EFL essential stats: Aleksandar Mitrovic and Sean Morrison impacts

By Karl Sturgeon, Stats & Info @skysportsstatto

Image: Are Fulham going to finish second ahead of Cardiff?

We take a look at the top stats and facts from the weekend's action in the Sky Bet Championship, League One and League Two.

Play-off pain?

Cardiff and Fulham will take the battle for automatic promotion into the final weekend. Cardiff go into their game with Reading on 89 points, while Fulham travel to Birmingham on 88. Whoever misses out will have a right to feel aggrieved, as, since 1988 when the second tier expanded to 24 teams, there have been 39 sides to finish a season on 88 points or more, and only three failed to go up automatically.

Worryingly for both Cardiff and Fulham, none of those three went up in the play-offs either - Sunderland lost on penalties to Charlton in an epic final at Wembley, while Brighton and Portsmouth both lost in the semi-finals.

Teams to finish on 88pts or more and not go up automatically

Season Team Points Final position
2015/16 Brighton 89 Third
1997/98 Sunderland 90 Third
1992/93 Portsmouth 88 Third

Impact players

Aleksandar Mitrovic scored Fulham's winner against Sunderland on Friday night - his 12th goal since joining from Newcastle in January. No player has scored more goals in the Championship since Mitrovic made his debut in early February. His goals have been worth 11 points to Fulham - only six players' goals have won their clubs more points in the Championship this season, despite Mitrovic's Fulham career only being three months old.

Fulham came from behind to beat Sunderland 2-1 on Friday

Cardiff skipper Sean Morrison is another player making an impact in the run-in. He scored twice in the win at Hull on Saturday, his sixth and seventh goals of the season, equalling the best scoring season of his career. Morrison's last four goals have helped Cardiff win an extra six points - he scored the only goal against Middlesbrough in February, and the opener in Cardiff's 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest on April 21.

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Wes Hoolahan played his final home game for Norwich at the weekend, and marked the occasion with the equaliser in the Canaries' 2-1 win over Leeds - he also assisted Josh Murphy's winner. The goal was Hoolahan's 54th in his 352 appearances for the club, tying with Daryl Sutch as joint-16th in Norwich's all-time appearances list. His first game at Carrow Road for the club came nearly 10 years ago, in a 1-1 draw with Blackpool in August 2008.

Most points won with goals scored since Aleksandar Mitrovic’s debut

Player Team Goals Points won
Aleksandar Mitrovic Fulham 12 11
Alan Browne Preston 6 9
Oliver McBurnie Barnsley 9 8
Sean Morrison Cardiff 6 6

One shot, one goal

Charlton bolstered their play-off hopes with a crucial win, beating already-promoted Blackburn 1-0 at the Valley. They did this despite having only one shot on goal in the entire game. That's only the second time since December 2014 that a team in England's top four divisions won a match after scoring from their only shot on goal - Sunderland also did so when beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 earlier this season.

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Clinical Cov

Coventry won 6-1 at Cheltenham on Saturday - only the seventh time in their league history the Sky Blues have scored six or more in an away game. Their last 10 league games have seen 44 goals scored - 25 for Coventry and 19 for their opponents - for an average of 4.4 per game. Conversely, their opening 35 games this season saw just 67 goals scored - 39 for Coventry and 28 for their opponents - working out at just 1.9 per game.

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