A look at who is playing who in the Championship this weekend and how this will affect Southampton Football Club in their quest for promotion to the premiership.
The two big games that Saints fans will be casting their eyes towards on Saturday, apart from of course their own fixture at Millwall, are both taking place in Yorkshire, West Ham face a tough trip to Leeds United whilst Reading visit Barnsley.
Of those two fixtures West Ham perhaps face the most difficult task, Leeds have had a mixed start since their appointment of Neil Warnock, but they are now filled with renewed confidence that they may just be able to squeeze into the play offs, they go into the game with the Hammers in 10th place, but only four points off of 6th and they know that time will start to be against them if they dont put together a winning run,anything less than a win against Leeds and that gap could extend to seven points and with others having a game in hand that would be a big gap with only nine games to play, Warnock knows that he has to get their act together now and West Ham will hopefully be in for a torrid time.
A few miles outh down the M1 sees Barnsley host Reading, the Tykes are in a bit of limbo, too far off of the play off places to harbour any thoughts of a late run and too far above the bottom three to worry about being dragged into the scrum at the bottom, at home they are a mixed bag, winning eight, losing seven and drawing three, scoring thirty and conceding twenty eight, thats a hell of a lot of goals and hopefully Barnsley will ask a few questions of Reading who are the polar opposite on the road, scoring few and conceding even less.
Elsewhere Birmingham host Middlesbrough, both clubs know that if its a stalemate they could both find themselves out of even a play off spot come Saturday night, one of them has to win although every other club down there will be praying for a draw, if it is then Saints fans and indeed Reading and West Ham's for that matter will have it virtually confirmed that no one is going to join their three way fight at the top.
Blackpool and Brighton meet up at Bloomfield Road and again is another important fixture in the fight for the play offs which could actually feature any club right down to Crystal Palace in 12th such is the competitveness of this league and Palace host Hull, the Humberside club knowing that a win would make them the favourites of the chasing pack if they win and Boro fail to, anything less than three points for Palace and their slim hopes are put away till next season.
Its equally as tight at the bottom, big game of the day is Portsmouth V Bristol City where at time of speaking the "picket the tickets" campaign looks like being another succesful day at the office, Michael Appleton has said some fighting words this week about staying up, but he himself knows that as much as a win would give them a slim chance, anything less would virtually be game over for the Fratton park club, nine points behind with only ten games left for them.
Doncaster face Derby and they will be looking to turn their recent form in draws into a win, if they do they will go into confident mood for their midweek hosting of Millwall, they can see light at the end of the tunnel, as can Coventry who are going to another club in limbo in Watford and know if they can win it, getting out of the bottom three is also within sight.
On Sunday Cardiff play Burnley at home and they will be hoping that with clubs around them having to drop points or even better neutralising each other with a draw, then they could take advantage and leapfrog back into the play off spots.
Its tight in the Championship at both ends, indeed out of 24 clubs, only 6 could truly be said to have no chance of either getting into the play off battle or the relegation dog fight, after this weekend things will become clearer, after the midweek's fixtures some things may be a lot lot more clear cut than they are now.