Cardiff clashes will be crucial to our play-off hopes

​What a rollercoaster of a season it has been so far in the Championship.

It reminds me of those horse-racing games you get in arcades where the horses burst along sporadically and all eight will have been in the lead at some point by the time the race finishes.

The race for the title may be coming to an end as Newcastle pull clear but the chase for a place at Wembley on May 22 is really hotting up.

On Tuesday night, two of our play-off rivals suffered defeat in banana-skin trips to sides struggling at the other end of the table.

Craig Mackail-Smith struck the only goal of the game at London Road as Peterborough claimed a rare win over Sheffield United, and two goals for Daryl Murphy meant that Cardiff also left East Anglia empty-handed with Ipswich victorious.

Both results mirrored our reverse on Saturday at Hillsborough. Just because your team is playing against opposition threatened by relegation certainly does not mean an easy three points in this league, as it often does in the Premiership.

So Swansea and Coventry may not find it easy at home to Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth respectively this weekend.

Whatever happens elsewhere, while interestingly unpredictable, will be secondary on Saturday as City welcome their nearest challengers Cardiff in the first of two clashes which will be crucial to the play-off picture.

Back at the beginning of the season, the Bluebirds soared high in the table with Michael Chopra and Peter Whittingham scoring for fun.

Now things are slightly different and Nigel Pearson will be confident that his men can capitalise on Cardiff’s poor form.

Whatever happens, you won’t be getting any predictions from me!