Two trophies, four play-off hopefuls: What Greater Manchester clubs need in final matches of season
Man Utd and Manchester City dominate the headlines but there is excitement all across Greater Manchester this weekend.
The Easter weekend is one of the most vital periods of the footballing calendar, particularly in the divisions below the Premier League. For so many clubs, Good Friday can be an awful day, while Easter Monday can represent the resurrection of a faint hope of survival.
Here in Greater Manchester, we have nine clubs in the top five divisions, most of whom went into last weekend’s matches with ambition and optimism - some of it was well-founded, and some of it was not.
With only a few weeks left of the season, let’s have a look at how our teams performed and what they need to achieve over their final few matches of the season.
Man City
We’ll start in the Premier League with Manchester City, who’ve stepped up their performances in the last few weeks to work themselves back into the race for Champions League qualification. They faced off against Everton and Aston Villa and managed to win both games, extending their unbeaten run to seven matches across all competitions.
The victory against Everton was fairly well-polished, but, despite the comfortable scoreline, Guardiola’s men left it late, with goals from Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovacic both coming after the 84th minute. Their 2-1 win over top-four rivals Aston Villa was even more nerve-wracking. Bernardo Silva’s early opener was cancelled out by Marcus Rashford’s 18th-minute penalty, it took until stoppage time in the second half to secure the win when Jeremy Doku’s fabulous run and cross was turned home by Matheus Nunes to send the Etihad into raptures.
Pep Guardiola’s side have truly turned it around and now sit in 3rd. They are four points clear of Aston Villa in 7th and have closed the gap on Arsenal in 2nd to only six points - they are now in with a more-than-likely chance of competing in the Champions League next year.
Their main focus in the coming weeks though, will be silverware, with a vital FA Cup battle with Nottingham Forest on the horizon. This is City’s last opportunity for a trophy this season and their final chance to redeem a season that has been incredibly disappointing, considering their domination of the Premier League over the last few years.
Manchester United
Over to the red half of Manchester now, and another team whose season hangs on tournament football rather than league success. Manchester United’s season has been a bit of a disaster, with their 1-0 loss to a resurgent Wolverhampton Wanderers team not surprising many football fans across the country.
The optimism that followed Ruben Amorim’s appointment earlier this year has failed to be converted into results and, while the former Sporting Lisbon coach is a popular figure among the fanbase, it has been incredibly difficult to find any substantial silver lining to the storm clouds that have gathered over Old Trafford - particularly in the league.
There is hope in Europe however, with last Thursday’s ridiculous 7-6 aggregate win over Lyon in the Europa League prompting comparisons with some of United’s most famous comeback victories. Fergie-time was a phrase used by many, and fans will hope that Amorim can replicate that famous Scotsman’s road to success. After all, Sir Alex Ferguson himself had to endure a few rough seasons before they became the dominant force in English football.
That win over Lyon has led to a match-up with Athletic Club, a team that have a long and storied history in this competition - including some famous victories against Sir Alex’s United team back in 2012 under Marcelo Bielsa. If Amorim’s side can squeeze past the Spanish giants, they could face an incredibly unpredictable Tottenham Hotspur in the final - a winnable game against another of this season’s great underachievers. In truth, the jury is still out on this version of Manchester United, but failure to secure some silverware will render this season an unprecedented mess.
Stockport County
We’ll skip the Championship now and dive straight into League One, which has offered one of the more exciting promotion battles in recent history. While big-spending Birmingham have already secured top spot, the battle for the second automatic promotion spot has been thrilling. Hollywood’s own Wrexham currently sit in 2nd spot, with a two-point gap to Wycombe and a four-point cushion on Charlton.
The next club down the list is Stockport County, who have had a remarkable season following promotion from League Two last year, so much so that - although unlikely - they’ve left themselves in with a chance of automatic promotion this year as well. They sit five points behind Wrexham, and but for a devastating draw against Peterborough on Good Friday, it could have been even closer. In that game, a 91st-minute equaliser from Jack Diamond was required to salvage a point against a team that, despite success in the EFL Cup recently, have not been in the league’s top half since November. An important win against Huddersfield followed, which has ensured that County will be competing in the playoffs this year.
Regardless of what comes next, this has been another great year for the club, but with matches against Lincoln and Wycombe still to come, at the very least the challenge needs to be to go into the playoffs with as much momentum as possible, and at most, with Wycombe one of the teams separating Dave Challinor’s side from the top two, automatic promotion could still be on the cards.
