Cartilage Free Captain

Good morning everyone! We’re just about to the end of the month and, in this case, almost the end of the season. That means we need to have a rundown of the lower leagues in the English football pyramid.

EFL League One:

We know a few things already: Lincoln and Cardiff are going up, and Rotherham, Port Vale and Northampton are going down.

The playoff race is very exciting. There are six teams competing for four places. The big question is whether or not Luton Town can find their way in the top six after spending most of this season midtable (a disaster after having already faced back-to-back relegations). Your hoddler-in-chief will also be keeping a close eye on Bradford City, who seem to be a little inconsistent in their results.

And don’t forget about Leyton Orient on the other side. A year ago they were pushing for the Championship. Today it’s about survival.

Top eight:

Lincoln City (100 Pts) (C)

Cardiff (91 Pts) (P)

Bolton Wanderers (75 Pts) (X)

Stockport (74 Pts)

Bradford City (74 Pts)

Steveneage (72 Pts)

Luton Town (71 Pts)

Plymouth (70 Pts)

Bottom six:

Peterborough (52 Pts)

Leyton Orient (51 Pts)

Exeter City (49 Pts)

Rotherham (41 Pts) (R)

Port Vale (39 Pts) (R)

Northampton (35 Pts) (R)

League Two:

Can Harrogate Town complete the great escape? They’ve won their last two straight games to bring themselves on level with Crawley Town and just one point back of Newport County and Tranmere. Remember: Only the bottom two sides are relegated to the National League.

They’ve got a hell of a game to close out the season though. They’ll be hosting Barnet, who are still within a shot of the playoffs. Crawley Town also have a tough one against Salford who are playing for an easier playoff route. Who knows, maybe relegation will come down to goal differential.

Top nine:

MK Dons (85 Pts) (P)

Bromley (84 Pts) (P)

Cambridge United (81 Pts) (X)

Salford (80 Pts) (X)

Notts County (79 Pts) (X)

Grimsby Town (77 Pts)

Chesterfield (76 Pts)

Swindon Town (75 Pts)

Barnet (73 Pts)

Bottom five:

Tranmere (40 Pts)

Newport County (40 Pts)

Crawley Town (39 Pts)

Harrogate Town (39 Pts)

Barrow (36 Pts)

National League:

It was heartbreak for Rochdale last weekend, who thought they were going up with a goal in the 90+5th minute against York City. Well, after some pandemonium, York City scored the promotion-clinching goal in the 90+12th minute.

So now Rochdale, who are second place at 106 points, now have to go through the playoffs to gain promotion to League Two. That seems pretty cruel, especially when you look at some of the teams in the league above this one. We have this conversation every year about expanding the promotion/relegation between League Two and the National League, but it isn’t happening.

Otherwise another fun story is Scunthorpe, who dropped out of the Football League a couple years ago.

Champions: York City (108 Pts)

Playoffs:

Rochdale vs TBD

Carlisle United vs TBD

Scunthorpe United vs. 6 Southend

Boreham Wodd vs. 7 Forest Green

Fitzie’s track of the day: Dancing in the Club (MJ Lenderman Version), by This Is Lorelei

And now for your links:

The Ringer: “Tottenham’s Relegation Would Be Shocking. It Now Seems Inevitable.”

Alasdair Gold: “What Bentancur did to Kinsky and Xavi Simons’ crucial conversation with De Zerbi after his injury”

BBC: “Spurs’ Simons to miss rest of season and World Cup”

The Telegraph: “FA claims ‘no proof’ that heading causes long-term brain damage”

Good morning, dear hoddlers.

At the risk of doing one running post too many, I’d like to draw your attention to the London Marathon where a new world record was set.

On Sunday, Sabastian Sawe became the first person in history to run a sub-2 hour marathon in race conditions, crossing the finish line in 1:59.30. Here are what his splits look like:

That’s an unfathomable kind of speed, and he wasn’t even the only one to break a sub-2 hour marathon.

Yomif Kejelcha, making his marathon debut, also finished in under two hours, finishing in 1:59.41. And it’s incredible to think that kind of time was only good enough for second place on Sunday.

It’s also incredible that this happened in London and not one of the faster majors like Berlin or Chicago, which leads me to wonder how long this current record will stand. Just what kind of a new era in running are we?

Anyways - that’s your running hoddle. Maybe it’ll be your last one for a few weeks to give you all (and myself) a break.

