The Championship run-in round up: What’s at stake and for whom?

With just eight games remaining in the regular Championship season for the majority of sides, as is customary in England’s second tier all is still to play for.

We run through the teams involved in the battles for the key positions in the table, which only leaves a handful now coasting to the campaigns conclusion.

TITLE / AUTOMATIC PROMOTION

While back-to-back victories ahead of the international break restored a glimmer of hope for West Brom, the scrap for the top two spots looks likely to be between just three teams.

It’s Norwich who lead the way by four clear points and are very much the form team having won six on the spin, while Sheffield United leapfrogged Leeds into second after a huge win at Elland Road. Just a single point separates Chris Wilder and Marcelo Bielsa’s side as we gear up for a scintillating sprint finish.

The Canaries aren’t home and hosed by any means it should be said, with a tough trip to Middlesbrough up next, who are one of a seven sides separated by four points in a the race for the play-offs.

Prediction: Norwich and Sheffield United

PLAY-OFF HOPEFULS

It’s normal for the push for places between third and sixth to be tight, but this season - particularly over recent weeks - has been remarkably hard-fought and ever-changing. The aforementioned West Brom look all but guaranteed to finish fourth, but from Boro in fifth (58 points) to Nottingham Forest in 11th (54), the scrap for the final two play-off spots couldn’t be much more competitive.

Aston Villa (57 points) currently occupy the sixth in the table after four consecutive wins having been in the bottom half at the start of this month, though the likes of Derby (56) and Bristol City (55) have games in hand. That pair, however, have been in poor form of late, to allow the likes of Preston (57) - unbeaten in 12 - and Sheffield Wednesday (55) - unbeaten in 11 - to enter the fray having found form at just the right time.
 
Forest (54 points) aren’t out of the running either while Hull (51) and Brentford (49 with a game in hand) won’t have given up hope either. The final place(s) will almost undoubtedly come down to the very last game of the season, and so too could the battle at the bottom.

Prediction: Leeds, West Brom, Aston Villa and Derby

RELEGATION

As far as Ipswich are concerned there is a growing acceptance that they will be spending next season in League One. Paul Lambert’s side haven’t given up the fight on the pitch, losing just one of their last seven games, but they have drawn the other six in that run and are now 13 points from safety. With just three wins from 38 matches, the Tractor Boys have sunk without a trace.

It’s looking increasingly gloomy for Bolton too, who secured a great escape on the final day last season but have it all to do to put themselves in a salvageable position this. With ten defeats in 13 matches Phil Parkinson’s side are eight adrift of the cut off point.

Rotherham have a far greater chance of beating the drop despite being backed to go straight back down and have made a much greater fist of surviving than two years ago. The Millers are one point shy (36) of Reading and Millwall, with Wigan a further two points clear.

Birmingham, meanwhile, have been dragged right back into the thick of it following a hefty nine point deduction and have lost four games on the spin. That said, they are five points clear of the drop as things stand and in Che Adams they have something that their potential relegation rivals don’t in a striker who has four more goals (21) than the top scorer of each of the bottom three clubs combined.

Prediction: Ipswich, Bolton and Wigan