Bolton
Now, while Stockport may not have quite made the most of the Easter weekend, they have left themselves in a solid enough position to achieve their goals. The same cannot be said for Bolton Wanderers, who suffered back-to-back losses to fall almost completely out of playoff contention.
Their defeats to Wycombe and Lincoln made it four games without a point, and Steven Schumacher’s side have now fallen from being 6th at the beginning of April to six points shy of that same position with two matches remaining. To make matters worse, Leyton Orient and Reading, the two clubs above Bolton, have substantially better goal difference than them, making it basically impossible for the club to achieve their ambitions. Those playoff dreams died on Good Friday and, I’m afraid, remained buried in a cave by the end of Easter Monday.
Wigan
Wigan had a very different experience over the Easter weekend. Completely unburdened by any type of pressure, they managed to grind out two 1-0 victories over Shrewsbury and Rotherham, with Dale Taylor and young James Carragher netting respectively.
These wins have left Wigan in 15th, with three games remaining in the season and an outside chance of squeaking into the top half of the league for the first time all season. Wherever they finish, the season is ending better than it started, with the ‘tics now five unbeaten and having only lost two games since Ryan Lowe took charge back in March. As with Stockport, momentum will be key over the next couple of weeks. Win a few games and have a decent summer, and Wigan will be back in their best shape since achieving promotion back in 2021/22.
Salford City
Now, if Wigan had nothing to play for, Salford had a lot on the line going into last weekend. They needed desperately to close the gap on the top seven in order to have the remotest chance of promotion to League One this year, and while their 2-1 loss to a struggling Accrington team on Friday was everything except good, the 3-1 win over now-relegated Morecambe gave Karl Robinson’s team a slim chance.
They now sit in 9th, one point behind Colchester - who they play next - two points behind Grimsby and four points behind Notts County. So much rides on that game against Colchester. With a win, Salford will leapfrog them and be in the perfect position to take advantage of any slip-ups from a Grimsby side that has drawn two and lost two out of their previous five games - and who face 5th-placed Wimbledon in their next match.
Fail to win, and everything comes down to a tough away game against a Carlisle team that are fighting tooth and nail to remain in the division and have only lost two of their last eight matches. Salford have a really good chance of competing in the playoffs this year, but the next match will be vital.
Oldham Athletic
We finish off with an intriguing Greater Manchester-centric battle for the playoff spots in the National League. Oldham look nearly nailed on to compete for promotion after a successful weekend which saw them beat Hartlepool 2-1 and draw 1-1 with York City, who will finish the season in 2nd.
Those results mean that Micky Mellon’s team are in 4th with 70 points, six clear of 8th-placed Southend, with a goal difference that is seven higher than the south coast side. A tough match against Forest Green will represent a good test ahead of the all-important post-season, while their final match of the season against Ebbsfleet - who are bottom by 18 points and have conceded 94 goals this season - should represent a chance to boost the confidence of the team.
Rochdale AFC
Our next Greater Manchester team are directly below Oldham in the table and also look pretty good for finishing in the top seven. Rochdale managed to secure a massive victory against local rivals Altrincham on Friday, before losing a bit of momentum with a lacklustre draw against relegated Fylde.
While their gap from Southend isn’t as large as Oldham’s, four points is still fairly substantial with two games left of the season, and it’s even more substantial when you realise that Rochdale actually have an extra game to play as well. Hartlepool, Solihull and Braintree have all been fine this season, but the likelihood of Rochdale failing to pick up any points across those games is pretty low, so one would expect that Jimmy McNulty will aim to get players like Devante Rodney and Kairo Mitchell ready for a tilt at League football.
Altrincham
The final team on our list also have an outside shot at the playoff spots, though Altrincham’s failure to get even a point out of Rochdale last week has made their task much harder. Their recent form under Phil Parkinson has been pretty awful, with two wins and two draws in the last ten games across all competitions, but a 3-0 win against Halifax on Monday has left a sliver of hope for the side from Moss Lane.
Two sides could feasibly be caught by Parkinson’s team. Gateshead are only three points clear and have a marginally worse goal difference. They have also lost their last two matches and play Southend, who are a point ahead of Altrincham, on the last day. A lot will rest on that game. Halifax will likely be out of reach, currently, one point further ahead than Gateshead and with matches against the mediocre Braintree and Wealdstone still to come. Their form is not great either though and there is still a firm possibility of collapse.
Altrincham themselves play 10th-placed Tamworth next, who have an incredibly slim chance of making the playoffs themselves, before facing off against a Dagenham and Redbridge side who could be fighting for survival on the final day - with only two points separating them from safety. It will go down to the wire, but the Robins could very well find themselves flying into the playoffs.