Fitzie’s track of the day: A Day In The Life, by Neil Young (featuring Paul McCartney)

And now for your links:

Jay Harris ($$): “De Zerbi surprised Spurs have the ‘right spirit’ to survive. But do they have enough fit players?”

Alasdair Gold: “What Bentancur did to Kinsky and Xavi Simons’ crucial conversation with De Zerbi after his injury”

The Standard: “Three things we learned from Tottenham win as Roberto De Zerbi reaction sends message”

This sucks, y’all. Tottenham Hotspur are already without a majority of their best players, including Cuti Romero, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke, and Mohammed Kudus. Now add Xavi Simons to that list. Simons suffered what looked like a significant injury to his knee that resulted in his substitution in Spurs’ win over Wolves on Saturday. He tried to run off the injury but ended up being stretchered off.

While we still don’t know the extent of the injury, we now know it’s severe. Simons posted on Instagram that he will not only miss the rest of the season, but he will also miss the World Cup for Netherlands as well.

God. This just SUCKS. I’ve said this before, but put aside all of the stuff that has led to Tottenham Hotspur being in the position they are — 18th place with 4 matches to play, and with a very, very real chance of relegation. Yes, there’s lots of compounding reasons why Spurs are here, including poor squad management, bad managers, and terrible recruitment, but one underrated factor that doesn’t get talked about enough is the sheer, incredible amount of bad luck Spurs have had for going on two years straight. It feels like, as Ange once said, every light at the end of the tunnel turns out to be an oncoming train.

If you’re keeping score, that’s three Spurs ACL injuries in a single season: James Maddison, Wilson Odobert, and Xavi. Four, if you include Dejan Kulusevsi, who still hasn’t returned from his injured patella. God. What other club has gone through anything even remotely close to this?

So Spurs will now need to find a way to escape the drop at West Ham’s expense without their best creative player and passer. I feel bad for Tottenham, but I feel even worse for Xavi. In one stroke his season hopes and his World Cup hopes are dashed. He doesn’t deserve this, but injuries happen. They just seem to happen more often to Tottenham players than to pretty much any other club.

After several weeks hiatus for interationals and, well, other stuff, Tottenham Hotspur Women are back in action again, and it’s a BIG match. Spurs host Manchester United, their old rivals, and a team they’ve only beaten once in 15 appearances. United are in fourth, nine points ahead of Spurs in fifth, but Tottenham are eying a surge up the table, and while the odds seem slim Spurs still want to qualify for the Champions League this season. But to do that they’ll have to beat the big teams and United always seem to have Spurs’ number.

But like the Spurs men, the Women are dealing with a few significant injuries, with Clare Hunt, Luana Buhler, Amy James-Turner, Jessica Naz, Maite Oroz, and Maika Hamano all out injured.

Even so, this is an exciting team under Martin Ho. Let’s see if they can pull a home upset.

Tottenham Women vs. Manchester United Women

Brisbane Road, London, UK

TV: Not televised (USA), Sky Sports Premier League (UK)

Stream: ESPN Select (formerly ESPN+)

It wasn’t pretty. It was almost disastrous. But Tottenham Hotspur finally, FINALLY picked up their first league win in the calendar year of 2026, gutting out a 1-0 win away at Wolverhampton Wanderers thanks to a late tap-in goal from Joao Palhinha. Spurs frantically held on from a late Wolves charge to hang on for a win that, while significant for obvious reasons, merely allowed them to keep pace in the relegation fight.

It’s impossible to talk about this match without talking about the OTHER match that took place concurrently — West Ham hosted Everton, and after Kiernan Dewsberry-Hall leveled the score late in that match Spurs ever so briefly escaped the relegation zone. But West Ham scored the winner in extra time, so despite the win, Spurs remain in 18th place, two points behind the Hammers with four games to play.

The Spurs match was ugly, and very nearly went off the rails. Antonin Kinsky made a gargantuan leaping save off a Wolves free kick late in the game to preserve the win and the clean sheet, and Tottenham had two players — Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons — subbed off with injuries. Of the two, Xavi’s looked the most significant as he appeared to do his knee, and I’d be shocked if he plays again this season. Dom’s status is unknown.

This was an aggravating and horrible game to watch, but a win is a win. Spurs haven’t gotten many of them this season, so it’s important to celebrate it.

