Key events
Half time scores
Here are all the Football League scores as they stand. Teams winning away from home in the Premier League: three (out of four). Teams winning away from home in the Championship, League One and League Two combined: five (out of 28).
Premier League
Crystal Palace 0-1 Fulham
Everton 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Leicester City 0-3 Newcastle United
Southampton 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Championship
Bristol City 0-1 West Bromwich Albion
Hull City 0-1 Blackpool
Middlesbrough 1-0 Wigan Athletic
Preston North End 1-0 Huddersfield Town
Rotherham United 1-0 Stoke City
Sheffield United 1-0 Coventry City
League One
Accrington Stanley 0-1 Barnsley
Burton Albion 3-0 Lincoln City
Cambridge United 0-0 Shrewsbury Town
Charlton Athletic 0-0 Peterborough United
Cheltenham Town 0-0 Plymouth Argyle
Exeter City 0-0 Portsmouth
Fleetwood Town 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday
Ipswich Town 2-0 Oxford United
Milton Keynes Dons 0-0 Forest Green Rovers
Port Vale 1-0 Morecambe
Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Bristol Rovers
League Two
Carlisle United 1-0 Bradford City
Crawley Town 0-0 Sutton United
Gillingham 0-1 Colchester United
Harrogate Town 1-1 Grimsby Town
Mansfield Town 0-0 Northampton Town
Rochdale 0-1 Hartlepool United
Salford City 1-0 Barrow
Stockport County 0-0 Crewe Alexandra
Swindon Town 0-0 Walsall
Tranmere Rovers 1-0 Doncaster Rovers
Wimbledon 0-0 Newport County
The Premier League is very much leading the way on the goal front today. There have been eight first-half goals in its four 3pm kick-offs, and no other team in the Football League has more than one except struggling Burton Albion in League One, who look to be on their way to a first league win since 22 October being as they are 3-0 up against Lincoln City.
GOAL! Southampton 0-2 Brighton (Perraud own goal, 35 mins)
Pervis Estupinan’s low cross from the left gets past the keeper at the near post and Romain Perraud has to do something to stop March just tapping it in. And, in his wisdom, he chooses to tap it in himself.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Fulham! And then a red card! It’s all gone wrong for Palace!
Bobby Reid puts Fulham ahead with a nice first-time finish, and a few seconds later Tyrick Mitchell mistimes a challenge and is given his marching orders!
GOALS! Leicester 0-3 Newcastle (Joelinton, 33 mins)
Martin Logan emails to point out that another goal description has gone missing and Newcastle are in fact two up, Almiron having scored a very fine seventh-minute second. And as I’m redescribing that Joelinton heads in a corner and, just as Podence did when he scored for Wolves, stuffs the ball up his shirt in celebration!
At Selhurst Park, Jordan Ayew’s first-time effort from 15 yards or so absolutely thunders into the crossbar.
A chance for Leicester, after Dewsbury-Hall plays in Daka. Pope flies out and Daka hits the ball into him, it ricochets back into Daka, and then rolls gently goalwards allowing a defender to clear.
GOAL! Everton 1-1 Wolves (Podence, 22 mins)
That is a lovely equaliser. It starts with a Wolves corner, taken short. The ball in lands at the feet of Moutinho, just outside the area, and he lifts a beautiful right-foot pass over the defence and Podence runs through and tucks in!
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Wolves (Mina, 7 mins)
A bit of a technical hiccup here saw a couple of entries disappear somewhere between my computer and the rest of the world. Anyway, Yerry Mina scored a while ago, heading in from a corner after his marker fell over.
GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Brighton (Lallana, 14 mins)
A lovely move from Brighton ends with a cross from the right-hand corner of the area, and a nicely-judged glancing header from Adam Lallana. In truth it was too close to the keeper, who should have pushed it to safety but opted instead to flap it in haplessly.
If Hugo Bueno is going to mark Yerry Mina at every set piece, this could get very messy for Wolves.
GOAL! Leicester 0-1 Newcastle (Wood, 3 mins)
And that’s how to take a penalty. The goalkeeper dives to his left and the ball goes hard and high the other way.
Penalty to Newcastle! Less than two minutes on the clock and Amartey has brought down Joelinton. You could watch football forever and never see a clearer penalty.
Peeeeeep! They’re off!
There will be a minute’s applause before all the Premier League games for George Cohen, who died this week.
The players are coming out, and the clock is about to strike football o’clock!
Here’s Jeremy Alexander’s match report on that game. Absolutely brutal final sentence.
“I remember Oldham 11 Southport 0 on Boxing Day 1962,” writes Mike Fitzgerald. “The local Southport Visitor newspaper headlined their match report, “SOUTHPORT CAN’T ’OLDAM.” The Boxing Day game that stands out in my memory was travelling to watch my team (Watford) at Fulham in 2000. We lost 5-0 and afterwards I remember talking to Jeremy Alexander, who was reporting on the game for the Guardian, had to file the teams in formation and wasn’t sure given the chaos what Watford’s shape had been. Between us we eventually settled on three at the back and a fluid (or more accurately completely disorganised) midfield seven.
