West Brom, Hull City will be hoping to repeat Derby County feat v Leeds United: View | OneFootball

WIth 90 minutes left to play in the Championship season the permutations are becoming all the more clearer, with just one match left to change the outcome of the season.

Leicester City are Champions and Ipswich Town are as good as promoted, with three points separating themselves and Leeds United ahead of the final day, while the race for the final playoff place still burns on.

Two points separate sixth-placed West Bromwich Albion and Hull City going in to Saturday’s showdown, and whichever does take the last spot will have the perfect blueprint to work from once they start to focus on the end-of-season showdown.

Whoever finishes in sixth will face Leeds home and away for a place in the final at Wembley, and the Yorkshire side will be dreading the two-legged affair after their previous experience five years ago.

Derby County shock Leeds United to reach Championship playoff final

It’s the one we all remember, and the one Whites fans wish they could forget, the time when Leeds were in fact falling apart again.

Things had gone so well for Marcelo Bielsa’s side in the first leg of the 2018/19 playoff semi-final against Derby County, as Kemar Roofe’s goal gave them a 1-0 advantage heading into the return fixture at Elland Road.

With a slender advantage in the bag, spirits were high in Yorkshire as a return to the Premier League was becoming all the closer, but few inside the grand old stadium could have predicted what was about to unfold on what would turn out to be a night for the ages in LS11.

The eventual outcome would have looked even less likely when Stuart Dallas prodded the hosts in front midway through the first half, with locals likely looking up train fares to the capital such was their confidence of seeing out the tie.

That smugness would have been wiped from their faces just before halftime though, as Jack Marriott pounced on a defensive error to hale the aggregate deficit, before Harry Wilson levelled the tie just seconds after the restart.

With their two-goal advantage vanished, the mood within Elland Road had turned into a cesspit of jangling nerves, and when Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot for a penalty to the visitors, the turnaround was complete.

This was a performance typical of the Bielsa era in Yorkshire; with the Argentine’s chaotic philosophy seeing Leeds score plenty while leaving plenty of opportunities for their opponents to find the net.

While it may have been great for the onlooking neutral, it won’t have done much good for United fans’ heart rates, with plenty of ups and downs expected week in, week out.

This tie was no different, with Dallas netting another to make it 3-3 on aggregate, leaving half an hour with all to play for and both sets of fans holding their breathe.

As Gaetano Berardi saw red, the writing looked to be on the wall for Leeds, and so it proved five minutes before the whistle, as Marriott bagged his second to give County the win, and leave Leeds fans wondering what might have been as another season in the second tier beckoned.

West Bromwich Albion or Hull City can make the most of Leeds United defensive woes

Although it may not be the same Leeds United side coming up in the playoffs, the Whites have had a similar difficulty in keeping the opposition quiet of late, with eight goals conceded in their last three matches heading into the final day of the season.

After a devastating 1-0 defeat to lowly Blackburn Rovers, Daniel Farke’s side edged out Middlesbrough in a scintillating 4-3 draw to keep their automatic promotion dreams alive, before seeing them promptly ended with a 4-0 thrashing against Queens Park Rangers last time out.

With an immediate return to the Premier League within their grasp, this turgid run of form towards the end of the season has seen them throw that chance away, and leaves them needing three more games to try and decide their own fate.

West Brom or Hull will stand in their way when the playoffs get underway next weekend, and if it is the Baggies they will fancy their chances against Farke and his troops after enjoying much success against them during the regular campaign.

With a 1-1 draw at Elland Road coupled with a 1-0 victory at the Hawthorns; Carlos Corberan’s side have as good a record as anyone against the Whites this season, with Albion’s well-drilled defence seeing them keep the attacking talents of Crysencio Summerville [pictured], Georginio Rutter et al. at bay.

The Tigers haven’t fared as well, with a 0-0 draw at home followed by a 3-1 defeat on their travels, but Liam Rosenior will be relishing the opportunity to go up against a side that look like a bag of nerves with every game they play at the minute.

Every single Leeds fan will have the Derby County fiasco on their minds when the playoff campaign gets underway, and that anxiety will need to be restrained if they are to reach the promised land.

If it isn’t those nerves will play into their opponents’ hands; we’ve seen Leeds collapse in the playoffs before, and that is incentive enough for either West Brom or Hull to try to repeat the trick this time around.