Key role for City in promotion race

The Sky Blues can have a major say in who wins the race for automatic promotion from the Championship as they take on Sheffield United and Leeds United on successive Saturdays at the Ricoh Arena.

The Blades have occupied a top two place for the majority of the season but only one point from home games against QPR and Crewe last week has seen their advantage over third-placed Leeds cut to six points having also played one game more.

Neil Warnock's side won on their last two visits to Highfield Road but know that City have become a very difficult team to beat at the Ricoh Arena in recent months.

United won 2-1 with a late penalty when the two sides met earlier in the season, James Scowcroft scoring for City, who later had Matt Heath sent off.

His performance that day led to Dele Adebola being the subject of a bid from the Blades which was turned down by the Sky Blues board.

One week later and another good test of how far City have progressed recently comes from a Leeds United side with real hopes of making a return to the top flight.

Manager Kevin Blackwell, like his former boss Warnock has had good money to spend in the transfer market and his squad contains a great deal of experience from the likes of Paul Butler, Neil Sullivan, Sean Gregan and Robbie Blake.

They were 3-1 winners over City on Boxing Day in a game mostly remembered for a cracking goal by Don Hutchison.

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