Here are my (quick) match reactions.

Match Reactions

God, what an awful match. Apart from the goal, Spurs barely mustered any chances despite 11 shots. This against the worst team in the league that had already been relegated. It was not pretty.

Roberto De Zerbi has a style of play that he wants to play, but right now he does not have the players to implement it. The front line was near catastrophically poor today.

Randal Kolo Muani had some bright moments early in the first half where he appeared to be successfully doing wingery things on the wing, but he fell off sharply late and was rightfully hooked at halftime. Mathys Tel, his replacement, was scrappy if ineffective. I’d like to see Tel get more minutes in what matches we have left.

It’s weird, but Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma are clearly our best midfield pairing under RDZ, and both of those guys I wanted Spurs to sell this past summer. (I still think we should sell both of them this summer and get players who can pass.)

I was flabbergasted by the decision to replace Xavi with Joao Palhinha in a match where Spurs needed a goal. I’m sorry, Joao — I was unfamiliar with your game.

Once again, Anthony Taylor put in a horrific officiating performance that was biased against Tottenham. There was a penalty against Richarlison that was not given (and instead was given as a foul BY Richy) and the Gomes tackle on Bissouma not being given as a red card was egregious. If that were a Spurs player making that tackle, it’s a red card all day.. How does this keep happening to us? (But at least it’s not as bad as the uncalled handball in the box in the WHU-Everton match)

Was pleased with Richarlison’s performance after he came on. Didn’t get a lot of service but he pressed like crazy and was chasing down every ball. Would’ve had a goal too if not for Matt Doherty’s glancing header late in the second half.

This is a team that seemingly has forgotten how to win games, so winning this one, ugly as it was, was hugely significant. We do need another team to beat West Ham and do us a solid (or two) and the win is tempered by the fact that we only kept pace with the Hammers, but it’s important to take what small pleasures we can from this season. It’s okay to celebrate this win.

Spurs’ run-in: @Villa, vs. Leeds, @Chelsea, vs. Everton. West Ham’s run-in: @Brentford, vs. Arsenal, @Newcastle, vs. Leeds. This one could go down to the wire, potentially. Or maybe we get put out of our misery soon. We’ll see.

Tottenham Hotspur’s destiny is out of their hands. With last week’s late draw against Brighton & Hove Albion, Spurs have to win every match they can and hope those above them fail to do the same. They’ve got a good opportunity to return to some winning ways against relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers.

There’s unfortunately a couple of things going against Spurs in their quest for their first Premier League win this year: Spurs’ record at Molineux is poor, with a three-match losing streak at the venue; and the football gods have opted to strike the club once more with their injury cudgel, with Pape Matar Sarr and Destiny Udogie the latest to hit the treatment table.

In some ways though, Spurs will be buoyed by their recent performances, even if they haven’t garnered the results for which many are hoping. Spurs are finally looking like something resembling a football team, and if that continues today, the Lilywhites are every chance of breaking their losing streak and staving off relegation… for now, at least.

COYS!

Lineups

Lineups will be posted closer to kick-off.

Live Blog

How to Watch

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, UK

Saturday, April 25, 2026

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET, 3:00 p.m. UK

TV: USA Network, not televised in UK. Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: Unavailable

Match thread rules

The match thread rules are the same as always. To any visitors coming here for the first time, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Wipe your feet, mind the gap, and be sure to check out the other pages at this outstanding site. While you’re here, though, we have a few rules and regulations:

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Have fun, and COYS!

“Destiny has a problem. I think he can’t play tomorrow. I’m sorry because he played a great first-half, the second-half as well, but the first one was great (against Brighton). But we have Spence, Souza is available to come with us. It’s not a big problem. I hope Udogie can be available in the next week at Villa Park.

“It’s a muscular injury but not so important. He didn’t play for a long time and it can happen at the beginning when you start to feel something of this problem. I have a big opinion about Destiny and he’s a crucial player for us. We are lucky because we can play with Djed Spence, another important player. I think he’s playing very well this season. Another very good guy and that’s it.

“[Maddison] is not available yet, especially in this week. He felt pain but not so important problem. Tomorrow he will come with us on the bench because he is important if he plays or not it doesn’t matter. Better if he plays, for sure, but as a guy, as a leader, he is a positive guy. Inside of my dressing room I want to see nice people, positive people and this is important also for his team-mates.

