1 week Ago By [email protected] (Peter Smith)
The clock is ticking on one of the biggest Championship relegation battles in recent history. There are only three-and-a-half weeks remaining in the league this season and the bottom nine clubs are all still panicking to various degrees about whether they will stay up. Tuesday night's results at the bottom saw Stoke City and Luton Town draw, Cardiff City scramble to a point at Preston North End and Hull City go down 1-0 at Watford.
Derby County managed to post a 0-0 draw with Burnley despite having only 30 per cent of possession. On Wednesday night, Plymouth Argyle head to Swansea City while Oxford United host Queens Park Rangers and Portsmouth make the trip to Coventry. We have gone through each club for a lowdown from the manager and taken a look at what fixtures are left to play, with projected points totals if each side continue their recent form.
Who is staying up and who is doomed to League One? Click HERE to join the debate. Plymouth Argyle Miron Muslic had called it a 'must win' match when Plymouth hosted Norwich at the weekend - and they won, 2-1. They now head into a mid-week away trip to Swansea (Wednesday, 7.
45pm) Muslic told PlymouthLive: "We knew we just had to win. I mentioned in my last speech in the locker room that it's about sacrifice, to give it all, then we have a chance. I think it was a difficult start because the wind unfortunately was against us so we struggled.
"The pressure is massive and we did it, we kept defending until the end. We still had this transitional threat always. It's a step forward, we refuse to give up, we are still alive and we will keep on going.
" Luton Town Matt Bloomfield is hoping for a psychological boost from an injury-time equaliser at Stoke. They now head into a home match with Blackburn Rovers on Saturday (3pm). Bloomfield said: “We hope it’s a big point.
You always have to respect a point away from home. Stoke have been in good form at home and are a real tough opponent and you find yourself 1-0 down with not long left. "You have to be pleased with a point and it’s the least we deserved.
I do think we deserved that. If you’re going to draw you’d rather come back and equalise late on rather than concede, right? Hopefully that’s a good moment for us. “There is also the psychological element of it.
It would have been really deflating to come away having been beaten by a deflected goal so to find that moment to really keep going and plug away after we conceded, I thought we were excellent and a point was absolutely deserved.” Cardiff City Omer Riza was not happy with his team's first-half performance in a mid-week draw at Preston, when they needed a 94th minute equaliser to come away with a point. He told WalesOnline: “We were not good enough first half.
Nowhere near it. First, second balls, off the pace, didn't press, didn't cover space - we didn't do anything, really. Everything we spoke about, we didn't do, which was disappointing," Riza said.
“I think the boys found it difficult. We wanted to try and match them up because we knew their pace and their aerial threats - but we didn't deal with that at all. Our three centre-halves were open, didn't talk, mark, track, cover.
Same from the mid and forward lines. “Second half we addressed it and made the changes to just liven it up a little bit. I thought my players showed fight, we fought really hard today, the players that finished the game, we managed to get a point and we have to take the point with results around us today.
” Derby County John Eustace confirmed a double injury blow but insists Derby County are "fighters, not victims". Ryan Nyambe will miss the rest of the season and possibly the start of next with a hamstring problem while Callum Elder is yet to return to training after missing the last two games with "a bad knock". Sondre Langas is also playing through a serious knee injury that will need an off-season operation.
Derby, who held on for a 0-0 draw with Burnley on Tuesday night, are also without Curtis Nelson, David Ozoh, Kemar Roofe and Ben Osborn. But Eustace, who now has an away trip to Portsmouth on Saturday (3pm), told DerbyshireLive: "In the first week I was here, we lost four, who are out for most of the season. All I'd say is that the group have rolled their sleeves up and, whichever position they've been asked to play, they've been fantastic.
We're fighters, not victims. I'm not going to moan - it's what we're all about, we'll get on with it and see where it takes us." Stoke City Mark Robins told his Stoke City players they couldn't feel sorry for themselves after being stung by an injury-time goal for a third time in six games.
Stoke were pegged back by Luton Town late on at home on Tuesday night and are now dusting themselves down ready for an away game at Cardiff on Saturday (3pm). Robins told StokeonTrentLive: "There's no getting away from the fact that if you're in a tough situation you get up and you keep going and keep moving forwards. Keep doing that.
