Sam Parkin believes that the Huddersfield Town vs Birmingham City game on April 27 is going to be decisive in the relegation battle this season.
The bottom of the Championship table is quite remarkable with just three games to go, with only Rotherham already relegated at this stage of the campaign.
| Championship Table (As it stands April 18th) | ||||
| Team | P | GD | Pts | |
| 17 | Blackburn Rovers | 43 | -14 | 49 |
| 18 | Plymouth Argyle | 43 | -8 | 48 |
| 19 | QPR | 43 | -17 | 47 |
| 20 | Stoke City | 43 | -19 | 47 |
| 21 | Birmingham City | 43 | -16 | 45 |
| 22 | Huddersfield Town | 43 | -23 | 44 |
| 23 | Sheffield Wednesday | 43 | -31 | 44 |
| 24 | Rotherham United (R) | 43 | -53 | 23 |
There are arguably seven teams who are concerned about the other two spots, so it promises to be an exciting and tense end to the campaign.
As it stands, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield are in the bottom three, with Birmingham just one point and one place above the drop zone.
Huddersfield vs Birmingham City is looming
Every game is crucial, but there’s one fixture that looks as though it could be defining, with Birmingham making the trip to Yorkshire to face the Terriers in nine days.
Certainly, both Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town have their immediate focus on their upcoming matches against Swansea City and Rotherham United this weekend. However, football pundit Parkin has already turned his attention to what he believes could be a crucial clash between the two struggling teams in the near future.
Speaking on the ‘What the EFL!?’ podcast, Parkin expressed his anticipation for what he considers a potentially significant game between Birmingham and Huddersfield next week. He speculated that Birmingham might secure a victory against Rotherham this weekend, while Huddersfield could potentially win at home against Swansea. Parkin sees these outcomes as plausible scenarios leading up to the anticipated clash.
Parkin emphasized the importance of the upcoming match between Huddersfield and Birmingham, suggesting that it could play a pivotal role in determining one of the relegation spots. The outcome of this game could heavily influence the relegation battle and have significant implications for both teams’ survival hopes in the league.
Huddersfield and Birmingham will be targeting 50 points
There’s a lot of guesswork from supporters up and down the country about what points total will be required to stay in the Championship, and we obviously won’t know until the final day.
We’ve ranked all 24 Championship teams based on their annual wage bill. However, according to many observers, reaching the 50-point mark should be sufficient for survival. Therefore, the objective for Birmingham and Huddersfield is straightforward: they need to win two games.
The significance of their upcoming clash cannot be overstated. If either team manages to secure a victory against the other, it could significantly impact their chances of staying up, making the match crucial for both sides.
Furthermore, the team that emerges victorious will likely enter the final day of the season with control over their destiny, a scenario that every team strives for in such critical moments.
Firstly, as Parkin points out, they have winnable games this weekend, and the only focus for all connected to both clubs has to be getting three points on Saturday. Then, attention can turn to April 27.
Other clubs can still go down
If Huddersfield and Birmingham can get a win this weekend it will also drag others into it, and whilst a three or four point gap may look too much right now, that could be reduced over 90 minutes.
Millwall should be safe now, and it would take a lot for Blackburn or Plymouth to go down, but they’re still in the mix, and QPR and Stoke will be well aware that they have work to do.
So, it will be an intriguing final few weeks, and there’s no doubt any games between relegation rivals have extra significance.
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