There was plenty to play for as all games kicked off simultaneously. Birmingham’s fate was in their own hands as they withheld attempts from Reading and Sheffield United to join Wolves in gaining automatic promotion to the Premiership.  Sheffield United could only draw 0-0 away to Crystal Palace, while inform Burnley (beat Bristol City 4-0) and Preston (beat QPR 2-1) both won their games to join the Reading and Sheff Utd in the Championship Play-off matches.

Cardiff City lost to Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 and as a result missed out on a place in the play-offs on goal difference.

After guiding Birmingham back to the Premier League at the first attempt, manager Alex McLeish attempted to quosh rumours that he would be leaving St. Andrews.  Though less convincingly he said

“As far as I know I’ll be here but you’ll have to ask the board.”

Birmingham chairman David Gold suggested that following promotion, Birmingham will not overspend in an attempt to stay in the Premier League next season. “We won’t bankrupt the club, whilst we are in charge. We won’t be a Leeds, Southampton, Leicester etc,” said Gold.

Last season Birmingham were the subject of a failed takeover bid by Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung.  The disruption of the attempted takeover was partly to blame for thie relegation, and played a big part in losing manager Steve Bruce to Wigan.

The Championship Play-offs:

Friday, 8 May 2009
Preston v Sheff Utd – kick-off 19:45 (1st Leg)
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Burnley v Reading, kick-off 17:20  (1st Leg)

Monday, 11 May 2009
Sheff Utd v Preston – kick-off 19:45 (2nd Leg)
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Reading v Burnley – kick-off 19:45 (2nd Leg)

My money will be going on Burnley as it seems they have peaked just at the right moment.

Throughout much of the season, Birmingham and Reading have been jostling for the second place automatic promotion place to the Premier League, but a run of good results sees Kevin Blackwell’s Sheff Utd now separating two teams looking to automatically bounce back to the top flight of English football at the first attempt.

Reading beat Norwich 2-0 last night at Carrow Road.  A result that has all but sealed The Canaries fate to play League One football next season. And with all clubs playing their final fixtures simultaneously next Sunday 3rd May at 3PM, the fixture list could not be more exciting.

Reading v Birmingham

Sheffield United v Cardiff City

Reading will need to beat Birmingham and hope Sheffield United can only draw against fith place Cardiff City, to finish in second place on goal difference.

Cardiff (74 points) will be fighting for at least a point or they may miss out on a play-off place, altogether. Burnley (73 points) have a home tie with Bristol City, while Preston play at home to QPR.

Preston (71 points) are the only team that can move into the play-off positions but will need to displace either Cardiff or Burnley in the process.  Again, this one could be decided on goal difference.

Once again we head towards the final weekend of the Championship without knowing who is being promoted or relegated.  The 2008/09 Championship season has been another hugely entertaining season and one that has helped to promote the very best in English football.

Sylvan Ebanks Blake was named Championship player of the year, beating Reading’s Kevin Doyle and team-mate Michael Kightly to the top prize. It comes on the back of scoring 24 league goals for top of the table Wolves.

The 23-year-old also picked up the award for Football League goal of the year for his solo effort against Charlton in March last year. Overall, he had a very successful evening and will be proud of what he has achieved since joining Wolves.

The biggest prize for the former Plymouth man could still be yet to come though – promotion to the Premiership. Mick McCarthy’s men are currently five points clear at the top of the Championship with six games to play.

Automatic promotion is more important than winning the league though and as far as that is concerned, they are nine points clear of 3rd place Reading. The Royals do have a game in hand though.

Given the current situation, it seems very unlikely that Wolves will mess things up now. They would have to lose at least two of their remaining games and considering they have won four out of their last five games, this would mean a drastic drop in form.

As for the other Championship players or clubs that were awarded, Crystal Palace’s Sean Scannell picked up the Championship apprentice award, Charlton were winners of the Community club of the year and Wolves were recognised as the family club of the year.

The main winner was Sylvan Ebanks Blake though and he will be hoping that he is able to celebrate again in six games’ time having helped Wolves secure promotion to the Premier League.

Wolverhampton Wanderers appear to have the title sewn up. Sitting proudly 5 points ahead of nearest rivals Birmingham City (competitively and geographically), the league leaders should wrap up the Championship in their remaining 6 fixtures.

This leaves just one automatic spot to fight for, and with Birmingham, Reading and Sheffield United all in the running, we could be in for an exciting run-in. Currently Birmingham (72 points) occupy second place, although the other two contenders (68 and 66 points respectively) do have a game in hand.

A lot will be at stake when Birmingham host Wolves (6th April) and Reading face Sheffield United (10th April) within the space of a week. This could be a crucial week in the race to the Premier League.

With all the recent payouts regarding the Carlos Tevez affair over recent weeks it is clear to see exactly how valuable a place amongst the Premier League’s elite can be. The outcomes of these fast-approaching fixtures could be worth millions in revenue to the clubs involved.

The Championship leaders have only won once in their last nine games and their lead at the top of the table was cut to four points after last week’s defeat at Burnley, and Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Cardiff City.

It is perhaps more worrying though that they are only five points ahead of Reading in 3rd place.  Furthermore, both Reading and Birmingham, who are currently in second place, both have games in hand over Wolves.  This means that automatic promotion – which looked a definite only a few weeks ago – is now far from certain.

