WITH no fixture this week due to the international break, I turn my attention to assessing City’s chances of making the play-offs with just ten games of the Championship season remaining, writes Will Collins .

On the face of it we still have an excellent opportunity sitting in ninth position, just two points behind Aston Villa in sixth, and importantly with two games in hand.

However, we are 19th in the Championship form table based on the last six games having won just one game. Conversely, Villa and Preston who sit just below them in seventh have won four of their last six games and so are hitting form at just the right time.

Our run-in looks tough. Firstly, two away trips to Sheffield United and Middlesbrough. Not to be too dramatic, but two defeats here and the play-off dream could be all but over. Sheffield United are a formidable prospect at home having won their last eight games at Bramall Lane conceding just one goal. Middlesbrough are fifth in the division despite losing their last three games. Their home record isn’t great though, and we’ve had a very good record up there in recent years.

City have a packed April with eight league fixtures crammed into 28 days. That’s a game every three and a half days and so the squad will be tested to the full. We have winnable home games against Wigan and Reading and also welcome fellow play-off challengers West Brom and Derby. The away games look tough, as well as Middlesbrough, we travel to Villa, Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall. The season concludes on 3 May with a trip to Hull City.

This run-in looks very tough and our form isn’t good. To be quite honest I could see us not being in the top six for the rest of the season now. A bottom half of the table finish still isn’t out of the question. There is therefore a bit of pressure on Johnson to at least improve on last season’s finish of 11th and I don’t think that is going to be easy.