“Pape Matar Sarr, the shoulder. He felt pain in his shoulder and this week he didn’t work. He has not worked with the group. He’s not available to play.”

“Can we play that game again or not? I think not.

“Yeah but it was clear but no problem. We have to move on and to prepare the next game in Wolverhampton is not an easy game for sure. The last three games at home they made a draw with Arsenal 2-2 and they won with Aston Villa and Liverpool. They are alive. It is a tough game because they have nothing to lose. It’s an important game for us for sure but we have to be able to play not too much pressure and my work from now until tomorrow is to prepare the game of my best. To prepare in the best way to play football because this players are very good players. They have important qualities and they play without too many problems in their head.”

“I am very happy. I am very happy to work here because the part of the staff I found when I came is special as a guy, as a professional and the players the same. They are following me and they are good guys. Sometimes when one team is losing too many games the rumours are not nice and behaviour and the people speak about not too much serious players, but no, it is not like this in this case. I found good players, good guys, serious players and they follow me. They believe in my words because I am able to recognise the eyes of the players. We are suffering, they are suffering because it is not easy play in Tottenham in this condition of the table, but I said they have to be stronger and they have to live to win a game. We have to live every part of the day waiting for a win and preparing for a win because I think with a win we can change this part of the season.”

We reported on a rumor last week about Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth central defender Marcos Senesi having a meet-cute and thinking coming together, and now we have corroboration coming out of Germany. Our good buddy Florian Plettenberg, writing for Sky Sports Germany, is now saying there’s an “agreement in principle” for Senesi, who will be a free agent in June after his Bournemouth contract expires, to join Spurs this summer.

Sounds pretty good to me! Y’know, except for that ONE caveat — it’s contingent on Roberto De Zerbi saving Tottenham Hotspur from relegation to the Football League Championship.

I quite like Senesi, actually. He’s a solid defender. His signing almost certainly means that at least one Spurs central defender will be moving on this summer, and the likeliest candidates are Radu Dragusin, Cuti Romero, and/or Micky van de Ven, who have all been linked with moves away from Spurs no matter what happens to them at the end of the season. Senesi would be a good person to come in, and while we yell at Spurs about seemingly only targeting free transfers this would actually be a good one. He can certainly slot in beside Kevin Danso, Luka Vuskovic, whoever, and do a job.

Except for the whole “contingent on Spurs staying up” part. I’ve said again we haven’t heard what the plan is if Spurs don’t manage to stay up and get relegated from the Premier League for the first time in their history. That’s maybe a good thing. I have to think that Spurs do have a plan for that, though considering Johan Lange is involved it’s probably not a very good one.

Instead, I’d suggest we just stay in the Premier League and try to rebuild that way. We’ll still be run by idiots, but at least we’ll be run by idiots in the top division and not in the second division. That seems like at least a marginally better outcome.

Wanna get mad? OK, I mean even madder than you already are with Tottenham facing relegation, employing a sexual assault apologist, and Johan Lange still employed. Well I have something for you! Remember that incident where Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey, already on a yellow card, shoved Cuti Romero into Antonin Kinsky, injuring both Spurs players and leading to Cuti being out for the rest of the season? And remember how match official Rob Jones declined to send Brobbey off because of… uh, reasons? Remember that? Huh? Remember? That was (not) awesome.

Well the Premier League Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel just ruled that Jones, as 100% of Spurs fans could tell you at the time, screwed the pooch.

The KMI panel voted 3:2 that the decision by Jones was a mistake, with the majority view being that “there is a two-handed push which is an unnecessarily reckless action”.

Tottenham, who lost the game 1-0, would have played the final 30 minutes against 10 men if Brobbey had been dismissed.

Yeah. Another example of the officials screwing over Tottenham Hotspur and then just issuing a “oops, sorry, our bad” statement. And it gets worse — Rob Jones is apparently the match official with the worst record of making major mistakes with regards to second yellow cards in Premier League matches.

KMI panel statistics show that Jones has been responsible for five of the 12 errors this season regarding second yellow cards not being shown. All of his mistakes should have resulted in red cards.

The other cases listed to involve Jones are Malick Thiaw (Newcastle at Bournemouth), Ruben Dias (Manchester City at Nottingham Forest), Rodri (Manchester City at Tottenham) and Cole Palmer (Chelsea v Leeds United).

