deadlock and fires the visitors into a 1-0 advantage.
It’s all happening at the Broadfield Stadium! Orient now lead thanks to another goal from Charlie Kelman! That’s two in two minutes.
Well… Crawley didn’t lead for long! Charlie Kelman levels things up for Leyton Orient.
We’re now back under way across the leagues. Crawley have taken the lead against Leyton Orient thanks to a converted penalty from Junior Quitirna.
An interesting Leicester stat for you – Stephy Mavididi’s goal was the club’s first in the Premier League since 26 January. It was also their first goal in 885 minutes.
We have an update on what’s happening at the Cardiff City Stadium. The unwell fan is now being taken to hospital. Players are back on the pitch and will complete a five-minute warm-up before play resumes.
Thanks Dominic! I can’t say it’s been too exciting across the Premier League and Championship. Hopefully some more goals to come in the second half.
Premier League HT scores
Brighton 1-1 Leicester
Nottingham Forest 0-0 Everton
Southampton 0-0 Aston Villa
And with that, I’ll hand over to Emillia Hawkins, who will steer you through the second half of today’s clockwatch. Enjoy, Emillia!
Re: Scotland here’s the latest via Simon:
As we approach HT it’s 1-0 United v St. Johnstone, Manny Adegboyega with the goal, and it’s as you were in the race for top six with the games at Motherwell and St. Mirren both level.
Bristol Rovers are another team in trouble. And they’re tailing 2-0 to Exeter. The League One relegation battle is so crazy that it’s probably worth waiting for all today’s games to play out before we explain all the permutations.
A big equaliser for Stockport against Rotherham. A diamond of a goal you might say … it’s been scored by Jack Diamond.
In League Two, Tranmere have gone 3-0 down to Accrington and could yet get pulled into the relegation mire.
Cardiff v Stoke has been halted for the time being due to a medical emergency in the crowd. Let’s hope everyone is OK there. Medics are attending.
GOAL! Brighton 1-1 Leicester (Mavididi, 38)
Lewis Dunk gives the ball away cheaply and Leicester pounce through Stephy Mavididi. He’s scored! The Foxes are level and that’s come out of nowhere.
A first goal in nine games for Leicester.
Updated
I’m not saying Nottingham Forest and Everton are boring to watch, but it’s not a huge surprise that it’s 0-0 at the City Ground so far. They are two of the league’s more defensive-minded teams, that’s all.
The onus is on Forest to get things going forward.
Talking of obvious nicknames, it’s a surprise that the Villans aren’t yet ahead at Southampton. Stand-in Saints manager Simon Rusk has talked of wanting his team to “enjoy their work” as they look to avoid the ignominy of recording the Premier League’s lowest ever points tally.
Villa have a glittering forward line including Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Morgan Rogers this afternoon but they haven’t fired yet.
It hasn’t taken Bristol City long to hit back at QPR, via the highly-rated West Ham loanee George Earthy.
The Robins have been the form side in the Championship of late and, with their playoff rivals failing to win as things stand, that’s a big goal.
GOAL! Brighton 1-0 Leicester (J.Pedro, 31)
There it is. Brighton are ahead against lacklustre Leicester and it’s come via the penalty spot. João Pedro sends the keeper the wrong way.
No idea why it took so long for VAR to rubber-stamp that decision, by the way.
Updated
We still await the first Premier League goal of the afternoon … although Brighton are appealing for a penalty for handball by Leicester’s Conor Coady.
The referee hasn’t given it but VAR will take a serious look. It’s a fairly obvious handball.
Get your too-obvious footballing nicknames into me on email.
In League Two, Accrington have doubled their lead against Tranmere while Walsall – winless in nine but still chasing automatic promotion – trail 1-0 at Barrow. It truly is the league you can never predict.
I’m not a fan of obvious football team nicknames. See Aldershot as ‘the Shots’ and Shrewsbury AKA ‘the Shrews’.
Anyway, both those teams have just scored.
A breaking soccer news story from across the pond:
It’s 0-0 in plenty of Championship games at the moment, especially those (Luton v Blackburn, Cardiff v Stoke, Portsmouth v Derby) that have major ramifications for the battle to avoid relegation.
QPR have scored to dent Bristol City’s playoff aspirations, mind you, Karamoko Demble has broken the deadlock at Loftus Road.
Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 Oxford: Wednesday fans are protesting against their owner Dejphon Chansiri today by turning their backs to the pitch in the 10th minute. There have been chants for Chansiri to go, too.
Goals are flying in around League One and Two.
Barnsley have just taken the lead against third tier promotion-pushers Bolton. Charlton are 1-0 up at relegation-bound Cambridge.
Updated
Brighton are absolutely bossing things against Leicester so far – which should be no great shock. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side have suffered nine successive defeats in all competitions, and have lost 16 of their past 18 games since the start of December.
It’s absolutely atrocious form.
Updated
Two of the League One playoff hopefuls have suffered early blows. Huddersfield are trailing at relegation-threatened Burton, while Stockport have gone 1-0 down at home to Rotherham.
Seething.
Chris Wilder says Sheffield United have given up a "massive opportunity" after their defeat to Plymouth Argyle 😕 pic.twitter.com/XeCIvRvWCS
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) April 12, 2025
Championship: Colby Bishop has just seen an early penalty saved in Portsmouth’s key game against Derby at Fratton Park today.
No goals as of yet in the second tier 3pm KOs.
