Championship final-day guide: Ipswich set for promotion, Hull eye play-offs and Birmingham in relegation fight | OneFootball

Kieran McKenna’s are a point away from the Premier League

Getty Images

The Championship season finale is upon us, the final fixtures of another gruelling 46-game season all kicking off at 12:30pm on Saturday.

Leicester City are rightful champions, and Rotherham United — cut adrift at the bottom — relegated, but plenty of teams have something tangible to play for on the final day.

Standard Sport talks you through it… Race for automatic promotion

Jamie Vardy and Leicester City are safely back up to the Premier League, but there is real interest in the side that joins them by securing that all-important second automatic promotion place.

Hands-down favourites to claim it are Ipswich Town, who host the side sat second-bottom, Huddersfield Town, at Portman Road. They need a point to go up.

Leeds are three points below Ipswich but have a better goal difference, 39 rather than 33. They therefore need to beat fourth-place Southampton at Elland Road and hope that Ipswich lose.

If that happens, they go up and Ipswich enter the play-offs.

Leicester have already secured a Premier League return

Action Images via REUTERS

Race for the play-offs

Whichever of Leeds and Ipswich loses the battle for second will inevitably tumble into the play-offs. Southampton, 11 points above Norwich City in fifth, are there too.

That leaves three teams competing for the final two play-off berths: Norwich, West Bromwich Albion, and Hull City.

Norwich only need a draw from their visit to Birmingham City to secure a spot, and a draw for West Brom against Preston would almost certainly be enough for the Baggies too, because their goal difference is four better than Norwich's and 11 better than Hull's.

Liam Rosenior's side have an outside chance of sneaking in. They must win at Plymouth and hope West Brom lose.

Hull still have hope of squeezing into the play-offs

Getty Images

Race to survive relegation

Rotherham are relegated. Huddersfield are too, unless they stun Ipswich, watch Plymouth lose to Hull, and then benefit from a highly improbable 15-goal swing between the two games.

Birmingham are currently in 22nd but could catch Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday and even Blackburn Rovers if they beat Norwich well and the others lose heavily. Birmingham's acceptable goal difference of -16 gives them a sliver of hope.

If Plymouth beat Hull, they survive. If they draw, survival will rely on Birmingham losing.

Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn will be safe unless they both lose and both Plymouth and Birmingham win. In that eventuality, Plymouth would be safe and it would all come down to goal difference for the other three.