The battle for promotion to the Premier League continues rapidly as the clubs fight at the top of the championship.

After Reading’s stormy start, they were at the top of the league after seven wins in their first eight games in the first two months.

However, they were thrown off the field after four straight defeats and Norwich City has led the way since then.

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However, with some poor results for the Canaries, the lead has been reduced to just one point and at least four other teams are hoping to get to the top in the coming weeks.

Reading is one of those sites, along with Swansea City, Brentford, and Watford. At the moment, only seven points separate the leaders Norwich and fifth place Watford.

Bournemouth AFC will also feel like they haven’t been eliminated from the automatic promotion race, despite being three points behind the others.

Jason Tindall’s layoff last week once again demonstrated just how brutal stage two can be, and the cherries are hoping to find a new manager who will have an immediate impact and bring the squad back to the top on the first try.

What are the upcoming games for each side?

Here are the next championship games of all six clubs until the next international break on the last weekend in March.

Norwich City

  • Stoke City (h)
  • Coventry City (a)
  • Rotherham United (h)
  • Birmingham City (a)
  • Wycombe Wanderers (a)
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  • Brentford (h)
  • City of Luton (h)
  • Sheffield Wednesday (a)
  • Nottingham Forest (a)
  • Blackburn Rovers (h)

Conclusion: Complacency could be the Canaries’ biggest problem in these upcoming games as there is only one game (Brentford) against a team in the top six.

You should look for at least 25 of the 30 points offered.

Swansea City

  • Sheffield Wednesday (a)
  • Nottingham Forest (h)
  • Huddersfield Town (a)
  • Coventry City (h)
  • Bristol City (h)

Andre Ayew celebrates for Swansea

  • Stoke City (a)
  • Middlesbrough (h)
  • Blackburn Rovers (a)
  • Luton Town (a)
  • Bournemouth AFC (a)
  • City of Cardiff (h)

Bottom line: The Swans have some tricky away games with teams like Stoke, Luton Town and Blackburn capable of taking points away from them.

The clash with Bournemouth at Vitality could have big ramifications, while the South Wales derby minor issue is also at stake.

Brentford

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  • Barnsley (h)
  • Queens Park Rangers (a)
  • Coventry City (a)
  • Sheffield Wednesday (h)
  • Stoke City (h)
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  • Norwich City (a)
  • Rotherham United (h)
  • Blackburn Rovers (a)
  • Derby County (a)
  • Nottingham Forest (h)

Conclusion: The bees are currently unbeaten in a 20-game run, so they have to take a break. But the run has to end at some point for their fate to depend on how well they react to defeat when it comes to it.

This game block is relatively kind to Thomas Frank’s side on paper, with Reading and Norwich likely the toughest ones, while a trip to Blackburn and a West London derby with QPR have the potential to cause a stir.

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  • Brentford (h)
  • Millwall (h)
  • Bristol city (a)
  • Middlesbrough (h)
  • Wycombe Wanderers (a)
  • Rotherham United (a)

Read midfielder Michael Olise

  • Blackburn Rovers (h)
  • Sheffield Wednesday (h)
  • Nottingham Forest (a)
  • Birmingham City (a)
  • Queens Park Rangers (h)

Conclusion: Royals have to look for maximum points in as many of these games as possible in order to maintain the hope of a top 2 result.

Beating Brentford would be a great start and would bring them one step closer to the bees. Trips to Bristol City, Rotherham and Forest will test the character of the team, but home games should bring in lots of points.

Watford

  • Bristol City (h)
  • Preston North End (a)
  • Derby County (h)
  • Blackburn Rovers (a)
  • Bournemouth AFC (a)
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  • Wycombe Wanderers (h)
  • Nottingham Forest (h)
  • City of Cardiff (a)
  • Rotherham United (a)
  • Birmingham City (h)

Conclusion: The Hornets seem to have stuttered so far this season, but remain very strong on the promotion hunt.

Home form was not a problem so all eyes will be on the way Xisco Munoz’s side pull away from Vicarage Road. All five away games will put the team’s promotion goals to the test.

Bournemouth AFC

  • Nottingham Forest (a)
  • Rotherham United (h)
  • Queens Park Rangers (a)
  • City of Cardiff (h)
  • Watford (h)

Bournemouth sold Josh King to Everton in January

  • Bristol city (a)
  • Preston North End (a)
  • Barnsley (h)
  • Swansea City (h)
  • Huddersfield Town (a)

Bottom Line: The Cherries looked like the team to beat at the start of the season but have struggled over the past month and losing Josh King in the January window is a valuable goal threat.

In the games with Watford, Preston, Swansea and Huddersfield all points could be dropped.

For the latest news, visit our dedicated Reading FC page

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Visit us on Wednesday evening

Reading is back in the championship this week as they host promotion rivals Brentford.

The kick-off in the Madejski Stadium is on Wednesday, February 10th, at 7 p.m.

Join us throughout the evening for the game. The entire construction begins in our live blog from 3 p.m.

Be on the lookout for a live video on our dedicated Reading FC Facebook page as well as after the game.

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