Friday 8 May 2015 15:29, UK
Bournemouth and Watford have booked their tickets to the Premier League, while Middlesbrough and Norwich have sealed their top-six spots - but four into two doesn't go.
Ipswich, Derby, Brentford and Wolves are the Championship quartet whose season hinges on the events of the final day of the season but who'll clinch a play-off spot and keep their promotion dream alive?
Sky Sports' Football League expert Peter Beagrie looks ahead to what's sure to be a dramatic final day - and also gives his takes on the issues still to be settled in Leagues One and Two...
CHAMPIONSHIP
I’ve already said that I've never experienced a season like this before. As far as the Championship is concerned, the lead at the top has changed 23 times throughout the course of the season and seven sides have held the lead.
You have to be absolutely stupid to try and predict anything in the Championship, and I’m still trying!
Everybody would make a case for any of the teams mentioned reaching the play-offs, perhaps with the exception of Ipswich, who have to go to Blackburn.
Could the fickle hand of fate could throw up a scenario where Jordan Rhodes comes back to haunt the side who let him go as a youngster?
Of the teams that are in the hunt for the play-offs, it wouldn't be a disaster for the like of Wolves, Brentford and Ipswich not to make the cut. But, on reflection, it would be a huge story if Derby were to miss out. With that comes pressure and Sky Sports will be at the iPro to see the events unfold. There will be huge pressure at Derby, but I fully expect them to get the win they need to seal their place in the play-offs.
At the end of the season, in the majority of these games, it’s as much about a team's mentality as it is their ability. The team that can handle the pressure and play as close to their ‘normal’ game will prevail.
These games and pressurised situations have been known to throw up strange results in the past. If you’re a neutral it’s a day to enjoy and once again we’ll see the positions changing as each minute passes; goals will be going in all over the place and the table will be affected.
I’ve played in a situation on the final day where we had to better another team’s result and the nerves were thwarted. We had an experienced squad back then - that really helped us - and this weekend is the time for the older heads to try and calm the rest down and try and replicate your normal game as closely as you can.
This is where managers really earn their corn. There will be motivational speaking up and down the country in every dressing room and it could come down to who can extract that extra one per cent from their players that has been yielded throughout the season.
LEAGUE ONE
Despite Preston going on their unbeaten run, only one point separates themselves and MK Dons, who are both vying for that second automatic spot.
They have both performed outstandingly this season but what I look for throughout all the leagues is goal difference. Preston have +40 and MK Dons have +53; that is absolutely tremendous.
Whichever one of those two teams misses out on automatic promotion will obviously go in as favourites for the play-offs but they will have to overcome a huge negative. Simon Grayson isn’t feeling the pressure at all, though, and neither is Karl Robinson.
I’d hate to pick who’s going to be relegated from League One. On reflection, though, you would never have expected Leyton Orient to be down there.
Crawley and Colchester have been in situations where they have been massively cut adrift but have managed to claw themselves back from the brink and give themselves a chance, while dragging other sides into the mix in the process.
It’s going to go to the wire, it’s an emotional rollercoaster. However bad you think the pressure is at the top of the table is, the pressure at the bottom is far greater. It really is debilitating and the nervous energy saps players physically. I feel for every fan and player at the bottom.
LEAGUE TWO
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has been very calm and concise during his time at Burton. Both he and Shrewsbury manager Micky Mellon will want to seal the title.
You feel sorry for Wycombe who are chasing that third place. They have suffered from injuries and suspensions and they have the thinnest of squads and it has just caught up with them.
They have had some outstanding individual performances this season and Gareth Ainsworth has done a remarkable job. It would be disappointing if they were to miss out on the automatic spot but it’s still within their grasp. They have a huge, huge game away at Northampton, but its remarkable Wycombe are in this position having survived on the last day last season.
Southend have won seven on the spin, keeping clean sheets in all of those games, you would expect them to keep a clean sheet and get at least one point. That result would wipe Wycombe out of it and allow Bury to steal a march on the final automatic promotion place with a win at relegated Tranmere, so it's still all to play for... strap yourselves in for a bumpy ride!
Find all the weekend's permutations in our comprehensive 'What's left to settle?' feature - or read it on the iPhone/Android apps.
Watch Derby v Reading on Saturday, 12pm, Sky Sports 1 HD and Blackburn v Ipswich, Saturday, 12pm, Sky Sports 2 HD.
You can see all the Championship goals as they go in on Soccer Saturday from 11am on Sky Sports News HQ and the key strikes from League One during Soccer Special - from midday on Sunday.
