Five things in EFL: Whose 2025 will end on a high?

Fans across the board will start to wonder which division they will play in the following seasons as there is only one game left until 2025 is finished.

Some people, like Coventry and perhaps Cardiff, are confident that the signs are good, but Sheffield Wednesday and Port Vale and Newport County are, let us say, less sobering.

However, don’t be fooled by stragglers; instead, focus on the positive aspects of football, which frequently keeps you on your toes just as you’re stumbling over to get the slippers.

Middlesbrough is eight points clear, while five of their rivals are now playing for pre-season favorites Ipswich.

However, the Tractor Boys are hopeful that their bruises from the reverse fixture on December 6 will still be palpable.

Despite that highlight, Kieran McKenna’s side endured a December that was very similar to a two-step-forward-one-step-back season.

Along with that heartbreaking victory over the Championship leaders, Leicester City also suffered draws on Boxing Day against Millwall and one draw against Blackburn on Boxing Day.

This season, consistency between weeks has not been their strong point.

Coventry’s top-ranked team won the first free-scoring game of the season, but they haven’t released it since.

Could there be a little mid-season dip, though, with just two wins out of five this month and just four goals scored?

However, Port Vale have already gotten things going by splitting with Darren Moore, and potential dismissals are pouring in from all directions.

After a poor start to his managerial career and two damaging defeats, including 4-1 to his old club QPR and 2-1 defeat to Watford on Boxing Day, nowhere is the pressure building more than at the King Power.

With the crowd becoming restless, a victory over John Eustace’s in-form Derby County looks a must-win after his side were booed off the pitch at home after the Watford defeat.

Following a run of four wins in 15, which has brought his team further down the table in the 16th position than they have in the play-off positions, West Brom manager Ryan Mason is another who will be concerned for his shoulder.

After a 1-0 defeat at Blackpool on Boxing Day, Rovers of Doncaster manager Grant McCann admitted he was “worried” about his team’s form. The club have won just one of their last 15.

The promotion-chasing Stockport County trip on Monday doesn’t appear to be straightforward.

There is nothing more than a fully-firing frontman to warm a manager’s heart, and there are four EFL strikers who couldn’t possibly be better at the end of the year.

In Coventry’s 1-0 victory over Swansea, Ephron Mason-Clark scored the winning goal, which is his sixth goal of the season, but more importantly, made it three games without scoring in a row.

Patrick Agyemang of Derby County has scored three goals in his last three games (six for the season), including the goal against Birmingham on Boxing Day.

Matthew Dennis has scored 10 goals for Notts County, including three in his previous five games (despite missing the net in recent draws against Walsall and defeat to Chesterfield), in League Two, attracting admiring glances from teams higher up in the pyramid.

Emre Tezgel has five goals in the last six for Crewe.

Who will take the title of League Two’s best player is in high stakes.

With only one point left in hand over Bromley, who hosts Oldham on Monday, and Swindon Town, who is also up two points, are in third place.

Swindon travels to face local rivals Cheltenham Town while Bromley travels to Crawley Town.

After losing to MK Dons 1-0 on Boxing Day, Swindon manager Ian Holloway stated to BBC Radio Wiltshire, “It will be a long, old run until the end of the season.”

“We are one of the good teams there,” he said.

This round of EFL matches are the closest to the reverse fixtures, which took place for all just weeks ago in early December, due to a fixture computer glitch.

And that could result in both some unresolved tension and open wounds.

As bosses Alex Neil and Gerhard Struber, a number of players, and backroom staff clashed, the Millwall vs. Bristol City game quickly turned into a mass brawl.

It would not take much to get these teams fired up again from the weekend of 6 December or the Tuesday and Wednesday of 9 and 10 December when all these teams squared off, as they say, because being familiar breeds contempt.