Buzzin Championship Football

Well, well, well. Two big games this weekend and Sky Sports are showing them both. I’ve mentioned their rather bizarre scheduling before but it’s funny how they manage to pick the big games at the end of the season – almost as if they can remind viewers that the only place to watch the football league playoffs is Sky Sports.

Anyway, enough moaning about Sky for this week. There’s a distinct possibility that by 5:00pm tomorrow afternoon the automatic promotion place will have been settled.

Only Hull, Watford, Brighton and Crystal Palace can still win automatic promotion, although it would take a very odd combination of results for the latter pair to do so. Still, this is the Championship and anything could happen.

At the bottom, it’s anyone’s guess who’s going to be joining Bristol City in League 1 next season, although my guess is it’ll go down to next weekend and that any two from Peterborough, Barnsley and Wolves will be going down – the Posh hold advantages over Wolves in terms of goal difference and goals scored.

As for game of the week, there are far too many games to chose from this weekend. Tonight we’ve got Watford’s trip to Leicester (Sky Sports 1, 7:45pm): if the Hornets fail to win at the King Power Stadium tonight then Hull will only need a point at Barnsley tomorrow to win automatic promotion. If Watford lose, that’s it: Hull are up. The Foxes have only won two of their last six games at the King Power Stadium, but they seem to have rediscovered their shooting boots with five goals in the last two home games with Jeff Schlupp scoring three of them. The problem is that defensively Leicester aren’t that sound – two home clean sheets in the last ten is nothing special – and there’s a been at least one goal after 70 minutes in each of the last ten home games.

Watford have lost two of their last three aways but the good news for Hornets fans is that they’ve not lost three in a row on the road since Autumn 2011 and with wins at Hull, Palace and Brighton this season Watford have shown their ability: if Jeff Schlupp is the player that Watford defenders need to keep an eye on, then the same can be said for Troy Deeney and Matej Vydra. The bad news is that the Hertfordshire outfit have only won one of their last ten visits to Leicester and a draw is no good for them.

Even if Hull are promoted tonight, tomorrow’s games will still have an impact on the playoffs and relegation. Although we’re waving goodbye to Cardiff City for the foreseeable future, their opponents tomorrow are looking to consolidate a playoff place. Bolton have been worse than average on the road this season, but it’s their home form they need to reproduce at the City Of Cardiff stadium if they want a top six finish. Wanderers will also have the advantage of knowing precisely what to do tomorrow if Leicester win this evening.

It’s at the bottom where the drama will be over the next couple of weekends. First of all, spare a thought for Bristol City. Over the last ten seasons, nine of the clubs that eventually finished bottom earned fewer points over the whole season than the Robins already have with two games less. Despite losing their place in the Championship, City could still have a big impact on who goes down with them if they can beat Huddersfield at Ashton Gate.

The biggest game at the bottom of the table is between Peterborough and Sheffield Wednesday (Sky Sports 2, 5:20pm tomorrow). Despite having spent the entire season in the bottom four, the Posh can still save themselves from relegation: they’ve only lost five games in the latter half of the season. Wednesday have been consistently in the bottom third of the table since September, but have never really looked like candidates for the drop, but the competitive nature of the Championship this season means the Owls are not out of danger by any means.

Before I sign off for now, it’s the last game in League 1 tomorrow and with three clubs in with a chance of winning the division it couldn’t be any tighter. We already know the Bournemouth will be playing in the Championship next season, but it’s a fight between Doncaster Rovers and Brentford for the remaining automatic place.

There will be at least one update tomorrow and possibly even one later depending on how Watford do at Leicester, so please stay tuned!

Update: Watford won 2-1 at Leicester – Nathaniel Chalobah scored one of the goals of the season t0 give the Hornets a 2-0 lead – and so Hull have to beat Barnsley tomorrow afternoon to win automatic promotion.