Championship Movers & Shakers - Who’s hot, and who’s not…
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As we enter the final straight of the Championship season, we take a look at which teams are gathering pace and momentum at this crucial stage as well as identifying the teams that are stuck in a rut and trending in a downward trajectory.
Saturday 30th March saw the round 39 matches played and Norwich City further strengthened their bid for automatic promotion when they secured a valuable three points in a 1-0 win away at former play-off candidates, Middlesbrough (more about Boro a little later on).
That win at Middlesbrough became Norwich’s seventh win on the trot and The Canaries now hold a significant seven point margin ahead of 3rd placed Sheffield United. Norwich City could further extend this lead with two home matches on the trot against QPR and Reading respectively coming up at Carrow Road.
Leeds United moved back into 2nd place in the Championship after they secured a sixth win in eight matches with a 3-2 win against Millwall at Elland Road, coming from 2-1 down to grab the all-important three points.
This win over Millwall could be pivotal, especially as they managed to bounce back from their Yorkshire derby defeat to Sheffield United prior to the international break, but they do have two tricky away matches coming up against Birmingham City and Preston North End respectively.
In the play-off pack, Aston Villa have emerged as the form team with the best momentum as they recorded a fifth league win on the trot in the Championship with a 2-1 home win over Blackburn Rovers. However, although Villa have lifted themselves up into 5th place, they are a massive 16 points adrift of 2nd placed Leeds United, so they’ll have to make do with a play-off spot.
Villa also face a couple of upcoming tricky away matches at Yorkshire clubs, Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham United, the latter who are fighting for survival.
At the other end of the table, Reading have really turned things around under Portuguese manager, Jose Gomes, as The Royals registered a vital 2-1 home win against Preston North End at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday making it just one loss from their last six matches overall.
Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City both find themselves in seemingly free-fall mode though with Blackburn losing their eighth match in their last 10 when they lost 2-1 away at in-form Aston Villa, but Rovers’ plight is nothing compared to Birmingham City’s.
The Blues were in a comfortable 13th place in the Championship with perhaps a glimmer of an outside chance of a top six finish, but four defeats on the trot was just the pre-cursor to further trouble ahead for the west midlands club.
Birmingham’s breach of the EFL’s rules surrounding financial sustainability resulted in them being handed a 9-point deduction which has now left Gary Monk’s side just five points above the relegation zone.
To make matters worse, their Friday night 3-2 loss in the west midlands derby at The Hawthorns against West Brom became a fifth loss on the trot for Birmingham City, and to really rub salt into their wounds they are due to face 2nd placed Leeds United and 3rd placed Sheffield United respectively in their next two matches.
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