Elsewhere in League Two, Port Vale can go top with a win over Bromley today and they’ve enjoyed an ideal start, going 1-0 up inside five minutes.
In terms of terms that could drop down to League Two … Shrewsbury trail 1-0 at Lincoln. The Shrews could be relegated today.
Accrington v Tranmere is a key game in the League Two survival scrap – and it’s first blood to Stanley with Ben Woods scoring inside the first minute. Morecambe v Carlisle is also happening in the fourth tier today – that’s second bottom versus bottom.
There’s some footage doing the rounds of the full-time scenes at Plymouth’s Home Park, where it appears there were scuffles in the tunnel as the players headed back for the dressing rooms. Chris Wilder looked incensed with something that was said to him as Plymouth’s players celebrated.
Not a happy day for Sheffield United or their manager.
KICK OFF
Here we gooooo.
We’re almost ready to get under way around the country.
One man who will not feature today is Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma. The Japanese winger has been an ever-present this season, but a heel injury means the Seagulls will miss his pace and impetus down the left against Leicester. João Pedro looks set to play a wide role instead; he will dovetail with Danny Welbeck.
Chris Wood is a slightly surprising starter for Nottingham Forest today. Many thought he wouldn’t quite recover in time, but it’s a huge boost for Nuno Espirito Santo to have the New Zealander back. Anthony Elanga has also been an injury doubt so starts this one on the bench.
Everton will be a tough nut for Forest to crack for sure, and with Manchester City winning, the heat is still on in that top five tussle.
An early update from our regular Scottish football contributor, Simon McMahon:
It’s really all about the top six today, with the last round of fixtures before the league split. Dundee United, having last week secured a top six place in their first season back in the Scottish Premiership, face St. Johnstone, shock winners at home to Celtic last time out, at Tannadice. The final top six place will likely be decided at Motherwell where a win for visitors Hearts would guarantee them sixth place. Anything else, however, would likely result in St. Mirren claiming the final spot, provided the Paisley side beat Ross County at home. Though if Motherwell win and St. Mirren don’t, then Motherwell will go sixth. Hope that’s clear.
Crystal clear, Simon.
The result of the day so far (and it will surely not be beaten) is Swindon 5-4 Bradford in League Two. The Bantams, who are still top of the league for now, were 2-0 and 3-1 up but had a man sent off after 14 minutes. The winner came via a 95th minute Jack Shepherd own goal.
Football.
Other full-time scores from the early games:
Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
Celtic 5-1 Kilmarnock
Leeds 2-1 Preston
Plymouth 2-1 Sheffield United
Updated
Birmingham City are League One champions! Having clinched promotion in midweek, the title has been secured without the Blues even needing to kick a ball. Wrexham’s 0-0 draw at Wigan has done the trick.
Meanwhile, Wycombe have beaten Stevenage 1-0 to go one point off second.
Some further pre-match reading options for you:
It’s full-time in the Women’s FA Cup and Chelsea have edged past Liverpool to secure a spot in the final, via a stoppage time winner from the in-form Aggie Beever-Jones. They’ll face either Manchester United or Manchester City.
Make that 2-1 to Plymouth. What on earth is happening to Chris Wilder’s normally-so-steely Sheffield United?
A big goal for Plymouth! Ryan Hardie has equalised with 10 minutes left on the clock against Sheffield United. Leeds and Burnley might be rather pleased with that goal too …
There have been goals galore at the Etihad this afternoon and Barry Glendenning is your man for that game’s final knockings.
Leeds and Sheffield United are both winning in the Championship early kickoffs – but only by slender margins. Still a good 15 minutes plus added time remaining at Elland Road and Home Park, with Plymouth – 1-0 down to the Blades – in need of some inspiration to kickstart their fading survival hopes.
Premier League team news
Brighton v Leicester
Brighton: Verbruggen; Hinshelwood, Dunk, O’Riley, Estupiñán; Ayari, Baleba; Minteh, Adingra, Pedro; Welbeck.
Leicester: Hermansen; Justin, Coady, Okoli, Thomas; Ndidi, Soumaré, McAteer; El Khannous, Mavididi, Vardy.
Nottingham Forest v Everton
Nottingham Forest: Sels; Williams, Milenkovic, Murillo, Moreno; Domínguez, Anderson, Gibbs-White; Silva, Hudson-Odoi, Wood.
Everton: Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner, Doucouré; Harrison, Ndiaye, Broja.
Southampton v Aston Villa
Southampton: Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens; Walker-Peters, Ugochukwu, Fernandes, Manning; Sulemana, Archer, Onuachu.
Aston Villa: Martínez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen; Onana, Tielemans; Rogers, Ramsey, Asensio; Rashford.
Preamble
Although the Premier League is fizzling out somewhat – save for the semi-interesting top five tussle for Champions League qualification – the rest of the English pyramid is far from done and dusted. So while Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa will try to boost their European hopes this afternoon, the real juice is to be found elsewhere.
Take the Championship for instance, where there’s everything to play for and everything to lose in the fight for automatic promotion, the playoffs and survival. Of particular interest today are Cardiff v Stoke and Portsmouth v Derby at the bottom, while Leeds and Sheffield United are currently in action, having kicked off at 12.30pm.
League One and Two are equally unpredictable, while there’s still (just about) a Bundesliga title race on, with Bayer Leverkusen looking to cut the gap to leaders Bayern Munich to just three points – before the Bavarians face Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker from 5.30pm.
Plenty to get our teeth into, so why not drop me an email to chat our Saturday afternoons away? Let’s go.
