Gabriel Sutton's EFL Weekend Picks

Birmingham are unbeaten in three but, after defeating Coventry 3-0, draws at relegation-bound Yorkshire clubs Rotherham and Huddersfield mean their fate isn’t in their own hands going into the final day.

Blues need to beat Norwich and hope Plymouth Argyle fail to do the same against Hull, because a draw would leave them needing the unlikely event of the Devonians losing by five goals.

The Canaries look the more favourable opponents, though, because they’ll start the day fifth, and only an eight-goal swing between themselves and Hull would see David Wagner’s side fall out of the top six, and even that’s if West Brom avoid defeat to PNE.

Birmingham have won two of their three home league games under Gary Rowett and should hold up their side of the bargain.

One point from four games kept Sheffield Wednesday in an uncertain position in terms of their chances of safety from a season in which they’ve been in trouble since enduring the worst start in Championship history, but that’s all changed.

A five-match unbeaten run sees the Owls begin the final day three points clear of safety, needing just to avoid defeat to guarantee a place in the second-tier next season – although they will go down on goal difference if they lose and Birmingham and Plymouth Argyle both win.

It’s hard to imagine Danny Röhl’s side losing at Sunderland, though, after excellent performances against Blackburn and West Brom, with Anthony Musaba and Iké Ugbo proving crucial to their attacking efforts.

The hosts, meanwhile, conclude a season of Play-Off challenge in the bottom half – it’s just two wins in 14 for the Black Cats.

Dion Charles was key to Bolton’s promotion push in the first half of the season, with 15 league goals, but before the final day he hadn’t scored in 2024.

That was partly down to injury for the Northern Irishman, who was absent between mid-February and mid-April with a knee problem, but crucially he got among the goals from the penalty spot in the 3-3 draw at Peterborough, managing 75 minutes.

The 28-year-old returned among the goals at just the right time, as far as Ian Evatt is concerned, and is beginning to look back to his best.

Charles faces a wide-open Barnsley side in Friday’s League One Play-Off Semi-Final 1st leg at Oakwell, with the hosts having kept a clean sheet in just one of their final 26 league games – and that was against a Cheltenham side out of puff.

Play-Off 1st legs can at times be tight, tense affairs, but Saturday’s League One clash might just break the mould.

Both teams have scored in 61% of Peterborough’s league games and 59% of Oxford’s, with the former having kept just one clean sheet in their last five and the latter, none in three.

The quality of Cameron Brannagan, Josh Murphy, and Mark Harris is on display for the hosts, who thrashed the Posh 5-0 in April’s league fixture.

Meanwhile, Darren Ferguson’s side can retort with the talents of Harrison Burrows, Kwame Poku and Ephron Mason-Clark, any of whom could light up the Kassam Stadium.

None of Blackburn’s last seven games have given them the same result as the one that preceded it, thus highlighting their inconsistency under John Eustace.

A 5-1 victory at Sunderland, though, and a 1-0 triumph at automatic promotion chasers Leeds, shows what Rovers are capable of on their day, and it’s the latter that can give them their biggest source of inspiration for Saturday’s trip to champions Leicester.

Two of the last six Championship title-winners have lost on the final day, when their fate has already been confirmed - a dropping of standards isn’t unheard of.

Conversely, Rovers still need a point to clinch safety, and they’ll be looking to the goalkeeping heroics of Aynsley Pears and the goalscoring ones of Sammie Szmodics to fire them to an unlikely result.