Stevenage boss Steve Evans stressed his side were never going to “go through the motions” at Barrow after signing off their promotion-winning campaign with a 1-0 victory.
He also revealed that the Boro team bus had been transformed into a karaoke party for the long trip back south as he paid tribute to his “fantastic to a man” squad.
Nearly 600 Stevenage supporters travelled up to see their team, who had already secured automatic promotion, seal second place behind champions Leyton Orient with victory in Cumbria.
Jake Reeves’ first goal since December, which came in the club’s 5-0 rout over the Bluebirds, settled the final-day encounter at Holker Street with Barrow unable to find a way past Stevenage keeper Adam Przybek.
Evans said: “We were never going to just go through the motions.
“We realised early on that last season 32 supporters came to watch Stevenage at Barrow and it was almost 600 today.
“That tells you that we’re indebted to the supporters for travelling.
“Adam’s made a few saves in the second half, but if we take our chances it’s as comfortable an away win as we’ve had in a while.
“We got a real good shift from everyone. We utilised the squad today.
“I would have loved to have got some more of the young lads on, but we didn’t have that freedom unfortunately.
“I thanked the players and I told them the team bus doesn’t exist anymore, it’s the karaoke party bus all the way back to Stevenage.
“They deserve it. They have been fantastic to a man, every single one of them.”
Pete Wild’s Barrow ended the season in ninth spot, their highest Football League finish since way back in 1970.
It has been a huge achievement to lift the club towards the play-offs this season after they just about survived in both previous campaigns since getting promoted from non-league in 2020.
Wild said: “We’ve gone toe-to-toe with Stevenage and just not been able to get over the line.
“I think that sums our season up. They had one chance and it goes in, we have six or seven chances and they don’t go in.
“We all know that’s the area we’ve got to get better at.
“The lads have had a go and taken it to Stevenage.
“Once the goal went in the place just slumped. We said at half-time that you can stroll around for 45 minutes and it will take forever or you can run around and see where it takes us.
“One of my big phrases is ‘judge me after 46 games, not week-by-week’ and my 46-game record is OK.
“I’m quite happy with what’s happened this season. Am I happy with ninth? No, I want to be higher.
“It’s been tough these last couple of weeks because I’ve never not been playing for something on the last day.
“But there’s a lot of positives to take from this season. We’re all clear with where we need to improve and that’s part of the process.
“We’re a work in progress and have travelled a country mile this season and we’ve got to do that again to get to where we want to be.”
Leeds cut gap to automatic promotion spots with comfortable win over Coventry
Leeds United closed the gap to second place to just two points in the Championship, following a 3-0 victory over out-of-form Coventry City at Elland Road.
Wilfried Gnonto got the game off to a good start for Daniel Farke's side, expertly turning home a cross just inside the box with a first-time finish to open the scoring.
Last season's losing play-off finalists wrapped up a comfortable victory in the second half with goals from Jayden Bogle - his first as a Leeds player - and Joel Piroe, who has now scored three in four as a substitute.
The victory sees Leeds climb to fourth, significantly taking the opportunity to cut the gap to the automatic promotion places with both West Brom and Sunderland losing.
Coventry, meanwhile, have lost four and drawn one of their last five matches in all competitions. They are fourth-bottom, with just goal difference separating them from the relegation zone.
Second-placed Sunderland missed the chance to go top as they were beaten 2-1 away to Watford.
Regis Le Bris' side went a goal down in the first half to a Festy Ebosele volley before equalising shortly after half-time through Wilson Isidor. They were unable to push on for a winner, with Tom Dele-Bashiru scoring a late penalty to win it for the hosts.
The win leaves Watford in seventh place in the Championship, outside the play-offs on goal difference, while Sunderland stay second.
Managerless Cardiff City lost their fifth straight match in all competitions and are still searching for their first league win of the season after being thumped 4-1 away to Hull City.
The Bluebirds initially went a goal up in the first half through Callum Robinson, which was just their second league goal of the season.
They could only hold the lead for four minutes, before Bachir Belloumi equalised for the hosts. He grabbed a brace 10 minutes before half-time and Hull never looked back.
Two second-half goals ensured another miserable afternoon for Cardiff, who remain bottom of the Championship with just one point after seven matches. Hull are up to 12th.
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Fulham: Jimenez penalty seals Cottagers win
Fulham brought Nottingham Forest's unbeaten start to the Premier League season to a halt with a hard-fought 1-0 victory at the City Ground.
There was very little to choose between two sides separated by a mere point at kick-off, but Raul Jimenez’s second-half penalty, awarded for Murillo's foul on Andreas Pereira, proved decisive.
Forest had started brightly with Taiwo Awoniyi missing an early chance, while Chris Wood saw a potential opener disallowed for offside following a VAR review in the 25th minute.
However, Nuno Espirito Santo's team failed to find a spark without the suspended Morgan Gibbs-White as Fulham's own impressive start to 2024/25 continued.
The result leaves Forest ninth in the table with nine points, with Fulham leapfrogging their hosts to move into sixth on 11 points.
Data Debrief: Fulham maintain unbeaten run
Fulham are undefeated in their last five games in the Premier League since going down 1-0 at Manchester United on the opening matchday.
They last enjoyed a streak of this length between December 13, 2020 and January 10, 2021.
Jimenez has now scored three goals in his last three games, maintaining his good record against Forest, with three goals in two matches against them.
Chelsea 4-2 Brighton: Palmer makes Premier League history as Maresca's side fight back
Cole Palmer made Premier League history as Chelsea beat Brighton 4-2 in a six-goal thriller at Stamford Bridge.
Palmer became the first player to score four goals before half-time in a single Premier League game, helping Enzo Maresca’s side record their fourth straight victory in all competitions.
Brighton took an early lead through Georginio Rutter's header, but were powerless as Palmer took command of the contest.
His remarkable quadruple came in the space of 20 minutes - including a penalty and free-kick - with Carlos Baleba's strike to make it 3-2 swiftly cancelled out by Chelsea's talisman.
Nicolas Jackson and Palmer went close after the break for the hosts, who also had a Marc Cucurella goal disallowed for offside, but they held out for another victory.
The Blues climb to third place, a point behind pacesetters Manchester City and Arsenal, while Brighton drop to eighth after suffering their first defeat of the season.
Data Debrief: History-making Palmer does the damage once more
Palmer completed his third Premier League hat-trick - the joint-most by any Chelsea player along with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard - in the space of only nine minutes and 45 seconds.
The Blues forward also hit the post, was denied by the offside flag and then slotted a decent opportunity wide after the break, so we could have been saluting the first player to score six or more goals in a single Premier League game.
His fourth goal was set up by Sancho, who became the third Chelsea player after Eden Hazard (2012) and Cesc Fabregas (2014) to provide an assist in each of his first three Premier League appearances for the club.
As for Brighton, they are now without a victory in each of their last nine Premier League visits to London, since a 3-0 win over Arsenal in May 2023.
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