The Championship play-off race leaves us all winners

Pretty much everybody down to Blackpool in 12th could still get promoted from the Championship…

Winners

Rob Dickie

Many times at the start of the season, we waxed lyrical about Dickie’s rise to one of the Championship’s best centre-backs and that the Premier League beckoned for 2022/23. This may only have been QPR’s second win in eight games, but they are back in control of their own destiny. They and Dickie may yet reach the top flight together.

Poya Asbaghi

Had the Tykes held out on both occasions, they would be above the relegation zone for the first time since September. Time is fast running out as the business end of the season approaches, but there is hope at last. It may be that that kills you, but it has breathed new life into Barnsley’s campaign. If Poya Asbaghi can secure Barnsley’s second-tier status from the position he came into the club, it will be just as great an achievement as Valerien Ismael getting the Tykes to last season’s play-offs.

Bournemouth’s strike duo

Dominic Solanke has been brilliant all season; Jamal Lowe has bided his time to be an important figure for Bournemouth, but the two combined on Saturday to take the Cherries back into pole position for that second automatic promotion place.

Scott Parker’s side were experts in recording undramatic, no-frills victories in the first half of the season. Goals scored late in either half provided the most routine of wins on the south coast while consigning Derby to their likely fate in the third tier next season. That is now four goals in five games for Lowe, having scored just twice until the start of February while Solanke continues his career-best form, moving onto 21 for the season. The exploits of Aleksandar Mitrovic overshadow the fact that