What's at stake on Championship's final day

The Championship season draws to a close on Saturday, with a number of matters at the top and bottom still to be decided.

BBC Sport takes a look at what's at stake and who could be celebrating or commiserating after what is shaping up to be a dramatic final day.

Town close in on successive promotions

Leicester City wrapped up the Championship title on Monday with a comprehensive 3-0 win at Preston.

The Foxes had had the weekend to celebrate promotion after Leeds' shock 4-0 reverse at QPR on Friday confirmed their return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

The Whites' heavy defeat opened the door for Ipswich, who had two games in hand on them, to wrap promotion up before the final day.

Town have enjoyed a superb season and four points from a draw at Hull City and a win at Coventry mean they simply have to avoid defeat by all-but relegated Huddersfield to end their 22-year exile from the top flight.

Boss Kieran McKenna has overseen a remarkable turnaround in their fortunes and promotion this season will see them become the first team since Southampton in 2011 and 2012 to win successive promotions to the Premier League from League One.

Should the Suffolk side get the job done on Saturday it will also guarantee that once again the three teams relegated from the Premier League will not all bounce straight back.

"Every point in the Championship is hard fought," McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk. "We've got a team of professional footballers with a lot of pride (Huddersfield) coming to Portman Road to try and finish their season off well and to try and stop us.

"It's a football match, anything can happen but all you can do is control all the things you can control to put the odds in your favour and you do that by getting the details of your performance right. That's what our focus will be, as it has been for the last 45 league games as well."

As for Leeds, three defeats from their past five games mean they are likely to be the first second-tier side since Sunderland in 1998 to win 90 points or more and not go up automatically.

They must beat play-off bound Southampton, who have lost their past three to play themselves out of top-two contention, and hope their West Yorkshire rivals can do them a huge and unexpected favour.

"I'm far away from being in a depression mode, it feels more like it's great that after 45 games we still have the chance to finish in the top two," Leeds boss Daniel Farke said.

"I want to go for it and try and surprise everyone. If it doesn't work we go for the play-offs."

Can Tigers pounce on wobbling Baggies?

Leeds and Saints are not the only promotion hopefuls who have hit rocky ground at the wrong time.

West Brom had been fifth for five months before a 3-0 defeat at relegation-threatened Sheffield Wednesday last week, a third straight reverse, saw them slip to sixth.

That defeat has opened the door for Hull City to potentially pinch a play-off spot on the final day if they can win at 21st-placed Plymouth.

"I'm really excited and I'm more relaxed than I ever have been and the players are too," Tigers boss Liam Rosenior told BBC Radio Humberside.

"I want them to be relaxed and they feel that way because they're confident. We'll give it our best shot and we'll see what comes of it."

Albion are still in the driving seat though and goal difference means they simply need to avoid losing to 10th-placed Preston to be sure of a play-off berth.

Fifth-placed Norwich, who also missed the chance to wrap up their play-off spot by drawing with Swansea last week, could yet drop out of the top six but that would require them losing at Birmingham, West Brom avoiding defeat and the Tigers beating the Pilgrims by a big enough margin to overturn a seven-goal deficit.

One from four?

Down at the bottom, Rotherham's relegation was confirmed some time ago and they will end the season without a single away victory.

Huddersfield Town are almost certain to join them as they need to beat promotion-chasing Ipswich, with Plymouth losing to Hull City and overturn a 15-goal deficit.

Terriers boss Andre Breitenreiter has accepted his side are down and pointed to a low quality pre-season under predecessor Neil Warnock last summer as one of the key reasons for their struggles.

"I heard about the really poor pre-season where players trained once a day and the focus was on playing golf and maybe staying in the pub," he told BBC Radio Leeds.

"This never leads to success."

As for who else will be going into League One next season, the pressure is on Birmingham to pull off another great escape, a decade on from their miraculous survival at Bolton.

Blues have endured a torrid campaign after sacking John Eustace and appointing England and Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney.

Rooney's disastrous spell was cut short in January and Tony Mowbray looked to have them going in the right direction before he had to step down until at least the summer because of ill health.

Former Blues boss Gary Rowett returned after Mark Venus' spell in caretaker charge but he has also struggled to get results and they slipped into the relegation zone for the first time on 6 April.

They host play-off chasers Norwich on Saturday and goal difference means anything other than a win is likely to mean they will be relegated to the third tier for the first time since 1993-94.

Plymouth, who have not spent a single day in the relegation zone all season, start the day one point above the West Midlands outfit and must match their result to avoid an immediate return to League One.

"[The players] are all desperate to keep the club up and now we've just got to produce it on the pitch," Argyle coach Kevin Nancekivell told BBC Radio Devon.

Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn are two points better off than the Pilgrims on 50 points.

Wednesday had been in the bottom three for eight months before beating Rovers 3-1 two weeks ago.

Rookie boss Danny Rohl has worked wonders after they endured their worst ever start to a season under Xisco Munoz and a draw at Sunderland will be enough for them regardless of other results.

"We have to play with the same intensity as the past weeks. It's a big opportunity and we worked hard to get to such a point," Rohl told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"We have to make the final step now and I'm convinced about my team."

Blackburn are another team not to have been in the bottom three all season who go into the final day with work to do.

A shock 1-0 victory at Leeds, the Whites' only home loss of the season so far, looked like it would be enough for them but one point from their past two games means they visit champions Leicester, who need a win to reach 100 points, possibly in need of favours from elsewhere.

Rovers boss John Eustace told BBC Radio Lancashire that staying up "will be a cause for celebration".

You can join us for live text action of the final day of the Championship regular season from 11:30 BST on Saturday, 4 May.