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[u]Leeds v Blackburn[/u] Leeds are playing well, there's no doubt about that. An opening day victory over Wolves was followed by an unlucky loss to early league leaders Blackpool before Neil Warnock's men got back to winning ways by beating Peterborough. Add in two impressive cup wins and it's four wins from five for United, 11 goals scored and just three conceded. Blackburn have also started the season well going on results alone, but they haven't been playing great and that showed in midweek when they lost in the Capital One Cup to League One outfit MK Dons. I sense Leeds are in for a good season and their form at Elland Road is going to be crucial if they are to be in the promotion picture come May. I'm not at all confident that Rovers will be there at the death however and ...

On a full midweek programme of Championship football this is undoubtedly the fixture that catches the eye from an entertainment perspective; two attacking teams in opposition with a couple of swashbuckling managers going head-to-head in the technical area. Both Blackpool and Leeds got their campaigns off to win-to-nil starts at the weekend, and in all honestly, both looked very solid defensively. Neil Warnock's United side restricted a pretty talented Wolves side to just a few clear cut chances, whilst Ian Holloway's Blackpool were rarely threatened away to Millwall. Over 2.5 Goals is available to back at just 1.86 here, and that's understandable given the way that both these sides like to play. But early impressions - and I admit they are very early impressions - lead me to believe...

I said at the start of the Championship Play-Offs that I thought West Ham would prevail, and nothing I have seen so far has made me want to divert from that statement. The Hammers looked a class apart in both legs against Cardiff. Okay, the Welsh side had a longer season than most and probably a thinner squad than their fellow promotion hopefuls. But they are still a very good side that was made to look decidedly ordinary both at home and in the return at Upton Park. Back in the summer, many people felt it was a foregone conclusion that Sam Allardyce's side would bounce back to the Premier League automatically. Whether that spread into the Hammers' camp we will never know, but there were times that you were left with the feeling that they took on the air of a side that believed if...

For so much of the season, promotion to the Premier League looked like a combined Southampton and West Ham private members club. Then Reading came along with a run that, in all honesty, would have been pretty unstoppable regardless of what happened at St Mary's and Upton Park. Yet there must be an element of head scratching going on down the East End of London as to how the Hammers have ended up in the play-offs and haven't gone up automatically. Sam Allardyce's side were in the top two pretty much constantly from early October until mid-March, they have lost only eight games all season and they have what looks, to me at least, the strongest set of players in the division by some distance. Only 11 home wins may have been a contributory factor, and certainly a run of seven games...

[u]Hull v Coventry[/u] I still think, given their home form and the games they have left at the Ricoh Arena, that Coventry can be laid for relegation at 1.91. And a point or three is well within their reach in this game to aid their cause. I've made plenty of the fact that the Sky Blues have not won on the road all season, and I'm certainly not confident enough to go all out for an away win. But Andy Thorn's side have drawn their last two away games, most notably a fine 2-2 result at Cardiff. That has helped them go five without a defeat - they appear to have found a way to make themselves hard to beat at just the right time. Hull, on the other hand, are on the slide. They were fifth at the end of January, but a run of one win in 10 has seen them drop to ninth. They have not won...

[u]Peterborough v West Ham[/u] I'm a massive believer in digging out current form, short-term trends and recent results when looking for bets in the all-too-unpredictable world of the Championship. But with this one I am shifting slightly, simply because even allowing for their indifferent recent form, the Hammers should be able to win this. If they don't, then their game in hand is spent and they will be at least a win behind the top two. And let's be honest, even though their recent form is no wins in five attempts, this is a West Ham side that has not lost in 10 league games, dating back to January 31. The fact they have drawn seven and only won three of them is the reason why we can back a team arguably stronger than any in this division at 2.06 to win at a side that was playing...

[u]Portsmouth v Birmingham, KO: Tuesday 19:45[/u] Surely it can only be Birmingham's form before the weekend that is allowing us to back them at greater than even-money in this one? The Blues have been through a sticky patch that saw them go four without a win in the league, but they bounced back to ease past Middlesbrough on Saturday. They also know how to beat struggling teams, having won seven of their previous nine games against teams in the bottom six. And they don't come much more 'struggling' than Pompey: in administration, eight points adrift of safety and hurtling towards the gaping trap door that leads to League One. Manager Michael Appleton has seen four players loaned out in the last three weeks, and so it's little surprise that Portsmouth have not won in nine league...

[u]Reading v Leicester[/u] Let's jump on the Reading train! The Royals are flying - how else do you describe seven successive league wins with only one goal conceded? Suddenly, what appeared a two-team love-in for automatic promotion between Southampton and West Ham has evolved into a three-way tussle. Reading are only two points behind the leading pair now and, as a club that has traditionally ended the season well, they must surely be seen as capable of avoiding the need of a risk of last season's Play Off agony and going straight up. Brian McDermott's side have actually won 12 of their last 14 league games and at the Madejski their recent record is eight wins out of nine: they have conceded just one goal in their last 12 hours of league football at home. Leicester really are...

[u]Ipswich v Bristol City[/u] You have to go back to late August to find the only time Bristol City have been out of the bottom six this season. Although the arrival of manager Derek McInnes sparked a run of four league wins from five in November, the Robins have not managed to climb higher than 19th since those embryonic league tables back at the start of the season. And currently they are on a slide, five defeats from their last six league outings dropping them to 21st in the table. They have lost six of their last seven away matches, and I can see that becoming seven out of eight when they visit a rejuvenated Ipswich. Paul Jewell's side had won four on the spin before last weekend's defeat at Brighton and have lifted themselves into the relative safety of mid-table - their last...