Leeds United handed promotion race warning as ex-Ipswich Town man makes play-off prediction

Ipswich Town legend Mick Mills expects the team who misses out on automatic promotion this season to struggle through a play-off campaign. After a hectic Easter weekend, it seems as though there are just three teams remaining in the race for the top two, with Southampton now sitting 12 points back.

Ipswich Town, who currently top the table, Leeds United and Leicester City are separated by just two points going into the final four weeks of the season and right now it would be folly to make a prediction about how the run-in will pan out. Of course, Leeds have won 13 of their last 15 in the Championship and they'll fancy their chances of stretching that run out over the last six games, while Ipswich have shown their resilience and staying power time after time during the course of the season so far.

Leicester, on the other hand, have struggled for form of late, but with a game in hand over their closest rivals, they will feel they have something of an advantage. The pace being set at the top is unlike anything the Championship has ever seen but one team must miss out on automatic promotion and Mills, who made 744 appearances for the Tractor Boys, believes such disappointment could prove be hard to overcome in the play-offs.

“All three teams at the top are going to go way into the 90-point mark," he told BBC Radio Suffolk. “That’s a phenomenal total, as in some years, teams were getting automatic promotion with 80-something points.

"Whoever finishes third with sort of 95 or 96 points are going to feel hard done by. It will be difficult for that team, whoever they are, to lift themselves up and go into a mini cup competition. It will be really difficult, and I don’t really want to think about who they are going to be.”