QPR - Quiet Point Reduction or worse?
[caption id="attachment_620" align="aligncenter" width="310" caption="Faurlin: Could the third party ownership of the Argentine throw QPR's campaign into disrepute?"]
[/caption]Rangers will be on a knife edge until their FA hearing on May 3rd where they will find out if a points deduction will be enforced on them and what difference that will make to the league. The Alejandro Faurlin fiasco has thrown Neil Warnock's side into a debacle that the manager was once on the other side of after Carlos Tevez, then of West Ham, helped Warnock's Sheffield United side get relegated from the Premier League. Warnock could taste a bitter irony if QPR are given a heavy point deduction, but what are the options for the FA?
Currently they are 5 points clear of Norwich and 9 points clear of 3rd placed Cardiff so a deduction of 10 points or more (due to their superior goal difference to Cardiff) would see them drop from 1st place to 3rd and dramatically dipped into the play-offs.
But will the FA dish out such a harsh penalty with such consequences? The only other case this season involving ineligible players was between Hereford United and Torquay United down in League Two but the clubs were given a small point reduction of 3 and 1 respectively. However the ineligible players in this case were discovered and dealt with over a 1 game period, not the full season like Faurlin's case.
39 - that is the number of games that Faurlin has had some part to play in this season for QPR, plus in the past few months it has been revealed that he was under third party ownership for the entire 09/10 season during his time in London. There is no doubt that this is a more severe case of registration-related breaking of rules than the aforementioned case in League Two. What the FA will do? Only time will tell.
Norwich do "The Lambert Walk" up the leagues
[caption id="attachment_621" align="aligncenter" width="310" caption="Glaswegian Glory: Lambert joins a host of Glaswegian managers in the Premier League after his success at Norwich."]
[/caption]Paul Lambert has done a fantastic job at his time at Carrow Road, achieving back to back promotions from League One to the Premier League in an impressive two seasons at the helm of the East Anglia club.
Norwich re-adapted to Championship football almost instantly when they returned to the league this season, integrating new signings such as John Ruddy, Andrew Crofts and Simeon Jackson into the squad seamlessly alongside key members of the League One winning season.
Their easy on the eye style and ability to never let go of a game, scoring in injury time no less than 12 times this season, has been key to Lambert's path to promotion, congratulations to the Canaries.
The Play-Off Fracas; who will play who?
[caption id="attachment_622" align="aligncenter" width="310" caption="Play-Off Permutations: Who will end up victorious in play-off glory?"]
[/caption]That just leaves the play-off's to be decided on game 46 in the Championship. Cardiff, Swansea and Reading have confirmed their places whereas Nottingham Forest will have Leeds on their trail if they slip up at the last hurdle, however a 6 goal difference between them will have to see Leeds humiliate QPR or Forest being humiliated by Crystal Palace - suggesting that Forest should have the final position in the bag.
Cardiff were held back from the automatic promotion chase after a 3-0 loss to mid-table Middlesbrough on Bank Holiday Monday. Despite being unbeaten in the past 8 games, the capital club seemed to crumble under the pressure of requiring a win to keep the chase alive, conceding the 3 goals within 20 minutes. Dave Jones will be hoping that last year's play-off experience will act as a benefit for his players and not hang as a bad omen over the squad.
Even though their play-off position is secured, Swansea will be on the heels of South Wales rivals Cardiff for 3rd spot, which will be theirs if they secure a win at home against relegated Sheffield United and Cardiff fail to win away at Burnley. In a highly unlikely scenario, if the FA decide to place a 10 point penalty on QPR then the race for automatic promotion will be blown wide open yet again with all three teams being involved. What is for sure is that 3rd place will give Swansea a tie against 6th, most likely to be Nottingham Forest, which they may favour to a tie against Brendan Rodgers' former team Reading.
However Forest are in top form at the moment with on-loan striker Kris Boyd finding his goalscoring boots and the fans will be hoping that he'll be extending on his current 5 in 5 record. Forest were in contention for an automatic place before Christmas but after a torrid time in the league they dropped out of the play-off spots completely. Could this final surge back into contention give them the momentum, similarly to Blackpool last season, for the play-off games?
One team that may be concerned coming into the play-off run-in, despite confirming their place in the final fixtures, is Reading. Their form has hit a blip at the wrong time of the season, gaining only 2 from 9 in the past 3 games, they will not want this bad run to continue and will be looking toward top goalscorer Shane Long et al to fire them back into form in their final game against Derby at the Madejski.
So until QPR find out the results of their hearing on May 3rd and the referee blows the final whistle at around 4.45 pm on May 7th it is down to the players on the pitch to decide who will play who.
Will London suffer a Welsh invasion?
[caption id="attachment_623" align="aligncenter" width="310" caption="War of Wales: The Swansea-Cardiff rivalry could come to a prestigious head at Wembley."]
[/caption]Lastly, the fixture that the neutrals will love but the fans will not - Swansea City vs Cardiff City may well rear it's head for the third time this season but this time the stakes could not be higher. It's only possible for these two clubs to meet in the final and if they end up triumphant in the semi-finals then it'll be a reality.
Asides from it being a logistical nightmare for the policing of 80,000 fans at each others necks on the same lines of transport to the capital, it could go down as one of the most heated play-off finals in history.
