Who will win the battle for automatic promotion? The race in the Championship could not be closer…
With 10 games to go in the Championship season, it looks like it will be a three team shoot out for the top two places.
Southampton, Reading and West Ham United are all now within touching distance of the promised land and a return to Premier League action, but one side will miss out on automatic promotion and have to go through the lottery that is the play offs.
It also looks like Middlesbrough are just be too far out to challenge the top two, currently sitting eight points off second place.
With West Ham entertaining ‘Boro on Tuesday, and Southampton still to visit Teeside in the penultimate fixture, they will certainly have a large say in who gets the automatic promotion places.
Middlesbrough also have to face play off hopefuls Birmingham, Cardiff,v Brighton and Hull between now and the end of the season and with a fixture list as daunting as this, it will take some excellent form from Tony Mowbray’s side to maintain their play off push, let alone challenge the top two.
So, of the top three at present, it seems that West Ham look the most likely to miss out on an automatic promotion place.
Their form is still acceptable, losing only once in the last 10 games, but six draws in front of their own fans at Upton Park is not going to win them promotion.
They have seemed happier on their travels, played with more freedom and as a result, have a far superior away record than they do at home.
Reading, and Southampton in particular relish playing in front of their own fans, and if they can both keep up their current form, West Ham will only be able to overhaul them with a marked improvement at home.
Last weekends 1-1 draw with relegation threatened Doncaster was symptomatic of their ability to implode in front of a big Boleyn crowd.
The crunch game will come on April 13th when the current top two play each other at St.Mary’s. By then, the picture will be much clearer but the way the fixtures have fallen, my money is on the Saints to be top after 46 matches.
And after administration, third tier football, selling some of their better players and now producing some of the brightest English talent around, Southampton’s roller coaster ride back to the summit will be nothing short of astonishing.
Now, just to negotiate those last ten games……
image: © joncandy
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