Championship promotion race: Has the pendulum swung decisively back towards Coventry?

Two key wins in a week, and it appears like the Championship promotion race has shifted back towards Coventry.

Every Championship game on Tuesday and Wednesday night is broadcast live on Sky Sports and the Sky Sports app. How rapidly things can change throughout the Championship.

Just over a week ago, Middlesbrough was at the top of the Championship table, having won six games in a row and appearing unstoppable.

Meanwhile, Coventry had slid from first place for the first time in four months. They appeared weakened, a lesser team than the one that had swept the second tier in the first few games of the season.

Then came a spectacular 3-1 victory over Boro under the lights at CBS Arena. They backed that up with a victory over West Brom on Saturday.

The Baggies, in all honesty, were there for the taking. However, given that Coventry had lost all seven of their previous road games, this was a statement win. Later that afternoon, Oxford held Middlesbrough at home.

Exactly the same outcome against the same relegation-threatened team that Coventry had faced a fortnight before.

It may only be a three-point lead, but it appears that the pendulum has swung back to Frank Lampard’s side. “There aren’t many teams that cruise the league,” the Coventry manager explained.

“The last two games have given us confidence that we can continue to be the greatest versions of ourselves. “We’ve felt that pressure since mid- to late December.

Hopefully, we’ve made it through with these two wins. “We know it’s been a thing away from home and we wanted to correct it, and I felt this was a performance to correct it.”

Boro dip as chasing pack struggle for consistency

That being said, things could change swiftly again. While Middlesbrough host a Leicester team on Tuesday night that should be marginally more open than Oxford, Coventry face a difficult journey to Sheffield United and Bramall Lane 24 hours later.

“Everyone needs a lift,” Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg remarked following Saturday’s result. “The performance was good enough to win; we always want to win, so it is disappointing when we don’t.”

“But we must remember that this squad has taken 19 points out of the last 24, and we demonstrated again today that we are a terrific team. There is still a lot of good enthusiasm in the group.”

The good news for Boro and Coventry is that the challenge from further down appears to be diminishing.

Millwall suffered a stunning defeat at home to Portsmouth on Saturday.

Pompey had only won four away games all season, with the other three coming against Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford, and Charlton, who were ranked 24th, 23rd, and 17th respectively.

“I don’t think we deserved anything from the game,” manager Alex Neil stated following the setback.

“When I say how we defended, I don’t just mean the back four, but the entire team. The first goal was disappointing, and the second goal was equally disappointing.”

“I said to the lads after the game that we’re built as a team on doing the basics really well and I didn’t think we did the basics well enough.”

Meanwhile, it appears that Ipswich will never be the sum of their parts, as any of us thought.

The narrative around the Tractor Boys this season has been that they will ‘come good’ and ‘go on a run’, but that has yet to happen after 31 games.

They’ve only won more than two games in a row once all season, and the Expected Goals (xG) table shows that they’ve been routinely underperforming.

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