Robins looking to home advantage while Flitcroft relies on team spirit

IT was never going to end with a whimper. Not in this craziest of Championship campaigns, when 57 points might not prove enough to stay up and a team that has lost 14 games since the turn of the year is still sitting in the top half of the table.

The final day of a campaign where supporters have long since become resigned to expecting the unexpected is looming large and for Yorkshire it promises to be a fraught 90 minutes.

At the top, Hull City need to better Watford’s outcome to avoid becoming Devon Loch’s newest stablemate and a byword for spectacular sporting collapses.

Beat champions Cardiff City at the KC Stadium and the Tigers are up. Draw or lose, however, and Hull will need a huge favour from Leeds United at Vicarage Road. Any finger nails still intact across the East Riding are unlikely to make it as far as half-time on Saturday.

The same stresses are being felt in the battle to avoid the drop with no less than three Yorkshire clubs desperate to avoid joining Bristol City and, more than likely, Wolverhampton Wanderers in next season’s League One.

Barnsley, third bottom despite last weekend’s win over Hull, travel to Huddersfield Town, the team who could yet prove to be the unluckiest in history if 57 points does not prove to be enough to stay up.

Sheffield Wednesday, a point above Barnsley and two adrift of the Terriers, complete the White Rose trio fighting for their Championship survival and a bumper crowd is expected at Hillsborough for the visit of 12th-placed Middlesbrough.

All in all, therefore, a weekend if not to savour then at least to embrace the challenge of maintaining the county’s footballing honour.

Barnsley manager David Flitcroft, for one, is ready to do just that. “The Huddersfield game has stood out for weeks and weeks,” the 39-year-old told the Yorkshire Post.

“Until the Hull game was out of the way, it was at the back of my mind, but now it is at the front.

“I always felt we would give it a fighting shot and take it to the last day, I just didn’t expect the points total needed to stay up. It is crazy.

“I didn’t expect other teams to keep fighting so hard, but what a league this is. To get 54 points is an incredible achievement by the lads and something we should all be proud of.

“We have had a lot of proud moments. But now it is back to work and trying to finish the job off.”

Considering Leicester City, five years ago, and Millwall, in 1996, are the only teams relegated from the second tier in the past with 52 points, Saturday is going to leave at least one club with a sense of injustice. If, for instance, Huddersfield go down with 57 points – a tally that as recently as 2009-10 would have been enough to finish 13th – then everyone at the John Smith’s Stadium will have cause to feel the footballing gods have turned their backs on the club.

Mark Robins’s side need at least a point to extinguish any chance of being dragged down with a record total and after taking nine points from their last four games, confidence is high in the Town camp.

Robins said: “It is amazing to be on 57 points in the Championship and not be mathematically safe.

“But Bristol City was a big win for us. From the position we were in when I came here and the position we are in now, we are running out of games and other teams are running out of games.

“There are a few teams below us in the division and they have to put on a show next Saturday.

“We are at home and can finish things off against my old club. They had a great result in beating Hull. It will be a tasty affair.”

Going into the final day, the table of results since the turn of the year makes interesting reading for the three Yorkshire clubs still in danger of dropping out of the Championship.

The trio all boast a decent points return with Barnsley leading the way with 33 from 20 games, a tally bettered by only three clubs – Brighton (38), Watford (37) and Cardiff (35).

Underlining just how well the Reds have played under Flitcroft is the fact promotion-chasing Seagulls and the Hornets have both played a game more.

Wednesday boast the next highest points tally with 30 – the 10th highest in the Championship – from 20 games, which is an identical record to Hull’s. Huddersfield, meanwhile, have claimed 25 (16th), Leeds 23 (20th) and Boro the lowest tally in the entire division with a paltry 12 points from 20 matches.

Barnsley’s stunning form since Flitcroft succeeded Keith Hill at the end of 2012 would, in any other season, have carried the club to safety. Instead, the Reds’ manager has to inspire one last effort out of his players against Huddersfield.

“I am close to the players and they are giving everything,” said Flitcroft. “If you look in their eyes, you can see that’s what we are getting. A lot of Championship clubs have groups of players where there are factions or cliques. But not here. Ever since I arrived, I have been breeding that and making sure we bring the right characters to the club.

“If you get the right characters and lead them right, you get performances like (against) Hull.

“When you have got the resources we have got, you have to have something different. And our difference is spirit.

“It is a team performance. It has to be. Teams at the top end of the division might have won games with individuals, but we haven’t got individuals who you can give £20,000-£30,000 a week.

“We have got players who have come up from League Two or One and are fighting for the chance to stay in the Championship.”

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