Don’t look now, but the EFL Championship is already well past the halfway point of the 2025-26 season and the race for Premier League promotion is quickly heating up.
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Frank Lampard’s Coventry City want to end their 39-year major trophy drought (1987 FA Cup) to return to the top flight for the first time since they were relegated in 2001, but their pace has slowed in recent weeks. The Sky Blues endured years of financial turmoil and looked like they might never climb their way back up the ranks but Lampard had his men simply outscoring anyone and everyone this season, with USMNT striker Haji Wright more than doing his part early in the campaign.
On the flip side, Wrexham are eyeing an astounding fourth promotion in four seasons and are in the thick of both the automatic promotion and playoff races — sixth as of January 24. Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac’s (nee: McElhenney) club was playing non-league football as recently as 2023, and the Reds are on the march once again with former Bournemouth striker Kieffer Moore leading the way and threatening to take the Golden Boot this season.
It’s Middlesbrough now laying claiming to the top spot ahead of a huge match with Coventry, and Boro are aiming to join Northeast rivals Newcastle United and Sunderland in the Premier League, while Southampton, who went down last season, have found their way back toward the playoff places where they’ll look to climb above foes like Millwall, Preston North End and Birmingham City in an extremely congested race for the playoff spots.
It’s never too early to start tracking who will come up to the Premier League and we are entering the business end of the season in the second-tier...
Current promotion standings (automatic + playoff places)
- Middlesbrough — 61 points, +19 GD — Automatic
- Coventry City — 59 points, +28 GD — Automatic
- Ipswich Town — 54 points, +22 GD — Playoffs
- Hull City — 54 points, +7 GD — Playoffs
- Millwall — 53 points, +3 GD — Playoffs
- Wrexham — 47 points, +5 GD — Playoffs
Teams in the playoff race
7. Preston North End — 47 points, +4 GD
8. Bristol City — 46 points, +5 GD
9. Derby County — 45 points, +6 GD
10. Birmingham City — 45 points, +4 GD
11. Watford — 44 points, +3 GD
12. Queens Park Rangers — 44 points, -1 GD
13. Stoke City — 43 points, +6 GD
14. Southampton — 43 points, +3 GD
Key remaining fixtures in the promotion run-in
Middlesbrough head to Coventry City on Monday, February 16 in a huge game between the top two. Ipswich Town host Hull City on Tuesday, March 3 in a pivotal game between teams chasing the top two, while Hull then host fellow surprise top-two hopefuls Millwall four days later. Middlesbrough host Millwall on April 3 in another massive clash and just a few days later Coventry head to Hull. Ipswich hosting Middlesbrough on April 18 feels particularly massive Coventry hosting Wrexham in the penultimate weekend of the season could be pivotal in both the automatic and playoff picture. And Wrexham hosting Boro on the final day of the season on May 2 could well be a glorious day for both.
How many points are usually needed for promotion?
In the last four seasons the minimum amount of points to achieve automatic promotion have been the following:
2024-25: 100 points
2023-24: 96 points
2022-23: 91 points
2021-22: 88 points
So, as you can see, the number of points you need for automatic promotion just keeps on going up.
How many points do you usually need to reach the Champions playoffs?
Across the same four-year span the following number of points have been enough to secure sixth-place, the final playoff spot:
2024-25: 68 points
2023-24: 73 points
2022-23: 69 points
2021-22: 75 points
What happens in the EFL Championship promotion playoffs?
The teams who finish in third, fourth, fifth and sixth compete in the playoffs. Third plays sixth home and away in one semifinal and fourth plays fifth home and away in the other semifinal. The winners, on aggregate, of those two semifinals then meet in the one-off Championship playoff final at Wembley Stadium. That game has to be decided on the day with extra time and penalty kicks if needed. The Championship playoff final is known as the richest game in sports.
Promotion predictions: Who will go up to the Premier League? — By Joe Prince-Wright
Right now it’s hard to see past Middlesbrough getting promoted to the Premier League. They have the momentum, a solid squad and manager Kim Hellberg has been a revelation since replacing Rob Edwards in December. As for the other automatic spot, well, I’m going to go with Ipswich Town. Like Boro, they have massive momentum and a very experienced squad who have mostly been through this two years ago under Kieran McKenna. The Tractor Boys are ploughing their way through opponents and know what it takes to get promoted. That means Coventry City will drop out of the top two and head to the playoffs and that will be a massive blow for Frank Lampard’s side. They were really good for the first half of the season but around the festive period they hit a bad spell and haven’t been able to recover. They are still very dangerous and will win lots of games and be right up there in the top two hunt, but it feels like they will just get pipped to the post by Boro and Ipswich. As for the playoffs, Hull and Millwall are looking like a great bet and are very solid and tough to beat. The sixth-spot could be any one of eight teams and it would be some story if newly-promoted Wrexham manage to reach the playoffs, and that is very possible. But it feels like Southampton have found some form and if anybody is going to emerge from that huge pack of teams to clinch the final playoff spot, Saints have the quality to get it done. But this is the Championship and it will get crazy and very intense down the stretch.
