Championship season set for thrilling climax with promotion, play-offs and safety all to play for on final day
Scott Minto's EFL column: It promises to be a wild final weekend with everything to play for at the top and bottom of the second tier
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Your support makes all the difference.So we get down to the last weekend of the Championship season and automatic promotion, play off places and relegation are still to be decided.
Cardiff have it all in their own hands after bouncing back from defeat at Derby. Beat (a poor) Reading and they’re up.
It’s incredible to think they were 11th favourites at the start of the season to be promoted. Ever since their excellent start, they have been seen as the side who will fall away at some point, that the play offs will always be the best they can hope for. They have had a couple of wobbles but they fully deserve to be in this position.
While Cardiff don’t play my ideal type of football, I have nothing but total respect for the job Neil Warnock has done. Let’s not forget that when he took over October 2016, Cardiff were in the relegation zone. For Neil to get them safe last season is one thing, for him to get them on the verge of automatic promotion is quite another. If he had tried to play silky football, Cardiff would be in the bottom half of the table. This is not a side of silky players (although they do have many good ones), this is a side who know the team structure and play to it. Added to that, and their biggest asset, the mental strength they have, has got them on the point of joining England’s football’s elite. They should have had at least one player (Sol Bamba) in the Championship team of the season, but the fact they don’t, gives even more credit to Neil.
The nerves will be there at the Cardiff City Stadium Sunday, felt by the players and especially the fans. But the biggest reason why I feel (and have done for some time) Cardiff will get the job done, is because of their strength of character, something they have shown all season.
No Championship team has won more points in the final 10 minutes of games this season. I think they will get it done earlier than that, but if they do have to do it late on again, I believe they will, however nervy it gets.
Derby realistically need just a point to clinch that final play off place. That won’t be as easy as it sounds as Barnsley need to win to survive. Gary Rowett’s side were just 6 minutes from the play offs when they conceded at Villa Park and if ever there was a place in the Championship that could make their own players freeze, it’s Pride Park. Pressure hasn’t been dealt with well there for years and because of that, I think Derby won’t win but will get the draw needed.
It’s arguably most exciting at the bottom, and most difficult to call with 5 teams still in with a chance of joining Sunderland to be relegated. It’s been a massive fall from grace for Reading, play off final last season, fighting relegation this. But while I think both them and Birmingham will lose Sunday, they will just about survive. The games for Barnsley and Burton are incredibly tough, meeting two teams fighting for a play off spot. I can see Barnsley drawing at Derby but Burton losing at Preston. The big one then is Bolton. Nottingham Forest are almost the perfect team to play, nothing to play for and they have been poor on the road most of the season. Bolton’s home form is good. I believe they will win and therefore stay up with Burton and Barnsley relegated. Nothing is certain though!
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