It was a case of oh so nearly for Saints in tonights two Championship games.

In a key week for Saints, two potential challengers for Automatic promotion were playing sides at the bottom, this was one of those nights when you dont expect anything bar a win from the promotion challengers, and it was so near to being a decent night for Saints promotion hopes.

In the first game Birmingham hosted Burnley and the Clarets came very near to taking a point home to lancashire but a 90th minute winner for the Blues gave them all three points at the final whistle

Coventry were at home to Cardiff and trying to avoid not only their third home defeat in a row, but their fourth straight league defeat, the Welsh start lead, but rumoured Saints target hit his seventh goal of the season to earn the Sky Blues a point and dent Cardiff's hopes of getting the top two in their sights.

League wise this pushes Cardiff up to third on 31 points overtaking Middlesbrough on goal difference, they are now only three points behind the hammers and eight behind us, but they have now played a game more.

Big risers though were Birmingham who rose from 13th to 8th and are now only two points off the play offs, but having played only 15 games they have two games in hand on most teams, if they win those two then they could go level with Cardiff and Boro although at present their goal difference is inferior, it was a big big goal for the Blues, without it they would still be languishing in mid table, games in hand are fine, but they could be a big burden on the Blues in the coming months as they try to make them up on the heavy winter pitches.    

Photo: Action Images

st_bangkok added 05:20 - Nov 23 I am sure some will disagree but i really do not care so much about Brum as i think they will continue to drop more silly points as their Euro saga goes on. Even if they win all their games in hand, which i do not think they will, they will still be 8 points behind us. Forget them, that is what i say! Hope this does not get bumped in a few months time!
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bstokesaint added 13:16 - Nov 23 Spot on Bangkok. Don't fear Brum. As we know from last season more than one game in a hand is not an advantage but a hinderance because you can't push the teams above you and you're playing more often than you'd like. I also believe the European campaign will hinder them. I was looking at the bookies odds the other day and even they think it's a two horse race. I will continue to keep an eye on Leeds, Cardiff and Middlesbrough too, but really they shouldn't really feature in our contest for automatic promotion. That is unless they all raise their games significantly.

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