Top 10 most shocking EFL Championship moments ever (Ranked) | OneFootball

We looked back at the top 10 most shocking moments in Championship history.

It is fair to say that the Championship is not only one of the most dramatic divisions in English football, but also across the globe.

With so much at stake, the Championship has become an incredibly competitive and unpredictable league, and every season, you can guarantee that there will be plenty of entertainment and surprises along the way.

This campaign has been no different, and as we enter the run-in with promotion and relegation still to be decided, there are likely to be many moments over the coming weeks that will go down in second tier history.

With that in mind, we looked back at 10 of the most shocking and iconic moments ever seen in the Championship.

10 Birmingham City relegated to League One

Birmingham City had one of the most eventful Championship seasons in history last term, and their plight was entirely self-inflicted after making the truly baffling decision to part company with manager John Eustace in October 2023 while they were sitting sixth in the table.

Eustace was replaced by Wayne Rooney, who won just two of his 15 games in charge before being sacked after only three months at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, departing with the club sitting just above the relegation zone.

The Blues then experienced a brief upturn in fortunes under Rooney's successor, Tony Mowbray, before he was forced to step down due to health reasons, and Gary Rowett, who had himself been dismissed in equally controversial circumstances to Eustace in 2016, was unable to keep the club in the division after returning as interim manager.

Birmingham's relegation to the third tier of English football for the first time in almost 30 years was confirmed on the final day of the season, despite a 1-0 win over Norwich City, and their demise was entirely out of keeping with the feel-good factor that had consumed the club since the takeover by Knighthead.

After spending a staggering total of around £24 million during the course of the summer transfer window, including £15 million on Fulham striker Jay Stansfield, the Blues are on course to make an immediate return to the Championship this term, but their relegation season will forever remain one to remember for all the wrong reasons.

9 Huddersfield Town promoted to the Premier League

Having finished in a lowly 19th place the previous season, few expected much from Huddersfield Town in the 2016-17 campaign.

However, after spending almost the entire season in the play-off places, the Terriers achieved a shock fifth-placed finish, and even more impressively, David Wagner's side then went on to seal promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history.

Huddersfield overcame Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-finals before clinching promotion with a penalty shootout victory over Reading in the final at Wembley, and Christopher Schindler's winning spot-kick has earned him club legend status at the John Smith's Stadium.

Incredibly, Town won the play-offs without actually scoring a single goal of their own, with Wednesday defender Tom Lees' own goal the only time they got on the scoresheet, making it one of the most remarkable promotions ever seen in the Championship.

8 Wigan Athletic 8-0 Hull City

There are a fair few sides who have been on the wrong end of a comprehensive defeat in the Championship over the years, but few have suffered quite as humiliating a loss as Hull City did against Wigan Athletic in July 2020.

It had already been a year to forget for the Tigers, who had plummeted from eighth in the table on New Year's Day down to 22nd ahead of their trip to Lancashire, and their season imploded in spectacular fashion against the Latics.

Wigan scored a stunning seven first-half goals against Hull in what will surely go down as one of the most dominant performances in English football history, and Kieran Dowell added an eighth after the break to complete his hat-trick.

The emphatic defeat against their relegation rivals proved to be incredibly damaging for Grant McCann's side, and their drop into League One was confirmed on the final day after losing 16 of their final 20 games of the season.

7 Ruben Neves' wondergoal for Wolves v Derby County

The Championship has seen plenty of memorable goals over the years, but perhaps none have been quite as impressive as Ruben Neves' strike in Wolverhampton Wanderers' 2-0 win over Derby County in April 2018.

The fact that Wolves even managed to sign Neves, who was one of the most highly-rated youngsters in Portuguese football, from Porto for a reported £15.8 million could itself be considered a shock second tier moment, and, as expected, he was a class above many of those he came up against in the division.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side were already well on the way to the title by the time they welcomed Derby to Molineux, but Neves helped them take a big step closer to the Premier League as he flicked the ball up and unleashed a delightful 30-yard volley that went in under the bar, and it is a goal that is still frequently talked about to this day.

6 Birmingham City secure Championship survival

Birmingham's humiliating relegation last season got a mention earlier in this list, but the Midlands outfit avoided the drop in dramatic fashion on plenty of occasions during their stay in the Championship, perhaps none more so than in the 2013-14 campaign against Bolton Wanderers.

As the final day of the season neared a conclusion, it looked as though the Blues were heading for relegation after goals from Chung-yong Lee and Lukas Jutkiewicz gave the Trotters a two-goal lead, but Lee Clark's side then staged a remarkable comeback.

Nikola Zigic pulled a goal back for Birmingham in the 78th minute to give them a glimmer of hope, and in the final minute of normal time, Paul Caddis headed in from close range to save the club's second tier status, sparking jubilant scenes in the away end.

