Leeds United's Championship run-in difficulty compared to Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton

All three sides have impressed in the Championship this season, although are stumbling their way towards the finishing line rather than sprinting towards it. Leeds have failed to secure a win in either of their last two games, losing to Coventry City before drawing 0-0 with Sunderland.

Ipswich are also winless in their last two, meanwhile Leicester were beaten 1-0 by relegation-threatened Millwall earlier this week. Southampton are not mathematically out of the race for an automatic promotion slot but have fallen nine points behind third-placed Leeds. However, the Saints do have two games in hand on the both the Whites and the Tractor Boys.

With excitement levels high and tensions running even higher, all eyes are on the final fixtures. How the aforementioned quartet perform in the last batch of games will decide their fate but some appear to have greater challenges than others.

Here is an assessment of the run-ins of the Championship’s top four sides, ranked using the average league position of their remaining opponents.

Ipswich Town - 11.75

It goes without saying there are no easy games in the Championship, particularly at this stage of the season. Away trips to Hull City and Coventry City appear daunting, while Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough are not an easy side to go up against.

The final fixture looks to be the easiest of the four for Ipswich but with Huddersfield potentially needing points to survive, it could prove to be the toughest.

Middlesbrough (H)

Hull City (A)

Coventry City (A)

Huddersfield Town (H)

Leeds United - 11.75

Leeds need to get back to winning ways and will be fancied to do so against Blackburn this weekend. John Eustace’s side were dismantled by Bristol City last night (April 10) and sit just three points above the relegation zone.

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Middlesbrough will be hoping to disrupt Leeds’ efforts at the Riverside and Queens Park Rangers are no pushovers under Marti Cifuentes. The final day showdown with Southampton could be huge.

Blackburn Rovers (H)

Middlesbrough (A)

Queens Park Rangers (A)

Southampton (H)

Leicester City - 11

Either side of meetings with Plymouth and Blackburn, the Foxes are set to face three sides with promotion ambitions of their own. Currently sat top of the league having played a game fewer than Ipswich and Leeds, it is in Leicester’s hands. However, there are certainly some potential roadblocks in their run-in.

Plymouth Argyle (A)

West Bromwich Albion (H)

Southampton (H)

Preston North End (A)

Blackburn Rovers (H)

Southampton - 9.33

Southampton have the most work to do in the race for automatic promotion and arguably have the most difficult run-in. Leicester and Leeds both feature on their fixture list, as do the in-form Watford and play-off hopefuls Preston.

Although they face some daunting fixtures, the Saints have more points available to collect having only played 40 games.

Watford (H)

Preston North End (H)

Cardiff City (A)

Leicester City (A)

Stoke City (H)

Leeds United (A)