The Yorkshire football season heads for a dramatic finale

Friday 19 April 2013

The end of season is closing in on the beautiful game and the Football League crescendo has never been as tense as this. We take a look at the mixed fortunes of some of the Yorkshire Clubs in the mix.

As our sports consultant John Hendrie says in a recent Yorkshire Post article, it has been such an exciting season, both good and bad for the Yorkshire clubs . As John states, three teams have a great chance of automatic promotion with Sheffield United and Bradford also in with a chance via play-offs. There is probably even more spice at the bottom of the Leagues.

Leagues One and Two

Looking at Doncaster Rovers, if they manage to get 3 points on Saturday, they are definitely promoted, which would be a fantastic achievement having lost their manager Dean Saunders to Championship Wolves half way through the season.

In League Two, Rotherham United also has a great chance of automatic promotion, which would be a terrific achievement for Steve Evans in his first season in charge at the New York Stadium.

Bradford cannot go up automatically now, but as former Bradford City player John says, if six weeks ago you asked any City supporter if they could win the play offs, they would perhaps have been a little bit more negative than they are now. They couldn’t buy a win a couple of weeks ago and now they have a great chance. There are only two teams that can really stop City doing it and they are Chesterfield and Exeter, who play each other on the last day of the season. However City face a fearsome run in, against fourth placed Burton Albion and ninth placed Chesterfield.

The Championship

Of all the divisions, the most intrigue lies in the Championship, especially at the bottom.  Barnsley has witnessed an incredible turnaround since the start of the year under the stewardship of David Flitcroft, topping the form guides with impressive wins over Brighton, Watford and Leicester.  However, they have fallen back into trouble after two crushing home blows, with a 6-0 defeat against Charlton and being hit with a sucker punch last minute equaliser against Derby on Tuesday .  Prior to this, the Reds had won 7 out of 8 home games and had a perfect opportunity to leap-frog their relegation rivals with two seemingly, on paper, straightforward home games, yet they only managed to return one point from these two games. This is the beauty and intrigue of the Championship – the only predictable thing is the unpredictability of it.

Huddersfield Town are also fighting for their lives. As John states, the positive thing for the Terriers is that two of their games remaining are at home.  The Division is absolutely incredible. For example, Hull are flying and then they lost at Wolves in the week.  Cardiff City, promoted to the Premier League on Tuesday night, were beaten by struggling Peterborough only a matter of weeks ago.

However, Huddersfield’s final home game is against Barnsley in what looks like it could be a winner takes all game, in what is sure to be a tense all Yorkshire encounter.

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