A bit of nerves: Which sides of the championship will prevail, after a season of reluctant top contenders?

With just five football matches remaining from the 2014–15 Championship regular season in England, the identity of their winners and runners-up remains unknown.

This is in stark contrast to last year, which almost resembled a season-long victory parade for Leicester, who won the title with an impressive 102 points. Burnley galloped home behind them, a comfortable eight points clear of Derby’s closest rivals. Only the battle for the sixth and final play-off spot caused any cause for excitement, as Brighton overcame Reading on the final day with a late winner at Nottingham Forest.

This time around, an impressive octet of teams each have a mathematical chance of securing an automatic promotion spot, from current leaders Bournemouth (77 points) to eighth-placed Ipswich (68). While the two winners are likely to come from the current top four, who opened a four-point gap to the stuttering Derby in fifth, the timid demeanor of the table leaders throughout the season illustrates that neither team is more vulnerable than when you are in front.

In fact, the leadership of the division has changed hands an incredible twenty times; of the current top six, only sixth-placed Wolves have failed to sit atop the table at any point. Add to this Nottingham Forest, long-forgotten pioneers of the season, who held the top spot twice, for a total of 38 days, and one could imagine the championship trophy covered in butter, so difficult has it been to hold onto the top spot. position.

However, Bournemouth will be hoping to do just that as they enter the homestretch, having found their way to the top seven times, then slipping out of position in no less than six. His dominance from mid-December to early February will prove to be the longest of any team’s noble residence this season, with his tally at the top of the table totaling 59 days, which has now reached triple digits. Derby has amassed the second-highest total, with 56 lead days split across three spells. However, a recent seven game winless streak seems to have ended their hopes of grabbing a top two spot. While the die-hard believers (Rams) still hope to make up a five-point deficit to second place (76 points), in reality, Steve McClaren’s team will be aiming to tie a play-off spot, amid fierce competition from the three teams around them: Wolves in form (71 points); the dangerous Brentford (70) and the resistant Ipswich. (Whether fans can stomach the possibility of the same heartbreak they experienced at last year’s Wembley final remains to be seen.)

Norwich led the pack twice earlier in the season, until an unremarkably prolonged spell saw a manager change, leading to an astonishing resurgence under incoming Alex Neil, a relatively inexperienced (and unusually young) option. ) to manage a club with such high expectations. What Neil lacks in managerial hours, however, he arguably makes up for in success, having led his Hamilton side back to the top flight in Scotland last year, and then briefly to the top in his first season there. Having found their way to second place after a run of ten wins from thirteen games, their relatively easy remaining fixtures may help ensure the Canaries return to the Premier League at the earliest opportunity.

The top four are completed by Watford (76 points) and Middlesbrough (75), who played a game on Easter Monday in which the latter was beaten 0-2 and moved simultaneously from first place. In fact, these two teams, of all the contenders, have proven to have the most shaky control of the top spot, having both held it four times, never quite getting settled in and comfortable. Middlesbrough’s day count in the upper numbers only thirteen; Watford is even less, only ten.

So with just five match days remaining, what more drama can we expect? And who will emerge triumphant? It is certainly difficult to see past Bournemouth’s brilliant and successful brand of football, provided they continue to ‘play the game, not the occasion’ and do not experience the kind of nervousness one might forgive a team on the brink. of grace the highest category for the first time in its history. Their recent resurgence against Birmingham, in which they overturned a worrying two-goal deficit to prevail with ease, suggests they may finally be ready to take the bull by the horns. Mirroring Norwich, the Cherries have an eminently winnable set of matches going into the showdown, putting their fate in their own hands.

Wolverhampton’s late-season charge (four wins in a row at the moment) may convince many they are ready to storm the play-offs, provided they are not outdone by another surprising boost from Brentford, this year’s surprise package. . Despite the enduring class of Bakary Sako and the goal-scoring impetus provided by the new year’s signing of Benik Afobe, perhaps Wolves still lack the all-round quality that would surely be needed to topple a Middlesbrough or Derby in two games. ; in fact, most would agree that both sides’ cunning and experience are likely to come in handy when the playing field is level and four teams start over in search of that final promotion spot. However, don’t count out Watford, whose three-pronged attacking force has proven on many occasions to be as deadly as their defense seemed suspect.

This expert’s advice?

Bournemouth and Norwich, with Derby to make up for last year’s Wembley problems for the second time.

May the best teams win!