The fight for promotion to the Premier League
Speaking in the wake of last weekend’s 1-0 victory in the Steel City derby, Chris Wilder provided the perfect appraisal of this year’s incredible Championship promotion chase.
“It’s ridiculous, the number of points that all three clubs have got,” said the Sheffield United manager, whose side sit joint-top of the league alongside Leeds United, with Burnley just two points further back.
“How good are the teams that have been there all season?
“How consistent have they been in their approach, their attitude and the will to win?
“It’s going to be an absolute titanic tussle between now and the end of the season.”
Indeed it is.
So as the Championship takes a breather during the final international break, we analyse the three-horse race for the title (sorry Sunderland) and a typically monumental tear-up for the play-off places…
GOING FOR GLORY: Leeds’ Dan James with Sheffield United’s Gus Hamer and Burnley’s James Trafford below
PICTURES: Alamy
Title-chasers: Leeds, Sheffield United & Burnley
Leeds looked home and hosed a couple of weeks ago, but it was never going to be that easy, was it?
One win in four has seen a comfortable cushion to Burnley evaporate and there can’t be a single Whites fan out there who isn’t having cold-sweat flashbacks to last season’s late collapse.
“Nobody wants to feel again what we felt last year,” admitted manager Daniel Farke, whose side won just one of their final six matches, slipped into the play-offs and lost to Southampton at Wembley.
Objectively, though, it remains difficult to look beyond the Yorkshire giants.
In addition to possessing Premier League players and fabulous options off the bench, Farke couldn’t have hand-picked a gentler run-in.
Of Leeds’ final eight opponents, all but two (Middlesbrough and Bristol City) are currently in the bottom half and two of those (Luton Town and Plymouth Argyle) occupy places in the relegation zone.
Even if the nerves are jangling, they should have enough quality to see the job through.
Leeds biggest problem is the consistency of their rivals.
Blades & Burnley close on Whites’ heels
Sheffield United, as Wilder never tires of reminding us, would actually sit top but for a two-point penalty incurred for historic financial breaches.
The Blades have won more matches (25) than anybody else and, in the likes of Gus Hamer, Ben Brereton Diaz and Tyrese Campbell, boast an array of proven Championship performers to supplement the youthful exuberance of home-grown products like Sydie Peck.
Burnley are Burnley – a team of almost supernatural defensive prowess whose incredible capacity to keep clean sheets now looks certain to smash a host of historic domestic records.
The stats around Scott Parker’s side have been quoted to death but the only one that really matters now is that they are unbeaten in 25 matches.
Worryingly for both of their rivals, they have also discovered a hitherto absent threat in front of goal.
Over the last five matches, the Clarets have scored 13 times, with player-of-the-year contender Josh Brownhill notching four of them.
Burnley’s run-in is comfortably the most difficult of the three in-form play-off chasers Bristol City and Coventry City await in the first two games back – but there’s really only one fixture that counts.
Outsiders Sunderland
Sheffield United visit Turf Moor on April 21, three games from the end of the season.
Six-pointers don’t get bigger than that.
Finally, a word on fourth-placed Sunderland.
Regis Le Bris’, left, Blacks Cats have gamely kept pace with the top three for much of an overachieving season but bridging an 11-point gap in the final eight games is simply unfeasible.
Barring a dramatic late collapse, their fine campaign is almost certainly going to yield a play-off berth.
TALENT: Bristol City’s Anis Mehmeti and, left, WBA’s John Swift
Play-off contenders
Grand Nationals have been contested by fewer runners than this year’s Championship playoff race, an ever-changing bottleneck that (conservatively) sees nine teams locked in a life-or-death struggle for the final two play-off spots.
Some are rank outsiders.
Sheffield Wednesday, for instance, are just about the most inconsistent team in the league and haven’t won on home turf since New Year’s Day.
There is little about their form or fixtures to suggest that Danny Rohl’s side have what it takes to claw back the six-point gap to West Bromwich Albion in sixth, but stranger things have happened.
Millwall face three of the current top four away from home.
“If we get there, we’ll certainly deserve it,” said manager Alex Neil, which is the understatement of the year.
Blackburn Rovers, meanwhile, are dropping like a stone.
Rovers’ perennial post-Christmas nosedive is well and truly underway and new boss Valerien Ismael has provided all the bounce of a beached whale.
It would take a miracle to turn things round from here.
Sky Blues’ form
Others, like Coventry, are firm favourites.
The Sky Blues have one of the strongest squads side the top four and with all due credit to out-boss Frank Lampard, above, the scintillating form that has seen them surge into the top six would more accurately be described as a reversion to the mean.
Haji Wright is back in the goals after a lengthy injury lay-off, though back-to-back games against Sheffield United (a) and Burnley (h) following the international break could halt momentum.
Like Coventry, Bristol City have niftily saved their best form for the business end .
Only four teams have collected more points in 2025.
Games against play-off rivals Watford and West Brom at Ashton Gate -where the Robins have lost just once since November – could be pivotal.
Baggies battle for play-offs
Much like last season, West Brom have been a fixture in the top six.
Though rarely thrilling, the Baggies are relentlessly obdurate and have never hit a bad enough run to be dislodged.
It would take a brave punter to bet against Tony Mowbray’s side.
And the rest?
Watford’s form is heading in the wrong direction and it is now over two months since Vakoun Bayo scored the last of his ten goals for the Hornets.
A relatively gentle run-in is also offset by the fact that fortress Vicarage Road has crumbled since the turn of the year.
Chaotic Canaries set to miss out
Norwich City remain an enigma.
The Canaries have Johannes Hoff Thorup at the helm this season, but are otherwise the same maddening mix of lethal attacking force and hopeless defending that scrambled a sixth-place finish under David Wagner last term.
Had Josh Sargent, above, stayed fit, the former might well have outweighed the latter.
The American is the best out-and-out striker in the Championship and his clinical finishing gives Norwich a chance against anybody.
Unfortunately, their inability to keep clean sheets or close out games – no team in the division has squandered more points from winning positions – is likely to prove fatal.
Boro search for consistency
If the Canaries’ performance is par for the course, Michael Carrick’s, left, Middlesbrough are currently looking at a bogey.
Widely tipped to challenge for the title, they have instead flattered to deceive, mixing slick football and destructive attacking displays (like the 6-2 annihilation of Oxford United) with too many flat-as-a-pancake performances at home.
It just won’t click for the Teessiders, whose problems have been greatly exacerbated by the sale of top-scorer Emmanuel Latte Lath and an injury to wing-wizard Ben Doak.
Can they discover the consistency that has been AWOL all season?
Carrick, whose side face five of their immediate playoff rivals in the final seven games, insists they can.
“Words are words,” he said.
“I know that but I genuinely believe we’re capable of winning enough games to make the play-offs.
“But we have to make it happen – there’s no other way.”
Cardiff City
Omer Riza is proud of his Cardiff City troops
Championship
OLIVER’S SET FOR BIG STEP
