The Sky Bet Championship weekend concludes on Saturday afternoon as the fascinating battle to get out of the division at the top end and the bid to avoid exiting it at the bottom end continues on a day where 11 fixtures will be played.
This is a usual Saturday in the second tier where we begin proceedings with a TV match before the attention turns to all of the regular places for updates in some pretty important matches which kick off at 3pm.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (3pm unless stated; UK TV in brackets)
Leeds United v Blackburn Rovers (12.30pm – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
Birmingham City v Coventry City
Bristol City v Huddersfield Town
Hull City v Queens Park Rangers
Ipswich Town v Middlesbrough
Millwall v Cardiff City
Preston North End v Norwich City
Sheffield Wednesday v Stoke City
Southampton v Watford
Swansea City v Rotherham United
West Bromwich Albion v Sunderland
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Big Matches
After the leaders Leicester City slipped up again on Friday night, Leeds United have the chance to go top of the Championship table for a few hours at least when they entertain Blackburn Rovers in front of the TV cameras. Leeds just need to avoid defeat to ensure they end the weekend in the bottom two while Blackburn are suddenly staring right over their shoulders. Ipswich Town will also look to take advantage of the Leicester slip up later in the day when they host Middlesbrough at Portman Road, while Southampton will have seen the door left ajar and will want to move closer to entering it when they welcome Watford to St Mary’s.
Best of the Rest
The battle to beat the drop is getting very tight and tense and two sides who are in the mix meet at Hillsborough when Sheffield Wednesday look to finally escape the bottom three when they host a Stoke City side who are just two places and three points above them. In between the two, one spot above the relegation zone are Huddersfield Town. The head to Bristol City while time is running out for Birmingham City to avoid the collapse of all collapses. They start the day in second from bottom and have a Coventry side who are battling for a top six spot coming to St Andrews. That last top six spot is currently held by Norwich City and they travel to one of the teams chasing them down in Preston North End, while West Brom in fifth play host to Sunderland.
Betting
While I accept they don’t have a huge amount to play for I’m a little surprised that Bristol City are the price that they are to beat Huddersfield Town. The Robins might not be playing for anything tangible for the remainder of the season but they certainly haven’t let their form drop. In fact, they have won three and drawn one of their last four matches so they look to be concluding their campaign with a flourish and go into this match off the back of an emphatic 5-0 win over Blackburn.
Huddersfield are certainly playing for something this season as they are nothing like safe from relegation just yet and they head to Ashton Gate off the back of a 4-1 thrashing at Preston in midweek. To be fair to the Terriers, they have had the rough of things this week because a trip to Preston and then a long trek to Bristol isn’t ideal. Huddersfield have won just one of their last eight Championship matches so their survival fight hasn’t been much of one and on the road their record is poor. Huddersfield have won just one of their last 12 on their travels and are one of the poorer away teams in the league. Bristol City are in the top 10 at home and I think they can pick up three points here but after a hectic period in this division I’ll play with a bit of caution and have the draw cover afforded to us on the Asian handicap.
Tips
Back Bristol City (-0.25AH) to beat Huddersfield Town for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Bet365
