CHAMPING AT THE BIT
The Championship – a league so chaotic it makes a piano falling down some stairs resemble a Zen garden – resumes with an old-fashioned Easter weekend double header. Automatic promotion, playoff places and the drop into the abyss all remain up for grabs, with only beleaguered Sheffield Wednesday’s relegation rubber-stamped as the contenders jockey for position on entering the home straight. Not a Stone Island jacket will go unworn as fans of all 24 clubs proudly get the badge in before heading off to support their teams over a hectic bank holiday schedule. At the top, Frank Lampard’s Coventry City are in the box seat for automatic promotion, with an 11-point cushion between them and Ipswich Town in third. They will fancy their chances of at least maintaining the gap in tomorrow night’s televised Geographically Quite Near Each Other But Not Really A Derby derby against, er, Derby County. With no Good Friday game due to Southampton’s weekend FA Cup appointment with Arsenal, Ipswich will have additional time to de-Farage Portman Road for Monday’s visit of Birmingham.
In one of the weekend’s key matches, Middlesbrough host Millwall in tomorrow’s early kick-off, where victory for the visitors would see them gatecrash the automatic promotion conversation. “I think there are going to be a lot of twists and turns between now and the end of the season,” said the Millwall manager, Alex Neil, during a press conference largely devoted to downplaying the significance of the fixture. It’s no surprise, given the very real possibility his side could return to the top flight for the first time since Tony Cascarino and Teddy Sheringham enjoyed a successful big man/slightly-less-big man partnership and were banging in goals at the Den for fun. The pick of the 3pm kick-offs tomorrow is at the Hawthorns, where unheralded low-key promotion hopefuls Wrexham will continue their playoff push against West Brom. The Baggies finally decided to give James Morrison something and have enjoyed back-to-back wins after failing to win their previous 13 games under different gaffers.
While the shame of losing at home to West Brom prompted Bristol City to dispense with the services of Gerhard Struber, his up-and-coming replacement Mr Roy, actually 78, will finally get to realise a career-long ambition of managing a side in a match against Charlton Athletic. We can expect no end of beachballs, sombreros and colourful towels to be on show at Bramall Lane, where Sheffield United host Swansea City in a mid-table affair. As for Wednesday, they are hoping to end a run of 33 games without a win against beach-bound Stoke. With seven games remaining, the Owls find themselves in the absurd position of needing six more points to finish the season with none.
Leicester are also down among the dead men after their own points deduction, battling with Oxford, Portsmouth, West Brom and Blackburn to avoid a descent into the murky League One depths. Swimming in the other direction are Lincoln City, who could seal promotion – and a first season in the second tier since 1961 – with a home win over AFC Wimbledon on Saturday. “Tottenham away, olé olé” indeed.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I spoke to [Salah] around that interview at the time and sort of said to him, ‘don’t do what you’ve done and go under a cloud’. I spoke to him direct … it gave me the opportunity to say to him: ‘Look, you’ve been here eight, nine years, you’ve been king here, you’ve got this legacy, just go on your terms, the right way’. He was in and out of the team at the time, he was upset. I just thought it would be a shame if he just left in January” – the ever self-effacing Steven Gerrard suggests Liverpool fans have him to thank for extending Mohamed Salah’s stay at Anfield until the summer.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
“Re: Wednesday’s Football Daily on Italy’s failure to reach the Geopolitics World Cup. Can I be one of 1,057 pedants who are prone to point out that Francesco Esposito is lying supine (face up) on the turf with head in hands?” – Jim Broshar (and others).
“Could you please point out to your writers that hardly anyone in Australia says flamin’ these days” – John Groom.
“Congratulations to Phil Taverner on winning Wednesday’s letter o’ the day. Thoroughly DeZerbed” – Richard Prangle.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … Rollover. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.
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