Ready for the kick-off: Important night for Tigers, Bantams, Blades and Minstermen

Opportunity knocks for all four, albeit for differing reasons as they seek to realise their seasonal aims.

Three of the four are on home soil tonight, with the other facing a short trip across the M62 to Red Rose territory.

Here are four things to consider.

Hull City have a massive chance to put some daylight between themselves and the chasing pack.

With Middlesbrough stuttering and without a league win in five matches, Steve Bruce’s side are the team to beat and after Leeds restricted the Teessiders to a point on Monday evening, Hull can move four points clear of second-placed Boro with victory tonight - albeit having played a game more.

Standing in the way are fourth-placed Brighton, whose wobbles are firmly over, and who head to East Yorkshire on the back of four straight league victories. They are a form horse along with Sheffield Wednesday - Hull’s next home opponents.

Victory will enable Brighton to move back into the top two for the first time since mid-December - while going level on points with the Tigers in the process.

Bradford need to avoid the perils of an ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’ display.

Outstanding at Peterborough on Saturday en route to their biggest league win since September, 2013, the challenge for Bradford is providing something resembling an encore on a big night against a fellow top-six contender in Southend. City chief Phil Parkinson has warned people not to expect a free-flowing classic given that the stakes are high and that Southend have manned the barricades of late after letting in a litany of goals at the start of the year.

In an ideal world, City will carry on from where they left off at Posh. But above all, it is a night for getting the three points however they arrive - with the game being the first of a run of five matches in the next seven at Valley Parade.

The good thing for Parkinson is that he has attacking options, with James Hanson, Wes Thomas, Steven Davies, Jamie Proctor and Billy Clarke, now back in the fray, competing for two striking berths.

Sheffield United must not waste Saturday’s good work at Doncaster - and pile on the misery for Bury.

The Blades and the Shakers are in contrasting moods ahead of tonight’s Roses game. David Flitcroft’s hosts head into it on the back of a 6-0 reverse at Coventry, the club’s worst league loss since April, 1989 - with the Lancastrians dropping like a stone after a decent start to the season and boasting just a solitary league win in their past eight outings.

United, whose kindergarten changes reaped a dividend at Doncaster, showed resolve, application and quality on occasions to triumph at the Keepmoat and a replication of that display should be too strong for Bury this evening.

York have the chance to achieve something substantive after a pretty dismal winter.

The daffodils and snowdrops are starting to appear and whisper it gently, but York City are showing signs of emerging from hibernation, just in the nick of time with their Football League tenure looking precarious.

The carrot for the Minstermen tonight if they claim victory is moving out of the bottom two for the first time in 2016, following back-to-back league wins for the first time since mid-April.

York’s fate is likely to be dictated by their home form and they need to retain some element of consistency if those relegation fires are to be extinguished.