Matchday 28 Results & Updated Tables

Championship

Blyth Spartans  2   Burnley   3

Gainsborough Trinity  1   Northwich Victoria   0

Hartlepool United  2   Hungaria  3

Liverpool St Helens  1   Stalybridge Celtic   2

Marlow  3   Red Star Sunderland   1

Mossley  1   Matlock Town   1

Oxford Excelsior  0   Audenshaw Dynamo   2

Wrexham  3   Manchester City   2

Second Division

Bradford City  3   Crewe Alexandra   2

Crystal Palace  2   Newcastle Blue Star   2

Gateshead Dynamo  3   Hendon Hotspur  2

Inter-Italiano  3   Sheffield Wednesday   3

Marine  4   South Liverpool Red Star   2

Nelson CBR  1   Merthyr Tydfil   0

Newcastle United  4   Atletico Espanol   2

Spartak-Slavia  3   Manchester Newton Heath   2

A massive and probably decisive result at the top of the Championship today, with leaders Stalybridge Celtic's hard-fought  but thoroughly-deserved 2 - 1 victory at the home of closest challengers Liverpool St Helens putting them 5 points clear of now-second-placed Gainsborough Trinity, who leapfrogged the Saints courtesy of a single-goal win over Northwich Victoria, and eliminating St Helens from the title race - only if Celtic lose both of their final two fixtures and Trinity win theirs (the next of which is at unbeaten-at-home - and close neighbours of Stalybridge of course - Mossley) will the latter be able to pip the former to the post, by the slenderest of margins, and Stalybridge's consistency in meeting the season's major challenges as they've presented themselves (not least beating each of Gainsborough, 4th-placed Blyth Spartans and now St Helens both home and away) suggests this is unlikely.

At the bottom of the table, Audenshaw's win at Oxford gives the Dynamo an excellent chance of avoiding the drop now, pulling them 4 points clear of Matlock, despite Town's valiant draw at virtually impregnable Mossley, and all but consigns the vanquished Excelsior to relegation, five points adrift of Hartlepool United and safety as they are.

A rare win in a season of increasing strife for reigning but soon to be deposed champions Marlow has given them the relative luxury of a three-point cushion over Matlock ahead of the teams' potentially-decisive meeting next Saturday, and might have gone a significant way to saving them from the ignominy of the drop, a fate that has only once previously befallen the defending title holders (Mossley back in 1997, although their form that season was more in keeping with the manner in which they'd begun their championship campaign, with 7 defeats from the first 8 games, only to miraculously revive. For the record, only the merger of the then two Nottingham clubs, and a consequent hastily-arranged play-off, had reprieved Mossley from relegation the season prior to that, so the three quarters of a season that resulted in the title was the real anomaly over that period of the club's history).

In the battle for promotion from the Second Division, previous leaders Crewe's narrow and contentious 2 - 3 defeat at Bradford City drops them out of the top two for the first time since round 11 back in mid-November, a potentially ruinous slip at this late stage, to be replaced by Marine - who emerged triumphant from a pulsating Scouse derby with South Liverpool Red Star - and Spartak-Slavia, last-minute victors over Manchester Newton Heath in a five-goal thriller.

At the opposite end of the table, Newcastle Blue Star's draw at second-bottom Crystal Palace allowed their city neighbours United, who beat Atletico Espanol 4 - 2, to gain within a point of Palace in their quest to avoid the wooden spoon and demotion back to the regional leagues - it's all set to go to the wire at top and bottom.