Speaking about the situation, Mick McCarthy has said that his team are ‘striving to get there’ and may go back to picking up points on a ‘match-by-match basis’ in order to rediscover their best form.

Something else Mick McCarthy has done in a bid to turn around the team’s fortunes is to take the squad to Spain for some warm weather training. The former Ireland boss believes that it will be beneficial for the players to ‘spend a bit of time with each other’.

The final third of the Coca-Cola Championship will once again be an exciting one, with as Wolves, Reading and Birmingham look as though they will be battling it out right until the last few weeks’ of the Championship season to see who will win automatic promotion to the Premiership.

My pre-season bet to be Championship winners were Birmingham, but now I believe Reading are looking favourites for a good gamble.

The Middlesbrough born winger has already racked up 49 appearances for the Wolverhampton Wanderers, scoring three goals. However, due to a series of injuries, Matt Jarvis has only played a minor role in Wolves ascent to the top of the Coca-Cola Championship.

Having already been named in the League One team of the season whilst at Gillingham in 2007, Matt Jarvis will be hoping to recapture his form once fully fit as Mick McCarthy’s Wolverhampton Wanderers continue their drive towards the title and promotion. Then, perhaps some more soccer awards will be in his sight.

However, Championship managers and chairmen were very busy as well and many signings were made as clubs aim to improve their squad ahead of the final third of the season. Let’s take a look at the most significant signings to have taken place yesterday.

Championship leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers splashed the cash on Hearts captain Christophe Berra. It is thought that the 24-year-old midfielder moves to Wolves for a fee around the £2.5m mark.

Fellow high-flyers Cardiff City also managed to secure a transfer coup on deadline day as they brought in Sunderland striker Michael Chopra for a club-record fee of £4m. The former Newcastle man initially joins on loan, but will sign a permanent contract at the end of the season.

Another interesting move involving one of the higher placed teams was that of Arturo Lupoli. Having failed to make much of an impact at Norwich, his loan was terminated so that Sheffield United could swoop in and secure his services. It will be interesting to see how he does.

Speaking of Norwich, they were one of the busiest Championship clubs on deadline day as they brought in Fulham defender Adrian Leijer, non-league striker Cody McDonald and Rangers striker Alan Gow. This follows the signing of Chris Killen from Celtic a few days earlier.

Barnsley were also very busy as they signed Coventry striker Michael Misfud, Liverpool winger Adam Hammill and Fulham midfielder Andranik Teymourian on loan. They are obviously keen to freshen up a squad that has failed to win in their last six games in all competitions. The football odds are starting to suggest they could go down and this has forced them to act.

Watford were another team to make a couple of signings in a bid to claw themselves away from the drop zone. They have brought in Latvian winger Aleksandrs Cauna on-loan and also completed the permanent signing of Don Cowie who joins from SPL club Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

So, Wolves and Cardiff were the biggest spenders as they look to secure promotion to the Premier League, with Norwich, Barnsley and Watford the busiest teams as they aim to secure their Championship status for another year.

I had a football bet on Birmingham as I felt they had a stronger squad and more money to spend in the transfer market.

Birmingham had the chance to narrow the gap when they recently played Wolves at Molineux but were unable to hold on to a lead and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

One of the other teams relegated along with Birmingham and Derby last season, Reading are currently in third position with a six point gap of their own between themselves and fourth place League Cup semi-finalists Burnley who have 40 points.

Crystal Palace (5th) and Preston (6th) are on 37 points and currently occupy the remaining play-off places.  But I personally think automatic promotion will be between Wolves, Birmingham & Reading as we head into the Christmas fixture list.

Like I said, it has been far more effort than it should have been for Cardiff boss Dave Jones to find a striker that is willing to come to the club. First of all, Cardiff lost

Robbie Fowler to Premier League side Blackburn, meaning the search for a replacement was on. Then they thought they had secured Marcus Bent’s signature, but the player decided to join Championship rivals Birmingham at the last minute.

The next twist was that Kenny Cooper – who plays up front for FC Dallas – took too long to complete his move to Ninian Park, so Dave Jones pulled the plug on the move. All this meaning, that the season was getting dangerously close and Cardiff were still short of strikers.

So, step up Jay Bothroyd. He is the man the Bluebirds have turned to. Chairman Peter Ridsdale has said that he is a ‘great acquisition’ for the club. He also hopes that Jay Bothroyd can for fill the potential he showed in the early stages of his career. This comes after a couple of seasons where the player has underachieved in terms of his performances. For example, last season he only hit the back of the net on four occasions for Wolves.

As for this season, in terms of Championship football betting, I don’t think Jay Bothroyd will be one of the favourites to lead the goal scoring charts. He has a lot to prove and should he go a few games without scoring at the beginning of his Cardiff career, the critics will start jumping on his back.  However, the fresh start allows him to regain his confidence and bag himself some goals as Cardiff push for promotion to the Premier League.

Derby County manager Paul Jewell is apparently looking to offload up to 10 players after their poor season in the Premiership ended in releagtion to the Coca-Cola Championship.

David Jones made four appearances for Man Utd. and played for the England Under-21s before moving to Derby last year.  But he has only scored seven goals in 47 games for Derby.

With Paul Jewell at the helm Derby will be some crtitics favourites to gain automatic promotion next season, though Wolves will certainly be one of my tips.