“Re your photo of Goodison’s Main Stand, about 20 years ago I took my father on a stadium tour,” writes Gary Naylor. “Our guide walked in to say hello, a strongly built guy of average height, and my father’s face transformed – Dave Hickson. Both long gone now, but a moment to remember.” Lovely memory of a magnificent old stadium. Sadly now the photograph has long gone too.
Team news is in, and the Premier League protagonists are these:
Crystal Palace v Fulham
Crystal Palace: Guaita; Clyne, Tomkins, Andersen, Mitchell; Schlupp, Doucoure, Eze; Olise, Ayew, Zaha. Subs from: Butland, Ward, Milivojevic, Hughes, Edouard, Ebiowei, Richards, Riedewald, Gordon.
Fulham: Leno; Tete, Robinson, Diop, Ream; Reed, Palhinha; De Cordova-Reid, Pereira, Willian; Mitrovic. Subs from: Rodak, Tosin, Duffy, Wilson, Cairney, Chalobah, James, Carlos Vinicius, Harris.
Referee: Andy Madley.
Everton v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Everton: Pickford; Patterson, Mina, Tarkowski, Mykolenko; Iwobi, Gueye, Onana; Gordon, Maupay, McNeil. Subs from: Holgate, Gray, Begovic, Doucoure, Godfrey, Coleman, Davies, Vinagre, Cannon.
Wolves: Sa; Semedo, Collins, Kilman, Bueno; Hodge, Neves, Joao Moutinho; Podence, Diego Costa, Hwang. Subs from: Ait-Nouri, Jimenez, Sarkic, Goncalo Guedes, Gomes, Ronan, Nunes, Traore, Lembikisa.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Leicester City v Newcastle United
Leicester: Ward; Castagne, Amartey, Faes, Thomas; Tielemans, Soumare; Praet, Dewsbury-Hall, Barnes; Daka. Subs from: Soyuncu, Vardy, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Perez, Vestergaard, Mendy, Ndidi, Iversen.
Newcastle: Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; S Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock; Almiron, Wood, Joelinton. Subs from: Lascelles, Saint-Maximin, Ritchie, Targett, Manquillo, Fraser, Murphy, Darlow, Anderson.
Referee: Jarred Gillett.
Southampton v Brighton & Hove Albion
Southampton: Bazunu, Walker-Peters, Lyanco, Salisu, Perraud; Diallo, Ward-Prowse; Elyounoussi, Edozie, Djenepo; Adams. Subs from: Maitland-Niles, Caleta-Car, Aribo, A Armstrong, Caballero, S Armstrong, Mara, Bella-Kotchap, Morgan.
Brighton: Sanchez; Veltman, Dunk, Colwill, Estupinan; Gross, Caicedo; March, Lallana, Mitoma; Trossard. Subs from: Lamptey, Sarmiento, Enciso, Undav, Steele, Gilmour, Ferguson, Van Hecke, Moran.
Referee: Robert Jones.
Hello world!
Well let’s just crack on with what promises to be an afternoon of manic festive fun, shall we? Yuletide games are no longer the guarantee of ludicrous scorelines that they once were but it’s still notable that two of the six highest-scoring games in Premier League history were played between Christmas and New Year (Tottenham 6-4 Reading in 2007 and Arsenal 7-3 Newcastle in 2012, since you ask), and today is the first anniversary of the comparatively dull Manchester City 6-3 Leicester.
So here are today’s 3pm kick-offs in the English Football League. There’s a good chance that a few of this lot will turn out to be completely bonkers. Fingers crossed, eh?
Premier League
Crystal Palace v Fulham
Everton v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Leicester City v Newcastle United
Southampton v Brighton & Hove Albion
Championship
Bristol City v West Bromwich Albion
Hull City v Blackpool
Middlesbrough v Wigan Athletic
Preston North End v Huddersfield Town
Rotherham United v Stoke City
Sheffield United v Coventry City
League One
Accrington Stanley v Barnsley
Burton Albion v Lincoln City
Cambridge United v Shrewsbury Town
Charlton Athletic v Peterborough United
Cheltenham Town v Plymouth Argyle
Exeter City v Portsmouth
Fleetwood Town v Sheffield Wednesday
Ipswich Town v Oxford United
Milton Keynes Dons v Forest Green Rovers
Port Vale v Morecambe
Wycombe Wanderers v Bristol Rovers
League Two
Carlisle United v Bradford City
Crawley Town v Sutton United
Gillingham v Colchester United
Harrogate Town v Grimsby Town
Mansfield Town v Northampton Town
Rochdale v Hartlepool United
Salford City v Barrow
Stockport County v Crewe Alexandra
Swindon Town v Walsall
Tranmere Rovers v Doncaster Rovers
Wimbledon v Newport County
