With the race for one of the Championship play-off places still tight, how will Thursday’s and Friday’s fixtures affect the league’s standing?

First up on Thursday is a visit from QPR for Reading, at 8pm on Sky Sports 1. A disheartening 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Man United aside, the Royals have plenty to be happy about at the moment. They sit in 3rd place, with a 6 point gap between them and both 2nd place Newcastle and 7th place Derby. Their game in hand, however, means they can reduce that Toon-deficit to just 3 points, leaving them with a healthy chance of securing one of the automatic promotion spots by the end of the season. Aging French forward Yann Kermorgant is the favourite up front, and heads into Thursday’s game at 35-41, while winger Garath McCleary, who has actually nabbed one more goal than his colleague, is at 13-17.



While Reading chase a place in the Premier League, QPR are doing their best to avoid being dragging into the drop zone. The London club may be in 17th, but they are just 5 points ahead of Blackburn in 22nd, meaning they are only a few bad results away from abandoning their precarious position above the relegation battle. The Hoops had lost 6 Championship games in a row between the end of November and the day after Boxing Day, but managed to pick up vital back-to-back wins against Wolves and Ipswich either side of the New Year.

Chances of a 3rd league win in a row look slim, however, especially following an FA Cup defeat to Blackburn, with Spreadex offering a Reading/QPR Goal Supremacy spread of 0.6-0.8 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.6-2.8.

Friday then sees Derby look to break into one of the play-off places with a win against a sturdy Leeds, at 7.45pm on Sky Sports 1. Before slumping to a 3-0 defeat in Norwich at the start of the month the Rams hadn’t lost in 10 Championship games, winning 8 and drawing 2. That sees Derby knocking on the door of the play-off zone, with a victory over their hosts allowing them to swap places with Sheffield Wednesday in 6th (at least until the weekend’s fixtures that is).



The Whites, meanwhile, will be eyeing Reading’s match on Thursday and hoping for a slip-up as they try and climb from 5th to 3rd. Since mid-October Leeds have lost just twice in the league, a feat made all the more impressive given that those 2 defeats came against Brighton and Newcastle, the sides most likely to make the leap to the Premier League next season. They also set up an eminently winnable FA Cup 4th round tie against either Wimbledon or Sutton after sneaking past Cambridge United on Monday night.

Considering their current run it is hard to look beyond the hosts on Friday night, with Spreadex offering a Leeds/Derby Goal Supremacy spread of 0-0.2 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.15-2.35.