Opta Supercomputer Updates Championship Table After Pompey and Preston Results

Opta's supercomputer has revised its championship table projections following a decisive weekend of matches, most notably Portsmouth’s 3-1 victory over Millwall and Preston North End’s 1-0 derby defeat to Blackburn Rovers. The updated forecast matters because the outcomes reshuffle both the relegation fight and the margins around the play-off places with between 14 and 16 games still to play.

Championship Table — Opta's May 2nd forecast

Opta’s model, which is producing a running prediction of how the division will settle, now publishes a top-six projection that it frames as the expected picture come May 2nd. The supercomputer puts Middlesbrough first, with Kim Hellberg’s side forecast to finish as Champions. That view rests on a strong sequence after Hellberg’s arrival following a 4-2 defeat to Coventry in late November: aside from a barren run of no goals in four games over the Christmas and New Year period, Middlesbrough have won every game under the Swedish boss, a run that evaporated the 10-point lead Coventry had when Hellberg took over.

Opta still expects Coventry City, under Frank Lampard, to occupy an automatic promotion slot despite the Sky Blues having picked up the 18th-most points in the division since the start of December. Ipswich Town, identified as the Tractor Boys, hold games in hand and have been knocked out of the FA Cup by Wrexham, but the model does not believe Ipswich will force their way into the top two and instead projects them to fall short and go into the promotion race the play-offs.

Millwall are forecast to finish in the top four, with Opta pointing to their current third place and an eight-point cushion over Preston North End. The tool’s projection for Preston and Blackburn’s final placings is highlighted in recent updates, but the specific final positions for those clubs are unclear in the provided context.

Pompey’s 3-1 win lifts them six clear of the drop

Portsmouth’s late-winter run continued with a 3-1 victory over third-placed Millwall on Saturday that moved Pompey into 19th and crucially six points clear of the relegation zone. The Blues followed a midweek win at Charlton Athletic with the Millwall success; Gustavo Caballero opened the scoring — his first goal for the club since a January signing — and John Swift added a second soon after.

Casper De Norre pulled one back for Millwall, but Marlon Pack restored Portsmouth’s two-goal cushion with 23 minutes remaining. The three points have reduced Pompey’s immediate relegation risk, and manager Danny Mousinho’s squad now head for a midweek trip to sixth-placed Wrexham before welcoming fifth-placed Hull City to Fratton Park next Saturday. The Pompey boss has also allayed injury fears over a popular January arrival after the Millwall scare, a local development that followed the match.

Preston heartbreak: Yuki Ohashi’s 96th-minute header and the Wrexham effect

Preston North End suffered late derby-night heartache on Friday, losing 1-0 to Blackburn Rovers when Yuki Ohashi headed a 96th‑minute winner. The stoppage-time defeat dropped the Lilywhites to 10th and widened the gap to the play-offs to three points after Wrexham beat an opponent 5-3 on Saturday.

Paul Heckingbottom’s side are due back on the road midweek to face Swansea City before returning to Deepdale next Saturday to welcome Millwall. Local reaction has described the derby result as a failure for Preston on a night when Blackburn again delivered the decisive moments.

Middlesbrough, Coventry and Ipswich: promotion trajectories

Middlesbrough’s charge, driven by Hellberg’s arrival, underpins Opta’s top projection. The cause—Hellberg replacing the previous regime after the 4-2 defeat to Coventry—has had the effect of triggering a long unbeaten run of wins under the new manager that closed a double-digit gap to the leaders. Coventry must rediscover early-season dominance if they are to remain securely in the top two; otherwise, the timing matters because they risk being drawn into a play-off chase for the third time in four seasons.

Ipswich, meanwhile, now focus solely on the league after their FA Cup exit at Wrexham on Friday night; the model expects them to fall agonisingly short of automatic promotion but rates them as strong play-off contenders.

Fixture congestion and how many games remain

With the FA Cup fourth round concluded, the schedule tightens: every Championship team has played at least 30 matches, some 31 and most 32, leaving between 14 and 16 games to play. That scarcity of matches leaves little room for error in the title, automatic promotion and play-off races. A solid run over the remaining weeks could be decisive in achieving season objectives set back in August, while any slump risks a markedly different outcome.

The regular-season narrative also notes longer-term context: Alex Neil’s Preston side have not finished in the second-tier play-offs since the 2001/02 campaign when the competition carried a different name, and Preston’s goal difference currently sits at only +4 — a figure the commentary links to a resemblance with Huddersfield Town in 2016/17, though the account of that comparison is unclear in the provided context.

What makes this notable is how quickly single moments — a 96th-minute header, a midweek managerial arrival, a three-point swing — can alter Opta’s projected Championship table and the season trajectories for clubs fighting at both ends of the standings.