Leeds United has three games left in what has been an unbelievable season in the Championship.
With only two points separating the top three Championship teams, the season’s final day appears to be fraught with tension. Start growing your fingernails now because you’ll need something to bite on when Saturday, May 4 rolls around.
Leeds United visit Southampton on the penultimate day, and there’s a good chance that by game 46 of what will undoubtedly be one of the greatest Championship promotion battles ever witnessed, the three teams competing for automatic promotion will have expanded to four.
Saints presently have two games in hand, the first of which takes place this evening when they host Preston North End. If Southampton wins tonight, they will be within three points with a game in hand against Leicester City on Tuesday.
With so little to choose between the main protagonists in this ridiculous plot that feels like it could have been scripted in Hollywood, it may be time to break out the calculator on the final day, with goal difference deciding who makes the Premier League and who suffers in the play-offs.
Leeds United currently lead the Championship on terms of goal difference, and it will take something more than the usual drama to change that, surely? With a goal difference of plus 42, Leeds is only one goal clear of Leicester, but it is ten goals ahead of Ipswich Town’s 32 and fifteen goals ahead of Southampton.
Leeds have the greatest defensive record in the Championship, and their frugal run since the turn of the year has helped them cement a strong place in that area. If Leeds and Ipswich are tied on points at 2:30pm on the penultimate Saturday, the Whites appear to have the upper hand.
To that aim, Leeds only need to win their final three games of the season; if they do, and the Tractor Boys drop any points, the Whites will finish ahead of Kieran McKenna’s club. And by doing so, Southampton will be unable to catch Daniel Farke’s team.
Yes, there are ifs, buts, and maybes, but for all the rhetoric about automatic promotion being out of Leeds’ control, there is a very real potential that the club will gain promotion just by winning their last three games. Let us hold on to that until the next challenge appears, which will undoubtedly come.
