Royle commands TV performance

Ipswich Town manager Joe Royle will have a television set in the dug-out to see if Wigan slip up in their bid to secure automatic promotion to the Premiership.

Ipswich Town manager Joe Royle will have a television set in the dug-out to see if Wigan slip up in their bid to secure automatic promotion to the Premiership on Sunday.

Royle, whose side currently trail second-placed Wigan on goal difference in the Championship ahead of Sunday's final round of matches, has asked for a television monitor showing Wigan's home game with Reading to be installed at pitch side at the Withdean Stadium where his team take on Brighton.

A Wigan victory would render Ipswich's result irrelevant and sentence Town to the agony of the play-offs.

"We know that television is covering both games and there will be a monitor next to the dug-out," Royle told Town's official website, itfc.co.uk, on Saturday.

"So all the information is going to be there. We will know all along what's going on."

Wigan boss Paul Jewell at least has the comfort of knowing his team's destiny is in their own hands. Beat Reading and they will go up automatically behind champions Sunderland.

"It's hopefully the final game of the season for us and we would have settled for this situation at the start of the season," said Jewell.

"We know what we've got to do and if we get the right result, it doesn't matter what anyone else does. It's going to be very difficult but we're all looking forward to it.

"It's a game of football, we've got to win it. It's a normal game really but the outcome of the game has got very high stakes."

Should Ipswich fail to sneak into the top two they will be forced to scrap it out in the play-offs, where they will be joined by Preston and two out of Derby, West Ham and Reading.

Derby, with 73 points, and West Ham, with 70, occupy the final two play-off places with Reading behind the Hammers on 'goals scored' only.

Alan Pardew will take his West Ham team to Watford knowing they must better the result of his former club Reading if they are to extend their season for certain, although it is feasible that a Derby defeat at home to Preston could see the Rams drop out of the top six.

Derby, who need a point against Preston at Pride Park to make sure of their place in the play-offs, will be without talismanic frontman Grzegorz Rasiak, who has been forced to undergo surgery on a groin injury.

But the tall Pole may return for the play-offs.

Preston boss Billy Davies, meanwhile, will be without left-sided players Eddie Lewis and Callum Davidson.

Lewis has been absent following an operation on his appendix but has a chance of featuring in the play-offs but Davidson's calf problem has ended his season.

The relegation tussle promises to be just as interesting as the competition at the top as Crewe, Gillingham and Brighton scrap to avoid the drop.

Dario Gradi's Alex look favourites to join Rotherham and Nottingham Forest as they meet in-form Coventry at home on Sunday while Gillingham are at Forest.

Sunday's Championship fixtures

Brighton v Ipswich, Cardiff v QPR, Crewe v Coventry, Derby v Preston, Leeds v Rotherham, Millwall v Burnley, Nottm Forest v Gillingham, Plymouth v Leicester, Sunderland v Stoke, Watford v West Ham, Wigan v Reading, Wolverhampton v Sheff Utd