5 Barnsley stay up and break Brentford hearts

There was plenty on the line in the Championship on the final day of the 2019-20 season, with automatic promotion, the play-off places and the relegation spots all still to be decided.

A game with implications at both ends of the table took place at Griffin Park as Brentford hosted Barnsley, with the hosts aiming to sneak into the top two and the visitors hoping to avoid the drop.

With the score tied at 1-1 heading into the closing stages of the game, the Bees knew that a goal would secure their place in the Premier League after West Brom were held at home by Queens Park Rangers, but they would instead have their hearts broken.

Rather than Brentford finding the winner they desperately needed, it was Barnsley who sealed all three points in the 91st minute through Clarke Oduor to secure their place in the Championship, and Thomas Frank's side would go on to suffer further devastation as they were beaten by local rivals Fulham in the play-off final a few weeks later.

Harry Redknapp managing in the Championship was always likely to produce drama, but even he will surely have been surprised by the heroics his QPR side came up with in their play-off final victory over Derby in 2014.

The Rams had been the better side in the game for long spells, and they looked to have been handed a major advantage when R's midfielder Gary O'Neil was sent off just after the hour mark for a late challenge on Johnny Russell.

Derby piled on the pressure in the closing stages as they searched for a winner, and Robert Green was forced to make a host of crucial saves to keep the scores level, but in the 90th minute, Bobby Zamora capitalised on an untimely error from Richard Keogh and slotted home to seal promotion for QPR.

While Derby supporters will not want to remember their play-off final heartbreak against QPR, they will certainly be keen to recall their incredible semi-final clash against Leeds United from 2019.

There was already plenty of bad blood between the two teams following the infamous 'spygate' saga earlier in the season, and after suffering a 1-0 defeat in the first leg at Pride Park, the Rams then had a mountain to climb when Stuart Dallas gave the Whites a two-goal aggregate lead after 24 minutes.

Derby manager Frank Lampard then made one of the most inspired substitutions in Championship history when he brought Jack Marriott on for Duane Holmes, and the striker pulled a goal back for the visitors in the 45th minute before Mason Mount added a second immediately after the break.

Harry Wilson's penalty then put the Rams even further in control on the night, but the aggregate scores were levelled when Dallas netted his second for Leeds in the 62nd minute, setting up an incredibly tense finish.

Marriott would have the final say as he restored Derby's advantage in the 85th minute to send Lampard's men to Wembley, but unfortunately, they could not complete their fairytale story as they were beaten 2-1 by Aston Villa in the final.

2

A host of memorable play-off games have already featured in this list, but Watford's 3-1 semi-final win over Leicester City in 2013 was perhaps the most dramatic of them all.

With the scores level at 2-2 on aggregate in stoppage time, the Foxes were given the chance to book their place at Wembley when they were awarded a penalty after Marco Cassetti was controversially adjudged to have fouled Anthony Knockaert.

Knockaert picked himself up to take the resulting penalty, but both his spot-kick and his follow-up were saved by Manuel Almunia, and to make matters worse for the Frenchman, the Hornets then launched a devastating counter-attack that resulted in Jonathan Hogg knocking the ball down to Troy Deeney, who fired home a 97th-minute winner to seal his side's progression to the final.

Not only did Deeney's goal give us one of the most iconic Championship moments of all time, but it also produced a legendary piece of commentary from Sky Sports' Bill Leslie, and his "Here's Hogg! Deeney!" line has become immortalised in football folklore.

1

Leeds' 1-1 draw against Aston Villa in April 2019 was not only the most remarkable game in Championship history, but perhaps one of the most bizarre ever seen in English football.

The Whites needed a victory to keep their hopes of automatic promotion alive, while Villa came into the game on a run of 10 consecutive wins that had seen them surge into the play-off places, but while the clash at Elland Road promised plenty of entertainment, few could have predicted the remarkable scenes that were about to unfold.

It had been a relatively uneventful game until the 72nd minute when Leeds controversially decided to play on after a challenge from Liam Cooper left Jonathan Kodjia down injured, and the move resulted in Mateusz Klich giving the hosts the lead, with the goal being allowed to stand despite the fact he was in an offside position.

During the ensuing protests, Villa's Anwar El Ghazi was sent off for an alleged elbow on Patrick Bamford, who fell to the floor in dramatic fashion, even though there looked to have been no contact.

Whites manager Marcelo Bielsa was clearly unhappy with what he had witnessed, and incredibly, he ordered his players to allow Villa to equalise, with Albert Adomah subsequently running through virtually unchallenged to slot home into an empty net.

In the remaining minutes, Leeds were unable to find a winner, and their failure to pick up three points sealed automatic promotion for Sheffield United and condemned them to the play-offs, where they suffered the aforementioned semi-final defeat against Derby.