Buzzin Championship Football

No post next week due to the international break (I’m also on a stag do, which doesn’t help!) but there are four huge games this weekend that might go some way to deciding the promotion and relegation issues.

Before I take a look at them, it’s worth a glance at the remaining games that could have an overall impact at the end of the season. I’ve looked at the current top six and current bottom six teams, but the current table is fluid and there’s no doubt that individual scenarios will change. Some things stick out though:

* Hull and Barnsley have very tough looking games for the rest of the season – the Tykes have the hardest looking schedule by far. David Flitcroft’s side entertain Watford (on Saturday), Leicester and Hull but have to travel to Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace, Cardiff and Nottingham Forest before the end of the season.

* Hull will also have a big impact on both ends of the table – they’ve still got to play Forest, Watford and Cardiff at the KC and they also travel to Ipswich, Wolves and Barnsley in the space of two weeks next month.

* Wolves arguably have the easiest run in – two home games against Bristol City (more of that in a moment) and then Hull in mid April.

* Four of Sheffield Wednesday’s last ten games are against other teams in the current bottom six whilst three of Peterborough’s last nine games are against teams in the hunt for promotion.

If that wasn’t enough excitement for you, there are three games on the last day of the season that could be massive – Hull v Cardiff, Palace v Peterborough and Nottingham Forest v Leicester. Once again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think we’re going down to the wire at both ends of the table. Even though there are two months of the season left, it’s worth remembering that the last day of the season is Saturday 4^th May and all games are simultaneous kickoffs at 12:45pm.

Back to the immediate future now. With four derbies, a grudge match and the bottom two playing each other, this weekend could be wild. The fun starts at 12:30pm on Saturday when Huddersfield and FA Cup semi finalists Millwall travel to Leeds and Charlton respectively, but the eyecatchers are all 3:00pm kick offs.

Game of the week has to be Wolves against Bristol City. Over the last couple of seasons we’ve grown used to seeing both these teams at the wrong end of whatever competition they were in, but considering that Wolves were 9/1 to win the Championship last August, their decline has been genuinely shocking. The Robins have been in the bottom four for almost the entire season, whilst Wanderers were occupying a mid table spot before Christmas: one win in fourteen games since then has seen the Black Country outfit plummet down the table at a rate of knots.

History appears to be on Wolves’ side. Bristol City haven’t won at Molineux for over eighty years, but that record will end one day and over the last couple of seasons the Robins have pulled off some memorable performances in big games at the end of the last couple of seasons. They also only lost once away from home to the other strugglers (at Barnsley in September) and will want revenge for the 4-1 drubbing at Ashton Gate in December.

At the top of the table, there’s a potential playoff between Hull and Nottingham Forest at the KC Stadium. I looked at the Tigers before their Monday night game this week, so the spotlight falls on Forest. Since losing at Bristol City last month, they’ve won five of their last six games and a season that looked as if it was petering out has suddenly been revived since Billy Davies returned to the helm. With Henri Lansbury and Radoslaw Majewski responsible for nine of Forest’s 13 goals in the last five games, Davies has found a potent strike force that could earn Forest their first win at Hull since the mid 1970s.

Finally this week, Dave Jones faces one of his previous clubs when Cardiff visit Hillsborough this weekend – the leaders haven’t won there since November 2005 and although they’re still favourites for promotion, there have been signs that they may be on the verge of one of their epic end of season meltdowns. Their loss at Middlesbrough was the first time that they’d failed to earn at least a point on the road since November and only a very late equaliser on Tuesday saved them from a home defeat. Wednesday’s mini revival at home was ended by Forest a couple of weeks ago and as I mentioned above, they face a tough end to the season. If there’s a decisive result tomorrow – and that might be a big if – it’ll indicate which team is the better prepared for the remainder of the season.

Back in a couple of weeks, enjoy the international break…it’s going to be full on afterwards.