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• Enzo Maresca delighted as ‘fantastic’ Leicester move to brink of promotion

  Enzo Maresca praised his Leicester players for the 5-0 thrashing of Southampton that put the Foxes a win away from clinching automatic promotion.

  Ghana winger Abdul Fatawu scored three of them, with Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy also on target.

  Leicester need only to win at Preston on Monday, or at home to Blackburn on the final day, to make sure they will finish ahead of at least one of Leeds or Ipswich. Indeed, if Leeds lose at QPR on Friday Leicester will be up before they take to the field again.

  Maresca, in his first season as City manager, said: “I don’t think that was the best performance of the season but the performance was fantastic, very good on and off the ball.

  “We could have been better on the ball but we are all very happy because the opposition are a fantastic team.

  “The good thing about tonight is that now we know that with one win we get promoted.

  “It was a good feeling at the end, the fans have been fantastic.”

  Fatawu, on loan from Sporting Lisbon, opened the scoring in the 25th minute when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall played him through. The 20-year-old might have been offside but the flag stayed down. Southampton manager Russell Martin was also aggrieved that a challenge on Saints striker Che Adams by City defender Wout Faes was not given as a foul by referee Robert Madley.

  The second half belonged to Leicester though, with Ndidi charging in to head home a cross from Stephy Mavididi to double the lead.

  Fatawu struck again in the 75th minute when he accepted a pass from substitute Hamza Choudhury before smashing past goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.

  Fatawu set up Vardy for a well-taken fourth and completed the rout with an emphatic finish after the former England striker returned the favour.

  Maresca, however, joked: “I just said ‘next game you will be on the bench’ because with Abdul and young players especially, after three goals he is already thinking he is a top player.”

  Saints – famously beaten 9-0 by Leicester in the Premier League in 2019 – must now pick themselves up for the play-offs barring an extraordinary combination of results and scorelines.

  Martin made it clear he would not be doing that for them though, so disappointed was he with their capitulation.

  “The players need to show a bit of love for each other and pick each other up, I’m fed up of doing that,” he said.

  “They need to feel some pain – the same pain that I’m feeling right now.

  “Rolling over like that, it’s actually pathetic, losing 5-0. They have to rally round as a group and show some care for each other.

  “I did not like what I saw from my team one bit at 2-0 down. Self-preservation, our body language and people throwing their hands up in the air.

  “It surprised me actually. What can you do? I told them I didn’t like it.

  “I told them Che Adams is out of contract this summer and the one person who has the excuse if he didn’t really want to be all in and not work hard for his team, but he did that more than anyone. So it was inexcusable for anyone else not to do that.

  “The fans were amazing, they were still clapping at the end and deserved better than that.”

• Grant McCann hails ‘outstanding’ response as Doncaster close on play-off spot

  Grant McCann was a proud man after Doncaster won 4-1 at Colchester to register a 10th straight victory and move into the play-off places.

  Colchester took a ninth-minute lead through Jayden Fevrier, who converted Tom Hopper’s cross at the far post, but remain in relegation danger after Rovers’ emphatic comeback.

  Luke Molyneux equalised after collecting Jamie Sterry’s short free-kick and scoring with a low 25-yard shot and Doncaster took a 22nd-minute lead through Harrison Biggins, who netted from close range from Molyneux’s delivery.

  Tom Anderson netted a third in the 76th minute at the near post from Hakeeb Adelakun’s pass, and Joe Ironside sealed victory when he converted after Sam Hornby had tipped James Maxwell’s shot onto a post.

  A point on the final day against Gillingham will seal a play-off spot regardless of results elsewhere and McCann said: “I’m really proud.

  “Obviously conceding early wasn’t ideal for us but the response was outstanding.

  “We scored two very good goals, the first one from Mols (Molyneux) and the second one was another very good goal and something we knew could help us in the game, Biggo’s (Biggins) runs from the centre circle in between the posts after good play by Mols.

  “In the first half, we were a little bit edgy and it was a little bit even Steven in the game.

  “But in the second half, we were really comfortable and scored another couple of really good goals.

  “We always play for more goals; we never sit tight and take what we’ve got – that’s just the way we like to go about things.

  “We came up against a team that’s obviously down the wrong end of the table and we knew it was going to be tough.”

  Fevrier had Colchester on track to secure survival but they go into Saturday’s final game just three points above the drop zone, with their goal difference superior by four over Sutton.

  Colchester boss Danny Cowley said: “It was a tough night for us.

  “We have the ability to self-harm, to self-destruct, in a game where we let four terrible goals in.

  “For 75 minutes, it was 2-1 and they’ve had three shots at goal, two from 30 yards, and somehow they’re winning the game.

  “We were 2-1 down at half-time where we felt we shouldn’t have been, as we’d done a lot right.

  “We were in total ascendency and they don’t even want to score any more goals, they want to hang onto what they’ve got and we gift them another two goals.

  “I’ve just looked back at the goals and they’re very hard to defend.

  “We actually played well box to box but you can’t say you’ve played well when we’ve conceded the goals that we have.

  “It’s a damaging night and I’m really angry. We just did the basics so poorly.”

• Barrow must stick together in quest to secure play-off spot – Pete Wild

  Barrow boss Pete Wild stressed his side must stick together to secure a League Two play-off spot on the final day of the season.

  The Bluebirds suffered a fifth defeat in a painful six-game winless run with a last-gasp 2-1 loss to Bradford.

  It means they have to get a result when they host promoted Mansfield on Saturday.

  Bobby Pointon opened the scoring with a great strike in the first half before Kian Spence levelled with a free-kick after the break.

  But former on-loan Barrow forward Tyler Smith came off the bench to score a bruising stoppage-time winner against his old club.

  And Wild said: “We didn’t do anything with or without the ball. We were frustrated at half-time. I told them ‘we’ve got to have a go and try to get over the line’.

  “We played really well second half, had a go, came out fighting and got the goal, but it wasn’t enough.

  “We were on the front foot. We kept trying to throw subs on to put impetus into the game and you get hit by a sucker punch at the end.

  “We had four chances to clear the ball and that’s been the month hasn’t it. There have been key moments in game, chances and opportunities with the football and we’ve not done that.

  “We weren’t getting a glove on them and we had to try and be braver, second half.

  “I will never make it about them, it’s about us. We’re all a collective. We will win together and lose together and that’s how we’ve gone through the season.

  “What we have to do now is just stick together and try to keep going.

  “Across the last four games you have seen glimpses of us, but not enough of us across a full 90 minutes to get over the line.”

  The Bantams were indebted to Sheffield-born Smith’s late winner for their fourth-straight win.

  Boss Graham Alexander said: “I’m pleased that the players have once again showed character and personality to once again get a win from a game we should never have been drawing anyway.

  “We were brilliant in the first half and should have been two or three up. But we weren’t and a good team like Barrow are going to come back into it and have a spell of pressure and momentum.

  “Ultimately they got a goal from it. From our perspective it’s a poor one to concede going through the wall.

  “Our performance became a bit flat after that. They had real quality and gained chances.

  “The subs that came on halted their momentum.

  “They were going for it as well and it was going to be (down to) who had that quality to score.

  “To be fair to Tyler, he would have been under massive pressure in his own head, but he stuck it in the corner so fair play to him.”