Championship round-up as Cardiff City drop, Wrexham rise, and Coventry City miss huge opportunity

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We are nearly at the end of a thrilling season in the second tier, and we’ve gathered up all the big stories from the weekend in our Championship round-up for gameweek 45.

Heading into the penultimate round of fixtures in the Championship, we still had two play-off places up for grabs, and the relegation scrap was closer than ever after wins for most of the bottom five last week.

On Friday night, Sheffield United regained some momentum with a 2-0 win over struggling Stoke City, which could be crucial heading into their assault on the play-offs.

The early kick-offs on Saturday saw already-promoted Burnley run riot at Loftus Park to trounce QPR 5-0, while Luton Town scraped three points in a heated affair at Kenilworth Road against Coventry City.

Goals were few and far between in the 3pm games, but we did see some big results, with Millwall, Blackburn Rovers, and Derby County the main profiteers on a decisive weekend.

All this, and we still have a ‘fired up’ clash between Leeds and Bristol City to come.

• READ MORE: How many points Bristol City will need for the play-offs if Liam Manning’s side win, lose, or draw vs Leeds United

Cardiff City lose fight for survival

Some sad news to start us off here, at least if you’re a Cardiff City fan, that is. The Bluebirds could only muster a goalless draw at home to West Brom, and have now become the first team to officially be relegated from the Championship this season.

The Welsh outfit have lacked fight for months, and they have now paid the ultimate price and will be playing in League One next year.

Aaron Ramsey spoke about the structure of the club in his post-match interview, and it doesn’t sound too positive, truth be told. It will now be interesting to see how they fare in the third tier.

• READ MORE: ‘Disgraceful’… Cardiff City suffer relegation from Championship after 0-0 vs West Brom, and fans are fuming

Hull City slip into danger after Derby County defeat

It looks very likely that Plymouth Argyle will join Cardiff in relegation. Though it’s not mathematically confirmed yet, they would need a monumental and frankly ridiculous swing of goals and results in the final weekend to save themselves now, even after the win over Preston on Saturday afternoon.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
19	DerbyDerby	45	13	10	22	48	56	-8	49
20	PrestonPreston	45	10	19	16	46	57	-11	49
21	LutonLuton	45	13	10	22	42	64	-22	49
22	Hull CityHull City	45	12	12	21	43	53	-10	48
23	PlymouthPlymouth	45	11	13	21	50	86	-36	46
24	CardiffCardiff	45	9	17	19	46	69	-23	44

Meanwhile, the Championship relegation battle took another huge twist, with Derby County winning it late on against fellow strugglers Hull City. The Tigers are now in the bottom three, a point adrift of the teams above.

Ruben Selles thought Hull had done enough to get the result they wanted, but a Nat Phillips goal in the 84th minute saw the Rams take all three points from their trip, and climb to 19th place in the table.

Preston are now very much in trouble, too, and it will all go down to the wire next weekend to determine who goes down.

• READ MORE: John Eustace singles out one ‘outstanding’ Derby County man who ‘leads by example’

Coventry slip up, Millwall and Blackburn close the gap

As we mentioned before, Luton did themselves plenty of favours with a last-minute winner against Coventry, with the win taking the Hatters out of the bottom three.

It was a fiery game, with the referee playing a big role in the clash at Kenilworth Road as both sides had a man sent off.

Fans were unhappy with Jay Dasilva’s red card for Coventry, but Luton also had Liam Walsh shown a red card with 20 minutes to go. Thankfully for the home side, though, Shandon Baptiste popped up with the late goal to seal a massive three points.

It was a frustrating one for Coventry, who could have put themselves in a strong position for the play-offs heading into the final weekend, but will now have to fight tooth and nail to keep their place in the top six.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
3	Sheff UtdSheffield Utd	45	28	7	10	62	35	27	89
4	SunderlandSunderland	45	21	13	11	58	43	15	76
5	Bristol CityBristol City	44	17	16	11	57	49	8	67
6	CoventryCoventry	45	19	9	17	62	58	4	66
7	MillwallMillwall	45	18	12	15	46	46	0	66
8	BlackburnBlackburn	45	19	8	18	52	47	5	65
9	MiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough	45	18	10	17	64	54	10	64

They play Middlesbrough on the final day, another team who will rue a missed opportunity after a 0-0 draw against Norwich on Saturday, leaving fans disillusioned with Michael Carrick.

Elsewhere, both Millwall and Blackburn Rovers picked up wins against Swansea and Watford respectively, to move closer to crashing the play-off party.

• READ MORE: Bristol City and Hull could fall foul of brutal EFL rule as Championship play-off and relegation race heats up

Wrexham make history with League One promotion

We may have started with awful news for one Welsh club, but we’ll wrap things up with incredible news for another, as Wrexham made history this weekend by securing a third-successive promotion.

The Red Dragons defeated Charlton Athletic 3-0 at the Racecourse Ground to capitalise on another loss for Wycombe and secure their second place finish in League One.

We will now see Phil Parkinson lead his men out in the Championship 2025/26 campaign, and it will be very exciting to see if Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds can keep the fairytale story going.