How quickly things change in the Championship.
Go back just over a week and Middlesbrough were on a relentless march to the top of the Championship with six wins in a row.
Meanwhile, Coventry have fallen from the top spot for the first time in four months. They looked weakened and looked worse than the team that swept the second division with their battles early in the campaign.
They then secured a huge 3-1 victory over Boro under the lights at CBS Arena. They followed that up with a win against West Brom on Saturday.
To be honest, the Baggies were there to embrace it. However, this was a clear win considering Coventry had not won in their previous seven road games.
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Highlights of West Bromwich Albion vs. Coventry City in the Sky Bet Championship
Later that afternoon, Middlesbrough were welcomed home by Oxford. It was exactly the same result against the same relegation-threatened team that Coventry suffered two weeks ago.
It may just be a three-goal lead again, but it feels like the pendulum has swung back to Frank Lampard’s side.
“There aren’t many teams running around the league,” the Coventry manager said. “These two games gave us the feeling that we can continue to be the best version of ourselves.
“We’ve been feeling the pressure since mid-to-late December. Hopefully, we can get over it with these two wins.”
“We knew it was something away from home and we wanted to fix that, and we felt this was the performance to fix that.”
Boro’s dip as the chasing pack struggles for consistency.
That being said, things can change quickly again. Middlesbrough host the Leicester team on Tuesday night and should be a bit more open than Oxford, but Coventry face a difficult trip to Bramall Lane against Sheffield United 24 hours later.
“Everybody needs a lift,” Middlesbrough manager Kim Helberg said after Saturday’s result. “The performance was good enough to win. We always want to win so it’s frustrating when we don’t win.
“But you have to remember that this group has earned 19 points from the last 24 games, and today we showed once again that we are a good team. There is still a lot of positive energy left in the group.”
The good news for both Boro and Coventry is that the challenge from further downstream appears to be diminishing.
Millwall suffered a shock defeat at home to Portsmouth on Saturday. It was Pompey’s fourth away win all season, with their other three games coming against 24th, 23rd and 17th placed Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford and Charlton respectively.
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Highlights of the Sky Bet Championship match between Millwall and Portsmouth
“I don’t think we gained anything from this game,” coach Alex Neil said after the loss. “When I say how we defended, people might think I’m talking about the back four, but I’m talking about the whole team.
“This is comprehensive in that the first goal was very disappointing from our point of view and the second goal was equally disappointing.
“After the game, I told the players that we were successful as a team by doing the basics well, but I thought we didn’t do the basics well enough.”
Ipswich, on the other hand, look like they will never be the sum of their parts that any of us expected. The Tractor Boys’ motto during the season was “Come strong” and “Run home.” Thirty-one games into the campaign, that still hasn’t happened.
According to the Expected Goals (xG) table, they have only won more than two games once so far, but have consistently underperformed all season.
They fought back twice against Wrexham on Saturday, at one point leading 3-2, but lost 5-3. They are eight points behind second-placed Boro with two games in hand. But I don’t think you’ll really get that consistency.
Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said after the game: “We’re really disappointed with the result and disappointed in ourselves.”
“We scored three really good goals from home, which should be enough to win the game, but we conceded some really bad goals today and some clinical finishing from Wrexham.
“It’s really frustrating because some of the quality we showed and in the end we conceded a goal and the mistakes we made as a team and on an individual level cost us the result we wanted and it almost turned out to be a really good day for us.”
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Highlights of Wrexham vs Ipswich in the Sky Bet Championship
Hull City, on the other hand, have failed to win three games in a row at home, following a four-game winning streak in late January.
The Tigers’ attack has been deadly, with only Coventry having scored more than 51 points this season. However, they have scored 46 goals this season, more than any other team in the top half and more than Oxford, who currently sit 23rd.
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Highlights of the Sky Bet Championship game between Hull vs QPR
“It was a bad game for us, but that’s football,” manager Sergei Yakilovich said after Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to QPR.
“After 80 minutes I was very angry and it was unbelievable that we conceded from the throw-in.
“After they scored the second goal, we lost balance, discipline, everything. We gave them three points, but they could have scored more.”
Some of the league’s best-performing teams are currently under that chasing group. Wrexham and Birmingham are sixth and seventh and both look formidable, but realistically they have too much work to do to challenge for anything more than a play-off place.
Coventry dominate favorites
Coventry’s volatile situation appears to be over, with their chances of promotion according to Opta being:
Midweek Championship matches will be streamed live on Sky
7:45pm kick-off unless otherwise noted
Tuesday the 24th
Blackburn vs Bristol City Hull vs Derby Middlesbrough vs Leicester Swansea vs Preston Watford vs Ipswich West Brom vs Charlton Wrexham vs Portsmouth Southampton vs QPR (8pm)
Wednesday the 25th
Millwall vs Birmingham Norwich vs Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield United vs Coventry Stoke vs Oxford (8pm)
