Tough at the top, tight at the bottom

Well, what a superb weekend of Championship football. Things are getting uncomfortably close for teams both vying for promotion and dreading the drop.

West Brom moved one step closer to finishing within the top two while Leicester climbed out of the bottom three with Sheffield Wednesday taking their place.

Stoke moved in to the second automatic promotion spot with a 2-1 win over fellow promotion hopefuls Bristol City at the Britannia Stadium.

Mamady Sidibe grabbed both the goals for Stoke and in doing so doubling his season’s goals tally! One wonders if ‘Big Mama’ will make the grade in the Premiership, should Stoke get there.

Elsewhere Coventry boosted their survival hopes with a thumping 5-1 win at relegated Colchester while Southampton remain in big trouble after a 1-0 home defeat to Burnley. Coventry’s win took them from 21st in the league to 17th. What a difference an hour and a half makes, hey.

Hull missed the chance to cement their place in second spot after a 2-0 defeat at 10-man Sheffield United and Crystal Palace boosted their play-off hopes with a 2-0 success at Watford. Any of the teams down to 9th placed Wolves still stand a chance of promotion.

Down at the bottom, things are equally, if not more tense:

Pos	Team	Played	GD	Pts
15	Preston	44	-3	55
16	Blackpool	44	-2	53
17	Coventry	44	-9	52
18	Norwich	44	-10	52
19	Barnsley	44	-13	52
20	Leicester	44	-1	51
21	Southampton	44	-17	50
22	Sheff Wed	44	-6	49
23	R Scunthorpe	44	-24	42
24	R Colchester	44	-23	37

With six points still left to scrap for eight teams still face the prospect of relegation. Looking at the table now, I feel that Southampton will have to work very hard to secure their Championship status and with games against West Brom away and Sheffield United at home, they will do very well to grab a win against either.