There's no alternative. Let's not feel sorry for ourselves, let's get up and get on with it. Dust yourself down.
Yes, feel disappointed but learn from it. If you put that extra little bit in for two more minutes, all of a sudden it's three points and you're high fiving each other and going into this game on Saturday in really good spirits - but you shouldn't be in bad spirits. It's a game of football, we've ended up losing a goal at the end of it.
"Yes, we're disappointed, yes we know the circumstances but they haven't changed. The circumstances are the same going into the last five games of the season. It doesn't matter who the opponents are, it really doesn't, it just becomes who keeps their nerve, who can perform the best? We've got some really good, talented players that know they are talented players and they can contribute in a really big way in these last five games.
" Hull City Ruben Selles pointed to Hull City's goals for column as they were left counting the cost of their lack of cutting edge again in a mid-week defeat to Watford. Hull had 16 shots but only five on target in what was described as a "dismal game of football" - and ended up losing 1-0. They have only scored 40 times in 41 matches.
Selles, who now has a home match against Coventry on Monday (8pm), told HullLive: "Well, the result is not what we wanted, of course, I think we were competitive in the game. We lacked a little bit of cleanness in the final third just to find the final pass, the final action, the final finishing moment. In those games where there's only one goal, as happened on Saturday, we didn't manage to win on the other side.
" Oxford United Gary Rowett knows the weekend's home win over Sheffield United might seem even better if they can follow it up at home to Queens Park Rangers tonight. Rowett told the Oxford Mail: "QPR are suffering at the moment a little bit in that period of time where maybe they’ve got one or two injuries that make it difficult to get the rhythm that you want. We saw what QPR did last season, which was go on an incredible run to turn their season around, and I think they’ve been pretty consistent this season around mid-table.
Marti [Cifuentes, head coach] has done a fabulous job there. They’ll want to come and win the game, and try to put it to bed for them. “We want to try and win the game and see if we can build on what was a great three points.
It only becomes a great three points if you go and add to that. We know the challenge, we know they’re a good team, we know they’ve got good players. We’ll always be respectful of how good teams are and how good they can be on the day in this division.
” Portsmouth John Mousinho wants to change Portsmouth's away form in the run-in to cement their place in the Championship. Portsmouth have picked up 35 of their 45 points so far this season at Fratton Park but they are away at Coventry tonight. Mousinho told the Portsmouth News: "We’re going to approach Coventry with a couple of tweaks, but aren’t going to be a million miles away from how we have approached recent away games.
I don't think we are too far off and I don’t think our results away from home tell the full story, but that’s the reality of it, it is exactly that. "We can sit here and talk about a couple of games where we should have taken more points, a couple of positive performances, but, ultimately, we haven’t been good enough away from home, we haven’t picked up enough points. "Over the past weeks, if you look at the likes of Sheffield United, Luton, Preston and Millwall, we’re in all of those games and had a chance to take at least a point - and didn’t manage to do it.
It feels like we’re close, we are evidently close with seven or eight minutes remaining in some of these fixtures, which isn't good enough because football is played over 105 minutes most weekends because of the amount of extra time added-on." Queens Park Rangers Marti Cifuentes defended his players' desire after a draw with Cardiff - even if it meant a winless run stretched to seven games ahead of tonight's trip to Oxford. He told West London Sport: “I know that perhaps some people will not agree with me because of the result and, especially after the game, all of us are going to be very emotional, but I think that the response was there – the intent is there.
“I need to look at myself in the mirror and ask what I could have done better. But the reality is that these players are trying. I cannot say that these guys are not running and are not putting all their effort into trying to get us in the position at the end of the season that we want.
" Swansea City Alan Sheehan insists he can see an improvement in training as he looks for a mid-week home win over Plymouth that would almost guarantee survival. He told WalesOnline: "I think there's a really good atmosphere around the place. We are really happy with the level of training - it's challenging and there's a bit of an edge in the air.
"We want to get better, we want to be adaptable and we want to gain confidence from winning in different ways. The lads are so behind it right now. While you're here, we have launched a new WhatsApp group to deliver the latest Stoke news directly to your phone.
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