Coventry City could still provide major Leeds United promotion hope amid Ipswich Town and Leicester City chase

Defeat at Coventry City saw Leeds United’s brief stint in the Championship’s top two end on Saturday and they are now banking on rivals slipping up. Daniel Farke’s side had seen Ipswich Town lose at Norwich City earlier in the day but were unable to capitalise on an excellent opportunity to go top.

Instead it was Leicester City leapfrogging both from third, leaving it late to beat Birmingham City. Southampton’s drop in form means it is now three into two for automatic promotion but the drop in contenders has done little to ease tensions.

Farke insisted the Ipswich result had no bearing on Leeds’ performance but lacklustre defending allowed Ellis Simms and Haji Wright to net either side of half-time for Coventry, with Joel Piroe’s late effort not enough to spark another comeback. Saturday’s hosts know what they are about and with four points from their two meetings, seem to have Leeds sussed.

Coventry are also, simply put, a good Championship outfit who have been excellent at the CBS Arena, with only Leeds and Ipswich losing fewer on home turf. The play-off hopefuls have taken points off top teams already this season and will hope to do so again between now and May - Leeds will hope so too.

Farke insists Leeds need to remain focused on their own performances but they now need one of Ipswich or Leicester to drop points. Enzo Maresca’s side are top with a game in hand and so the most likely to slip is undoubtedly the Tractor Boys.

They also have the tougher run of fixtures and after hosting Watford and Middlesbrough - both in good form - and travelling to Hull City, they too face trip to Coventry. Only three teams have come away from the CBS Arena with all three points and so it presents arguably the toughest remaining game for Ipswich, and it comes in the penultimate round of fixtures at the end of April.

Kieran McKenna’s are also facing the prospect of heading to Coventry, who will be right in the mix for a play-off place, without their captain. Sam Morsy is on 13 yellow cards and two more in his next three games will see him miss the all-important clash - albeit he did well to avoid a booking in Saturday’s derby defeat.

Two rounds of fixtures this week will provide plenty of twists, and points will almost certainly be dropped beforehand, but Leeds have very recent memories of how tough it can be at Coventry. They will hope their hosts can produce a similar level of performance against Ipswich at a time when dropped points really can prove fatal.