Tuesday results leave Championship table showing what could have been for Newcastle United
The Championship table below is looking more than acceptable after Newcastle United rounded off a tough week of games with a goalless draw at Reading.
On the face of it not the greatest result but coming off the back of wins at Brighton and Huddersfield, this has surely been a season defining seven day stretch.
Last night’s results are below, along with how the Championship table now looks:
Fulham 1 Leeds 1
Huddersfield 1 Aston Villa 0
Reading 0 Newcastle 0
Rotherham 0 Brighton 2
Sheff Wed 1 Burton 1
If Newcastle had lost all three of these tough away games, the table would have looked like this:
77 Brighton
71 Huddersfield
70 Newcastle
66 Reading
65 Leeds
62 Sheff Wed
Difficult to imagine just how different you would be feeling this morning if this had been the reality.
I think we would be accepting that Brighton were away and gone, whilst Huddersfield a point ahead and with a game in hand – would have been a major challenge with only 10 games to go BUT…
Thankfully we have Rafa Benitez steering us through these dangerous waters and Tuesday night basically saw the three outsiders fall short.
Sheffield Wednesday, Reading and Leeds all had to surely win to be a realistic threat to Newcastle. All three are at least 12 points behind NUFC with only 10 games remaining – Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday both led in their games but couldn’t see the result out.
Brighton three points behind and Huddersfield nine adrift (and with game in hand) are still major competition until we crawl/stroll over that automatic promotion line and now all the top six face two more matches before the two week international break – before proper football resumes in April.
Championship matches to be played before the two week international break:
Friday 10 March
Brighton v Derby (7.45pm)
Saturday 11 March
Aston Villa v Sheff Wed (3pm)
Brentford v Huddersfield (3pm)
Leeds v QPR (3pm)
Newcastle v Fulham (3pm)
Preston v Reading (3pm)
Friday 17 March
Bristol City v Huddersfield (7.45pm)
Sheff Wed v Reading (7.45pm)
Saturday 8 March
Birmingham v Newcastle (3pm)
Leeds v Brighton (5.30pm)
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