Jones has the joint-most errors on second bookings in the past two individual seasons, with three recorded in 2024-25 and two in 2023-24.

Of 42 cases regarded as mistakes across the three campaigns, Jones has made 10 of them.

You know, when someone is bad at their job, usually the answer is to either fire them or move them to a different position that might suit their skills better. While we don’t yet know the outcome from this report, apparently Rob Jones has been given a number of second chances already, because most people don’t make mistakes in 5/12 incidents in their job and expect to stay in that particular job. But that’s the PGMOL for you.

We have no idea whether Brobbey being sent off would’ve meant a different result than the 1-0 loss to Sunderland. But we DO know it would’ve changed the tenor of the rest of the match, considering Spurs would’ve played the last 30 minutes up a player, and who knows what might have happened? Maybe Spurs get a scoreless draw instead of a loss. That’d still have kept Tottenham in 18th place, just one point behind West Ham instead of two. But as we know, in a relegation battle every point is critical and sacred. Rob Jones screwed Spurs out of at least one point with that ridiculous non-decision, and I’m still mad about it.

This feels like the one. Tottenham Hotspur likely needs three wins in the final five to stave off the once unthinkable, and Saturday is unquestionably the one that looks best on paper. A win would provide some much needed hope, and could even land get Spurs back to 17th should West Ham not beat Everton. Failing to earn three points would eliminate all margin for error over the next four matches.

Even having this conversation regarding the already relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers is depressing in itself. As terrible as Spurs have been, Wolves are far worse, yet absolutely no one is expecting straightforward outing. After all, this side is 2-3-3 over the last eight (must be nice!) and have been significantly better at Molineux this season, unbeaten in the past three home fixtures. Nevertheless, Tottenham has no choice but to win.

Match Details

Date: Saturday, April 25

Time: 10:00 am ET, 5:00 pm UK

Location: Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton

TV: USA Network (US)

Table: Spurs (18th, 31 pts), Wolves (20th, 17 pts)

This has not been a kind fixture for Spurs. They are winless in the past six contests, including a 4-2 demolition at this venue last April that also featured two clubs in the bottom five of the table. The reverse fixture this campaign came back in September, when the home side needed a late equalizer from Joao Palhinha just to rescue a point; Thomas Frank’s side generated only 0.87 xG that day.

Two Things to Watch

Youth or experience?

It felt like Roberto De Zerbi made a statement with his lineup against Brighton, particularly with the midfield trio of Yves Bissouma, Conor Gallagher, and Rodrigo Bentancur. When times are tough, it makes sense to lean on experienced veterans, and for the most part they lived up to the challenge. On the road in a desperate situation, it would be no surprise to see the new manager make the same sort of choices again.

However, it would be unfair to suggest younger options like Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray are unreliable or not up for the task, and perhaps it is their very youthful exuberance that would be their strength. Wolves are dead last in goals (by a wide margin) and are not exactly known for possession, so loading up the midfield with defensive-minded destroyers is not necessarily the requirement like last weekend.

Still, I would expect De Zerbi to lean on those he trusts the most in the center of the park and perhaps bring that youthful energy up front with Xavi Simons and Mathys Tel. Everything is still new for him, but time has almost expired, so there is just not much space left for tinkering with different starting XIs. Having multiple available options has not always been the case this year, though, so perhaps the manager should feel fortunate to even be in this situation.

Moral victories

There have been enough false dawns already. The draw against Liverpool, the second leg against Atleti, the effort last weekend — these were all positive outings, but ultimately have done very little to change the club’s survival prospects. With just one month remaining in the season, there is no time to accept good performances that do not result in three points. Any win will do, regardless of how ugly it may be!

Perhaps the biggest benefit for Spurs is that Wolves might also be well beyond moral victories. Last weekend confirmed the club’s return to the Championship and it is difficult to expect a ton of motivation throughout the run in, and especially so in their first match as an officially relegated side. If any club could bungle this it would be Tottenham, but as far as circumstances go, this is pretty perfect.

So yea, this is it. Maybe fewer than 40 points will be enough to escape relegation, but the pressure will be unbearable if Spurs fall short in this one. I just struggle to believe this team will be capable of suddenly locking in over the last four if it fails to take advantage of its easiest fixture remaining. If this contest is not considered “must win” it could hardly be any closer.