Bluebirds Fly to 4th - Championship Round-Up

Cardiff City's magnificent victory at Crystal Palace has not only lifted the Bluebirds to a season's best place of 4th spot and kept alive outside hopes of automatic promotion but, along with other results, mean City now only require a maxium of 4 points from their final 5 games to guarantee a play-off berth.

Birmingham City grabbed a fortunate draw at bottom but vastly improved club Charlton, The Addicks having a perfectly good goal disallowed. It means Cardiff are now just 6 points from automatic promotion and with a game in hand.

Results of play-off chasers benefitted City as well. Burnley travel to Ninian Park on Monday 2 places and 1 point below Cardiff having seen off QPR at home, Clark Carlisle nodding home a winner while Swansea are the best placed club outside the play-off zone after beating Norwich 2-1 at Liberty Stadium with ex-City striker Alan Lee netting for the Canaries.

However other play-off contenders Preston and Bristol City both suffered disastrous defeats. Preston lost 1-0 at home to local rivals Blackpool while Bristol City somehow conspired to have a man sent off and turn a 2-1 lead into 3-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest inside the final 10 minutes.

Cardiff are now 8 points clear of the play-off chasers and can finish no lower than 9th so it'll be a Championship best for them whatever happens but surely just 1 win more win will be more than enough to secure a play-off berth although the aim will be 5 wins of course!

		P	GD	PTS
1	Wolverhampton	42	25	80
2	Birmingham	42	16	76
3	Sheff Utd	42	25	75
4	CARDIFF CITY	41	20	70
5	Reading	41	29	69
6	Burnley	42	9	69
7	Swansea	42	12	62
8	Preston	42	2	62
9	Bristol City	42	5	59
10	QPR	42	-1	57
11	Ipswich	42	4	56
12	Sheff Wed	42	-9	54
13	Crystal Palace	42	-1	53
14	Watford	42	-4	52
15	Coventry	41	-8	52
16	Doncaster	42	-13	52
17	Derby	41	-7	51
18	Blackpool	42	-12	50
19	Plymouth	42	-9	49
20	Barnsley	41	-12	46
21	Nottm Forest	42	-18	45
22	Norwich	42	-10	43
23	Southampton	42	-20	41
24	Charlton	41	-23	33