Middlesbrough and Coventry City's Championship title battle predicted by stats experts
Middlesbrough and Coventry City are leading the race for promotion into the Premier League this season.
Middlesbrough’s bid for the Championship title took a slight blow when Kim Hellberg’s men suffered a 3-1 defeat at title rivals Coventry City on Monday night.
A Haji Wright hat-trick helped bring an end to Boro’s six-game winning run and saw the Sky Blues leapfrog them to move to the top of the table. However, Hellberg and his players are still firmly in the mix for promotion into the Premier League as Boro look to bring an end to their nine-year absence from the top flight of English football.
The next week will provide a significant opportunity for Boro as they face a Riverside Stadium double header against struggling Leicester City and relegation threatened Oxford United. By contrast, Coventry will face consecutive away games as a visit to West Bromwich Albion is quickly followed by a trip to ever-improving Sheffield United, who have moved on from a difficult start to the season and are now pushing for a top half finish.
Significantly, Boro also hold a five-point advantage on third placed Millwall and look on course to secure one of the two automatic promotion places this season - but where are Hellberg’s side predicted to finish in the table? We take a look at the latest predicted final Championship table produced by the stats experts at Opta.
Opta’s latest predicted final Championship table
24th: Sheffield Wednesday - 4.27 points 23rd: Oxford United - 43.69 points 22nd: West Bromwich Albion - 51.06 points 21st: Blackburn Rovers - 51.89 point 20th: Portsmouth - 53.95 points 19th: Charlton Athletic - 56.29 points 18th: Leicester City - 56.43 points 17th: Norwich City - 58.85 points 16th: Swansea City - 59.87 points 15th: Queens Park Rangers - 61.15 points 14th: Stoke City - 62.20 points 13th: Sheffield United - 63.57 points 12th: Watford - 63.57 points 11th: Birmingham City - 64.98 points 10th: Bristol City - 65.73 points 9th: Preston North End - 66.60 points 8th: Wrexham - 67.41 points 7th: Derby County - 67.82 points 6th: Southampton - 68.07 points 5th: Hull City - 76.17 points 4th: Millwall - 77.27 points 3rd: Ipswich Town - 80.53 points 2nd: Middlesbrough - 84.76 points 1st: Coventry City - 85.43 points
What has Kim Hellberg said about Middlesbrough’s push for promotion?
Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of Monday’s defeat at title rivals Coventry City, the Boro boss said: “I notice there is a lot of interest in Middlesbrough and a lot of credit to the players, which is very deserved from how they worked and how they played. I think it’s just fun, I think the players deserved it. I think some of the games we have played have been unbelievable and they get a lot of the credit they deserve. It’s just fun and for us, it’s just to keep doing the same thing, to keep improving and keep using the games to improve and that’s what we have done.”
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