It’s the last day of the Championship season with Ipswich looking to clinch automatic promotion and play-off and relegation issues still to be finalised.
It will be tense, it will be exciting, it will be nervy and hopefully it will also be profitable with a five-fold which kicks off with Cardiff to win at already-relegated Rotherham.
- Cardiff to beat Rotherham
- Bristol City to beat Stoke
- Leicester to beat Blackburn
- Coventry to beat QPR
- Norwich to beat Birmingham
Rotherham vs Cardiff
There will be no fond farewell to the Championship at the New York Stadium where Rotherham are braced to go down with a whimper.
The re-appointment of Steve Evans as head coach two weeks ago is intended to breathe life into what the club’s owners believe will be a promotion push next term, but for now the Scot is leading his side down tamely.
Two games under Evans have yet to produce a goal - a 0-0 draw with Birmingham and a 2-0 loss at Bristol City - which means they have now failed to find the net in 10 of their last 11 matches.
Miles adrift and relegated weeks ago, the end can’t come soon enough for Rotherham and the likelihood is that it will be a painful one at that.
Cardiff have enjoyed a decent season under Erol Bulut, who has guaranteed a top-half finish and will be hoping his 50th game in charge is marked with a win.
They have won nine times on their travels in the league this season, five of those since the turn of the year, and this, theoretically at least, should be one of their easier assignments.
That Cardiff have nothing tangible to play for is a slight concern but it’s hard to believe Bulut, a renowned hard taskmaster, won’t have his side targeting a victorious sign-off.
Rotherham have won just four times all season and on those grounds alone the visitors look cracking value.
Stoke vs Bristol City
Stoke, like Rotherham, would dearly like to bow out with a win in front of their home fans but, like the Millers, face a tough task.
Bristol City head for the bet365 Stadium in a rich vein of form and being talked up by a number of rival managers who have played against them in recent weeks.
And it’s easy to understand why. Their impressive seven-match unbeaten streak going into this game has included a 1-0 win over Leicester, a 5-0 drubbing of Blackburn and a 1-1 draw at Norwich, which had Canaries’ boss David Wagner predicting big things for the Robins next season.
They have conceded only four goals in their last nine games, with six clean sheets in that run, as Liam Manning’s promise is finally starting to be realised.
Whether or not they fulfill Wagner’s prophecy and go on to become a challenger, only time will tell, but they should be confident they can stifle Stoke.
It’s been a tough season for the Potters and their new boss Steven Schumacher, who inherited a side who would remain locked into the relegation battle for pretty much the entire campaign.
One defeat in their last seven has been the springboard away from the likes of Huddersfield and Birmingham and their survival was secured last weekend with a gutsy 1-0 win at Southampton, achieved despite seeing just 34 percent of the ball.
That’s a couple of huge away wins over the last few weeks - they also prevailed 2-0 at Hull - and Potters’ fans should be confident that this season’s struggles won’t be replicated in 2024/25 with Schumacher at the helm.
For now, though, they may have to settle for being second best against a Bristol City side who are in very decent nick.
Leicester vs Blackburn
It will be party time at the King Power where the 90 minutes of action are merely the hors d’oeuvre for the trophy presentation after the final whistle.
To that end, the match itself doesn’t mean a great deal to the Foxes - though it means the world to Blackburn.
While the pressure may be off Leicester it is packed high and heavy on the shoulders of every Rovers’ player, who knows that Championship survival is on the line.
They are 19th in the table and in a seemingly decent position - for them to go down they would need to lose and Plymouth and Birmingham would have to win and Sheffield Wednesday avoid defeat in other contests. It would be quite the combination of outcomes for Blackburn to drop through the trap door.
They have only won twice since February - incredibly one of those successes came at Leeds - though John Eustace has definitely instilled a fight and organisation in them that had been missing earlier in the season.
The truth is that if Leicester are up for this then they should be able to win tidily enough.
Enzo Maresca’s Foxes have won three in a row, a critical 2-1 win over West Brom followed by a 5-0 romp past Southampton and 3-0 win at Preston.
Saints and North End should have been tricky challenges and the leaders made light work of both. Their Premier League pedigree has been standing them apart from many of their peers all term and even if this is a chance to relax, they should still have far too much for a one-dimensional Blackburn.
Coventry vs QPR
Expect plenty of mutual back-slapping at the CBS Arena as Coventry get a chance to reflect on a season well done and QPR can wallow in the joy of staying up.
These are two teams in good form with Coventry’s three-match winless streak since their FA Cup semi-final loss perhaps best ignored.
Following on from last season’s play-off campaign, Mark Robins’ men have been superb and their fans will revel in the memories of a second successive promotion charge, the win at Wolves in the FA Cup and, of course, that heartbreaking Wembley loss to Manchester United in the semis of the same competition.
That, and certainly the manner of it, would be enough to take the wind out of any side’s sails, but Coventry remain a top team who will hope to sign off with a win.
They take on a QPR side who have improved massively under Marti Cifuentes though it was only last weekend when they finally sealed the deal on survival with an astonishing 4-0 demolition of Leeds.
It’s hard to believe, with the pressure off, they haven’t been completely relaxed during the week and the Hoops are unlikely to be too motivated by this last-day assignment.
Birmingham vs Norwich
A point will be sufficient for Norwich to secure their place in the play-offs, but will probably spell the death knell for Birmingham.
The Blues look like they are going to have to beat Norwich at St Andrews to avoid dropping into the third tier which should ensure the contest stays open, which may well play into the visitors’ hands. The Canaries only loss in nine was at Leicester and they haven’t failed to find the net since late January.
Birmingham don’t win games or score goals and that simply won’t do on Saturday. The more risks they inevitably take the more vulnerable they will be and Norwich can pick them off.
