Leeds United Championship promotion twist predicted as pundit lays out pivotal weekend

Former Leeds United midfielder turned pundit David Prutton is predicting Leeds United to seize the upper hand in the Championship promotion race this weekend. The Whites currently sit second in the table, one place and one point above Ipswich Town, who have the benefit of a game in hand, which will be played against Coventry City next week.

As such, while Leeds United know that a win over QPR on Friday night will see them move four points clear for 24 hours at the very least, Ipswich know that should they win all three of their remaining games they will win promotion to the Premier League and Leeds' efforts will be in vain.

United will only be focused on what they can control in the promotion push and Daniel Farke will no doubt be hammering home that message. But, they will also be hoping and praying that Kieran McKenna's Ipswich slip up somewhere over the next few days to give the Whites encouragement going into the final round of fixtures on May 4.

That's exactly what Prutton can see happening this weekend, with the Sky Sports presenter tipping Leeds to end the weekend with a three-point advantage in the race for the top two.

"It's been crunch time for a while but I think that result Leeds really needed it," Prutton said on Sky Sports' Championship Predictions podcast. "It was a great game on Monday night against Boro and I think given what we've seen from QPR and what they're capable of, they still need to work the maths, there's permutations down there which could work in their favour given the fixtures.

"I don't think it will be an easy trip for Leeds even though they have the best player in the Championship and a very decent squad which seems to have bounced back to goalscoring form at just the right time. Defensively there's a couple of question marks from the Boro game of course and a big helping hand from a pretty decent decision for Willy Gnonto's goal.

Follow Farke’s men as they chase Championship promotion with the Yorkshire Evening Post’s free Leeds United emails. "I'm sure if you're a Leicester fan, you'll be watching that praying for a Whites slip up, but I can't really see it. I'm going Leeds to win 2-1."

On Ipswich's clash at play-off chasing Hull City on Saturday evening, Prutton added: "I'm going to go for 2-2, I don't even know what that means 2-2."

Such an occurrence would effectively put Leeds in the driving seat with their superior goal difference, being as good as an extra point at this stage of the campaign. It would also give Leicester the opportunity to not only win promotion to the top flight with a result over Preston North End on Monday night, but also wrap up the Championship title with one game to spare.

The Foxes find themselves four points clear at the top of the second tier at present and with two games to go, it seems they are on the brink of bouncing back at the first time of asking under Enzo Maresca following the disappointment of last season’s relegation.