Ipswich seal promotion back to the Premier League as Hull snatch final Championship play-off place
Ipswich Town have beaten Queens Park Rangers 3-0 on the final day of the Championship season to secure promotion back to the Premier League.
There was much to play for on the final day of the 2025/26 Championship campaign, though most of the attention was on the race to finish second and secure automatic promotion with champions Coventry City.
After Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw between Southampton and Ipswich Town, Kieran McKenna‘s side knew that a home win on the final day against QPR would seal promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
This draw ended Southampton’s automatic promotion hopes, but Millwall and Middlesbrough could have stolen second-place on the final day if Ipswich slipped up.
Given what was at stake, it would be understandable if Ipswich‘s nerves got the best of them against QPR, but they made a dominant start to the decisive match and raced into a 2-0 lead inside ten minutes.
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George Hirst and Jaden Philogene placed Ipswich into the ascendancy before Kasey McAteer added a third in the final stages of the match.
QPR spurned chances to get back into the game at 2-0, but Ipswich were the deserving winners and have earned second-place over the 46-game season.
And it is a good job that Ipswich won, because Millwall did their job by beating relegated Oxford United 2-0 to pile on the pressure, but ultimately fall short with a third-place finish.
Middlesbrough, meanwhile, have slipped to fifth behind fourth-placed Southampton after being held to a 2-2 draw against Wrexham.
Ollie McBurnie’s brace sees Hull City sneak into the top six
With the relegation picture already settled with Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford and Leicester City sent down to League One before the final day, the race to finish sixth was the other major talking point in the Championship on Saturday afternoon.
Ipswich, Millwall, Southampton and Middlesbrough were already sure of at least a play off spot before the final day, and this left Wrexham, Hull City and Derby County to battle it out to finish sixth.
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Wrexham started the day in sixth and they regularly switched positions during the course of their game as they drew to Middlesbrough.
At one stage, they were leapfrogged by Derby, who took an early lead against Sheffield United before having their play-off hopes ended by a 2-1 comeback defeat.
And this left the door open for Hull to claim sixth spot, which they did via coming back from behind to beat Norwich City 2-1 with a McBurnie brace.
Looking ahead to the play-offs, Hull will face Millwall in the semi-finals, while Southampton will battle Middlesbrough.
Elsewhere, Frank Lampard’s Coventry beat Watford 4-0 on the final day to finish the season with 95 points, while Sheff Weds won 2-1 against West Brom to earn only their second win of the campaign to end with a grand total of 0 points.
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