It is all to play for at the top and bottom on Tuesday night in the Championship, with two big matches live on Sky Sports.
Relegation-threatened Portsmouth host promotion-chasing Ipswich Town, while high-flying Southampton welcome Blackburn to St Mary’s. There are also key fixtures live in League One and League Two as the season reaches its final stages.
Portsmouth vs Ipswich
This meeting was supposed to happen in early January but was postponed twice — first for a frozen pitch and then for a waterlogged surface. The weather forecast for Tuesday on the south coast looks fine, so the game should finally go ahead.
Pompey arrive in better mood after picking up five points from three matches following a poor run before the international break. Conor Chaplin’s last-kick winner at Middlesbrough on Saturday halted a slide toward the bottom three. “We did get lucky, let’s be honest we got lucky, but that’s something we just haven’t had this season,” said manager John Mousinho after the Middlesbrough win.
Ipswich remain in healthy form themselves after a convincing win over rivals Norwich at the weekend and sit comfortably in second. A victory at Fratton Park would take them five points clear of third-placed Millwall. Portsmouth will take heart from recent home struggles — they have just one home win this calendar year and one point from their last four home games — but the incentive is huge: a win would move Pompey four points clear of the drop with four games remaining.
Match details: Tuesday 14 April — live on Sky, kick-off 8:00pm.
Southampton vs Blackburn
Originally scheduled for the penultimate weekend, this match was brought forward because Southampton have an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. The Saints are in rampant form under Tonda Eckert, and their comeback victory over Derby on Saturday lifted them to fifth. A win on Tuesday would be their sixth consecutive league victory, continuing an impressive run that included wins over Arsenal and a 5-1 result against Wrexham in recent weeks.
“It was an outstanding performance, I think the best one of the week,” Eckert said after the Derby win.
Blackburn, meanwhile, have stuttered with back-to-back draws that have stalled their fight away from the relegation zone. They still have a four-point cushion, but picking up nothing at St Mary’s would put pressure on them as sides below have games in hand. Rovers have little recovery time — they host leaders Coventry on Friday — so Tuesday is far from a free hit.
Match details: Tuesday 14 April — live on Sky, kick-off 8:00pm.
League One
Live on Sky: Bolton vs Stevenage, Huddersfield vs Cardiff.
Bolton look set for a play-off place and will want momentum when they face sixth-placed Stevenage; a win could open a five-point gap on the chase. Cardiff can edge closer to promotion with a trip to Huddersfield, who still harbour play-off hopes. Leyton Orient host Mansfield aiming to escape the relegation zone, Port Vale face Barnsley as they battle to avoid the drop, and Wigan host Rotherham with Rotherham’s survival hopes hanging by a thread.
League Two
All live on Sky: Barrow vs Oldham, Cheltenham vs Gillingham, Chesterfield vs Grimsby, Colchester vs Accrington.
Nothing is settled in League Two. Barrow, threatened by relegation, will try to move closer to safety against outside play-off hopefuls Oldham. Chesterfield vs Grimsby is a crucial top-seven clash — seventh versus eighth separated by a single point — and could have a big bearing on the play-off places.