The battle at the top is tense, but this Watford supporter knows that fans of the teams at the bottom are the ones who are really struggling.
'Cardiff are in a poor run of form and have an FA Cup semi-final on their minds but, with the squad available to them, they may have amassed just enough points to ensure survival.'
With a tricky away game at Plymouth to come for my beloved Watford, it's getting so tense that I can’t bear to write about our chances of promotion at the moment.
It’s getting tough for us fans of the teams at the top, but at this time of the season the tension for fans of teams at the bottom is even greater. As a Hornet, I’ve been there many times before - and no doubt will be again - so you have my sympathy.
A look at the bottom of the Championship shows that, with recent defeats for Colchester and Scunthorpe, those two teams are probably now doomed to relegation. Who will take the unwanted third place is a very much more difficult question to answer.
As can be seen from the table, nobody is safe right up to Cardiff in 14th place. In fact, Sheffield United and QPR are only a further one point and two points ahead and could conceivably still get dragged back in with a disastrous run.
It's incredible to think that five of the teams down there - Coventry, Leicester, Southampton, Norwich and Barnsley - were all fairly recently in the Premier League, and now they're battling to avoid plummeting into League One.
Of the clubs hoping to avoid the drop, Norwich are in the worst run of form. After a poor start following the appointment of Nigel Worthington as manager, they produced a mid-season recovery. But they have picked up just four points from their last six games, losing the last three.
On five points from the last six games we have Coventry and on six are Cardiff and Barnsley (and Watford, but I’m not talking about them!). QPR, Preston, the two Sheffield clubs and Blackpool are all in the top eight of the current form table and should be doing enough to avoid the drop.
Leicester and Southampton have both picked up seven points from their last six games, but Leicester are coming off a fabulous 4-1 win at West Brom while Southampton suffered a 5-0 humiliation at Hull last time out.
I believe the clubs in most danger of joining Colchester and Scunthorpe in League One next season are Coventry, Leicester, Southampton, Norwich and Barnsley. Cardiff are in a run of poor form and have an FA Cup semi-final on their minds but, with the squad available to them, they may have amassed just enough points to ensure survival. Barnsley, also with the cup to distract them, are far from safe.
The game between Southampton and Coventry on Saturday at St Mary’s is huge for both clubs. Defeat in that game could be disastrous for either. Southampton then face Cardiff the week after. There is a need for the Saints to get maximum points from those two games as their final fixtures against Bristol City, Burnley, Charlton and West Brom look pretty formidable, before ending with a home game against Sheffield United.
Leicester still have to play the bottom three teams, while Coventry have Sheffield Wednesday and Colchester to play as well as Southampton, but also face tough games against Charlton, Wolves, Stoke, Watford and Plymouth, who are all in the promotion race.
Norwich play Colchester on Saturday in what is a must-win game for them. Five matches against teams in the top half follow before what could be a crucial last-day fixture away at Sheffield Wednesday. Barnsley have an exact split of four bottom-half teams and four top-half teams to play in their eight remaining games.
So who is going down? It’ll be easier to make that prediction after the games on Saturday, but at this point, my money is on Norwich... or Southampton... or Coventry... or Barnsley...
Who do you think will be the three teams to drop out of the Championship? Let us know by commenting below, or write your own article.