“Barnsley are a tempting outsider”, “Ipswich Town” - Who will join Sheffield Wednesday in winning promotion in L1? The verdict | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict‘ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sheffield Wednesday are going from strength-to-strength in the League One promotion race and, heading into the final two months of the season, it would take a brave person to back against Darren Moore leading the Owls back into the Championship.

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However, below them there’s a real fight for second.

Plymouth Argyle are currently second and three points adrift of Wednesday, who hold two games in hand. Below them are Ipswich Town in third and on a run of five straight wins, which has left them just a couple of points adrift of Argyle.

Barnsley should not be ruled out either, sitting fourth and eight points adrift of Plymouth, albeit with two games in-hand.

Our writers discuss who looks the likeliest club to clinch automatic promotion with Sheffield Wednesday at this stage:

Marcus Ally

Barnsley are in a fantastic position and on a sensational run under Michael Duff, however, games in hand are more of a hindrance than anything else at this stage of the season and for that reason I am going to say that this is more of a two-horse race for second spot.

Although Ipswich are probably playing at a higher level right now they do have a much tougher run-in which favours Argyle.

Three of the Pilgrims final four matches in the league are as follows: Cambridge United, Bristol Rovers and Burton Albion all at home.

They have a healthy number of fixtures against teams that will likely have nothing to play for, and with their sensational home record so far this season it is hard to deny them at least taking it down to the final day.

I am leaning towards Argyle with Ipswich travelling to Barnsley and Derby County back-to-back in the next few weeks.

Ned Holmes

It's a very, very hard one to call.

The gap between Ipswich Town and Plymouth Argyle is now just two points - with 10 games to go this season.

It's going to be between that pair even though Barnsley are six points short of Ipswich with two games in hand.

Given how impressive Derby County and Bolton have been this term, you don't want to get dragged into the play-offs but that will be one side's fate.

The Tractor Boys have hit their stride at the right time but I still fancy Plymouth to secure second.

I much prefer the look of their run-in than Ipswich's and that could make all the difference.

Alfie Burns

Barnsley are a tempting outsider at this moment in time. Although games in-hand are a far from easy hurdle to overcome, if Michael Duff’s side can get six points, they will have a heap of momentum behind them.

However, there’s a lot of spinning plates with that pick and it’s difficult to not go in the other direction with a Plymouth or Ipswich, who have the points on the board.

Ipswich’s recent run has seen them win four games that I’d expect them to and then Bolton, which was actually a bit of a statement result on the weekend just gone.

With that fresh in my mind, I’m going to go with Kieran McKenna’s side. They’ve gone about the last month really impressively and have got things back on track. They might still be chasing Plymouth but they look like they might have the ammunition to outstrip them for second, despite a relatively tough run-in.