Warnock great escape, QPR down? Ranking Championship relegation candidate’s survival chances

The nine-team Premier League relegation scrap is tasty, but let’s not ignore the Championship as seven sides battle to avoid the drop to League One.

Ranked from most to least likely to go down, here is how I see the second-tier relegation scrap panning out…

Blackpool
Mick McCarthy’s arrival at Bloomfield Road has not had the desired effect as they have won just two of the 64-year-old’s 13 games in charge.

Blackpool’s 1-0 victory over Stoke City (who were bang out of form at the time) was followed by a run of three losses and one draw. Though they then pulled off the freakiest of freak results by winning 6-1 at home against relegation rivals QPR.

This was a result capable of kick-starting Blackpool’s survival push, but they have since reverted to type in one-sided losses against Coventry City and Preston.

Blackpool, 23rd, are four points adrift of safety and showing little sign of a heartbeat in the relegation scrap.

Wigan Athletic
Bottom-placed Wigan Athletic are a point worse off than Blackpool but they are showing much more fight.

Their three-point deduction has hampered their hopes, but a three-game unbeaten run has afforded them a much-needed boost. The Latics earned draws against Coventry and Watford before they battled to a narrow win over QPR.

Wigan have moved past Kolo Toure’s disastrous time in charge as ex-player Shaun Maloney has got them doing the basics well. They are now conceding far fewer goals but their struggles in attacking areas could prove detrimental in the end.

Leam Richardson was unfortunate to lose his job earlier this season and Wigan’s hierarchy have been punished for their lack of investment. Upcoming away games against Blackpool and Reading before their showdown at the DW Stadium with Rotherham on the final day will define Wigan’s season.

QPR
The Hoops have endured a remarkable fall from grace this season. They were in dreamland at the start of the campaign as Michael Beale looked to have them on track for a promotion push.

The now-Rangers boss was succeeded by Neil Critchley, whose dreadful spell in charge (one win in 12) started the process of QPR sleepwalking into a relegation fight.

Former player Gareth Ainsworth was plucked from Wycombe Wanderers to replace Critchley. I foolishly backed him to be a success at Loftus Road but if anything, QPR have got even worse since his arrival in February.

Ainsworth adapted his playing style at Wycombe as the quality of their squad gradually improved. But his long-ball approach has returned and QPR’s players have simply not been taking to it.

QPR are highest placed out of the teams on this list (18th on 42 points and three clear of the bottom three) but following recent losses to rivals Rotherham, Blackpool and Wigan, Ainsworth’s side are in freefall and it is hard to see where the points they need to stay up could come from.

Huddersfield Town
Neil Warnock couldn’t do it again, could he?

Seven years after pulling off a great escape at Rotherham United, the wily veteran could be on the cusp of repeating that feat with Huddersfield Town.

It initially seemed that this job would be one too far for Warnock, as the Terriers won just one of his first six in charge. But you would be daft to write off the Championship specialist.

And Warnock is beginning to prove his remaining doubters wrong by guiding Huddersfield to back-to-back victories. The first was a 1-0 snatch-and-grab away at Millwall and they then pulled off one of the shocks of the season to beat an admittedly below-par Middlesbrough 4-2.

Now only goal difference is keeping Huddersfield in the bottom three as they are level on 39 points with Cardiff. Momentum is key in any relegation battle and you would now have to back Warnock to pull off yet another sensational salvage job.

READ MORE: Huddersfield play the Neil Warnock trump card and he may save them from relegation… for now

Rotherham United
The Millers will be nervously looking over their shoulders as they know more than most clubs what Warnock is capable of.

Matt Taylor replaced long-term boss Paul Warne earlier this season and they have largely exceeded expectations to remain out of the bottom three. But the lack of quality in their squad has started to show in recent months as they have been dragged into the relegation fight.

Comparatively to their rivals, Rotherham do not concede many goals so they will often be competitive in games. But creating chances is starting to become a real issue at the wrong time of the season.

A switch in formation could be needed so Taylor’s side can get more out of Jordan Hugill. Yet as Rotherham showed in wins against Sheffield United and Blackburn Rovers this season, they have enough about them to pick up points against anyone when everything clicks into place and that should just about keep them above the drop zone.

Cardiff City
At the end of the season, all clubs will have games they can look back on as ones that stand out as potential turning points. Cardiff’s could prove to be last weekend’s 3-2 loss to arch-rivals Swansea City, who scored in the 99th minute to claim a famous victory.

While Huddersfield are building momentum, a result as demoralising as this for Cardiff could easily derail their season. This will be even more gutting given it comes after their postponed game against Rotherham, which they were leading 1-0 before heavy rainfall halted the action.

Sabri Lamouchi has made a positive impact since taking over from Mark Hudson as the Bluebirds have won three of his ten games at the helm. The work done by the ex-Nottingham Forest boss suggests they will be okay, but the result of this weekend’s trip to Blackpool will give us a clearer indication of Cardiff’s current trajectory.

Reading
Under Paul Ince, the Royals – like QPR – enjoyed a stunning start to this season that saw them flirt with the promotion picture.

Reading were pre-season favourites for relegation and it felt inevitable that they would sink towards that area at some point. They have done just that but an ordinary bottom-half finish would have rightly still led to Ince being praised given how bleak their situation seemed to be in the summer.

They were edging towards safety on 46 points with seven games to go but the lingering threat of a six-point deduction has now been formalised. This has plunged them deep into the mire as they are just one point clear of the bottom three.

Ince now has a big job on his hands to galvanise his squad to ensure that this deduction does not result in Reading being relegated. Their final two games of the season are against Wigan and Huddersfield, which is great for the neutral but not so good for the sides involved.

Their pre-deduction points tally shows they have more quality than their rivals and the presence of star striker Andy Carroll will be key.

Having predicted back in December that Ince’s side would go down, I would be quite smug if it happened. But in reality, Reading should still get over the safety line, even if the road to that point will be more nerve-racking than they would have hoped.