Possibly the most enthralling footballing rollercoaster outside the Premier League is the battle for promotion in the Championship.

Over the last few months the likes of Watford, West Brom, Bristol City and Stoke have topped England’s second tier. First to fifth place are currently separated by a mere three points. However, whichever teams go up, do any of them have a chance of survival?

This year it's likely that two out of last season's three promoted sides will beat the drop at the end of the season at the expense of Bolton and Fulham.

The realism is that potentially only West Brom would have a chance at avoiding an instant return to the second tier, unless one of the other sides take the ultimate gamble and spend big in the summer'


The current championship leaders are Bristol City, who are chasing a second successive promotion. Gary Johnson has done a magnificent job at the helm and in all honesty most City fans would not have expected such success this season.

Yet if they were to be promoted surely it would be a case of another Derby County? They already do not score enough and concede too many, as demonstrated by their +0 goal difference, and everybody knows both tasks get considerably harder in the Premier League.

City's strikeforce would struggle to scratch up ten goals between them. The same could be said of promotion rivals Stoke and Hull City. Stoke’s top marksman Ricardo Fuller made minimal impact last time he was in the Premier League whilst Hull’s leading marksman, Frazier Campbell, will return to Manchester United after his loan deal has ended.

Tony Pulis and Phil Brown, like Johnson, have done sterling jobs at their respective clubs but survival in the top league would be nigh on impossible for all three teams without extraordinary funding and a huge slice of luck in the transfer market.

The two ‘big’ players in the promotion hunt are undoubtedly Watford and West Bromwich Albion. Both have had recent top-flight experience but of the two you would only really fancy West Brom to survive. Last year the Baggies inexplicably lost to Derby in the play-off final - a result that arguably did neither side any good.

However, this year they have played some delightful football and have scored goals for fun. The strikeforce of Kevin Phillips, Roman Bednar and Ishmail Miller have 41 Championship goals between them and all have potential Premier League pedigree.

Manager Tony Mowbray’s biggest worry would be the defensive side. In the 1-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat by Portsmouth, he played Robert Koren, Zoltan Gera, Jonathan Greening and  James Morrison, all of whom are ostensibly attack-minded players. If Mowbray was able to buy an out-and-out defensive destroyer in the centre of midfield you would definitely see West Brom as a more competitive force in the Premier League.

Their main problem is putting the FA Cup behind them and just grinding out results. The maths are simple, win their games in hand – go top of the league with only four games left. In reality, their superior goal difference is worth a point as well.

Aidy Boothroyd did wonderfully well to get Watford up the first time and twice would be equally impressive. However, the worry for him is that his side has barely changed and you would wonder where the goals would come from. They have lost talismanic striker Marlon King and top scorer Darius Henderson only managed a paltry two goals last time he was in the Premier League.

Alternatively, one of the clubs chasing the last play-off place could succeed, such as Wolves, Plymouth, Charlton or Ipswich - all of whom have even less class than the teams above them.

The realism is that potentially only West Brom would have a chance at avoiding an instant return to the second tier, unless one of the other sides take the ultimate gamble and spend big in the summer. Even so, it has been an intriguing season of Championship football.