THE RACE FOR PROMOTION TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP
WITH just three League One matches taking place yesterday, it felt like the calm before the storm. And with just over a month until the regular season ends, we’re going to be in for plenty of thrills and spills before the end of April.
There are many issues to be decided at the top end of the table. Can anyone stop leaders Portsmouth? Are Derby bankers for second place? Can red-hot Lincoln gatecrash the play-offs?
Whatever happens, it’s going to be well worth watching…
PROMOTION-CHASERS
YOU’VE got to take your hat off to Portsmouth boss John Mousinho and his squad this season. They really have been a model of consistency.
Four defeats from 39 games shows how difficult they have been to beat. Pompey had a wobble over Christmas and New Year, and there were those who figured the wheels might fall off when they lost back-toback matches against Cheltenham (2-1 away) and Leyton Orient (3-0 at home) in January.
But that was the cue for Mousinho’s men to dig in and go again. A 12-match unbeaten run, including a potentially crucial 1-0 victory at Peterborough last week-
end, gave them a five-point lead at the summit pre-weekend and, more importantly, a nine-point buffer over thirdplaced Bolton.
It seems only a matter of time before Portsmouth wrap up promotion and, in all probability, the title, too. If they beat second-placed Derby at home in a thirdtier blockbuster on Tuesday, April 2, the Champagne will be on ice.
Derby would no doubt love to topple Pompey, but their main emphasis will be on staying in the top two. The Rams took a giant stride towards that goal with a precious, and slightly fortuitous, 1-0 home success against third-placed Bolton last weekend, opening up a four-point gap between themselves and the Trotters.
They will have been disappointed not to have built on that cushion yesterday at Northampton, just one of the three League One games to be played on an international break-interrupted weekend. With four wins in a row pre-weekend, Paul Warne’s men appeared to be hitting form at the right time and the goals of veteran free-agent signing Dwight Gayle gave them a boost,ost, though he is now set for a spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
Aside from that Fratton Park showdownown with Pompey, Derby’s run-in looks pretty favourable on paper. They will be hoping to have everything wrapped up before they host rock-bottom Carlisle on the final day.
It’s fair to say Bolton boss Ian Evatt was a frustrated man after his side lost that crunch clash at Pride Park last weekend.
“Nobody in the st
