Huddersfield Town head into their Championship fixture with Bristol Citywith little to play for having already secured a Championship playoff spot and a top-four finish.
While the same applies to Bristol City, who will finish in 17th place in the standings, Nigel Pearson will be eager to end the campaign with a third successive win.
Given the form of Nottingham Forest, the teams who finish in fifth and sixth position will not necessarily want to face the East Midlands giants in the playoffs.
However, that perception hugely discredits the results of Huddersfield, who have lost just twice since December and continue to end the regular season with a flourish.
The Terriers have not necessarily been free-scoring but they have netted twice in each of their last five fixtures, conceding just four times and winning three matches on the bounce.
There has been an efficiency about Carlos Corberan’s team over the past five months, something which has proven game-changing with the Yorkshire side transitioning from playoff hopefuls to strong promotion candidates.
With the plaudits going Forest’s way, Huddersfield will gratefully accept being regarded as underdogs, but no-one should be writing off this team as they bid for a surprise return to the Premier League.
At the beginning of the campaign, Pearson would have been expecting a similar promotion assault from his Bristol City squad, but it has taken until the closing fixtures for them to show their true quality.
Not only have the Robins put together an unforeseen five-match unbeaten streak, Pearson has finally witnessed his team record back-to-back league wins for the first time this season.
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Although supporters would have been understandably pessimistic of that happening last weekend, Bristol City fired five goals past Hull City, Antoine Semenyo, Andreas Weimann and Chris Martin all getting on the scoresheet.
The trio have 42 goals between them in the Championship this campaign, more than two thirds of Bristol City’s total strikes in the division, and keeping them all at Ashton Gate and strengthening in defensive areas will be Pearson’s target this summer now that he looks to have salvaged his job.
