Portsmouth, West Brom, Oxford United and Leicester City's fixture run-in compared | OneFootball

FLW takes a closer look at the teams who complete the Championship's bottom five alongside Sheffield Wednesday

The Championship relegation battle is certainly heating up!

Portsmouth, West Brom, Oxford United and Leicester City have all found themselves dragged deep into the Championship relegation picture, making up the league's bottom five alongside Sheffield Wednesday (as of March 17th).

With the Owls already down, there is a growing sense that two of the initial quartet could yet join the South Yorkshire side in League One.

Seeing as though there are less than ten games to go, FLW takes a look at each of their fixture run-ins, starting with Pompey!

Perhaps still reeling from their 1-0 defeat to Derby County on Monday, 20th-place Portsmouth have some very daunting fixtures coming up.

After the game, the Hampshire club's head coach, John Mousinho, shared a similar view when talking to Sky Sports, saying, We have some huge games coming up. Something has to change and the main thing is putting the ball in the back of the net.

"Confidence could be low but I don't see that. We are doing the hard bits but I'm not sure why scoring is deserting us. Relegation is a worry shared between the fans and us. The message is to stick with us,” he added.

Portsmouth now have two consecutive away games against Queens Park Rangers and Norwich City respectively, before a seemingly vital home match versus fellow strugglers Oxford on the 6th April.

After the home match against the U's, a trip to Teesside awaits to play Middlesbrough five days later. So things don't, and won't, get any easier.

Pompey then have a home double-header, starting with Ipswich Town and followed up by Leicester - which happens on 18th April. That's already five games for April, yet two away matches in a row versus Coventry City and Stoke City make that seven.

Portsmouth will be at home against Birmingham City on the final day of the season.

2 ? ? West Bromwich Albion

We all know there are no 'easy' games in the Championship, but West Bromwich Albion's fixture run-in looks a lot kinder than Pompey's.

Sitting 21st with one more match played than Portsmouth, the Baggies will be hoping that the standard shown in the 3-0 win over Hull City is kept up.

West Brom's last game in March is away to Bristol City, whereas the start of April is met with the visit of Wrexham.

During the rest of April, James Morrison's squad travel to Blackburn Rovers, before a home clash with Millwall. Their penultimate away trip is to Preston on the 18th, which is ahead of two more home games against Watford and Ipswich.

By the time the final game of the season comes around, away to Sheffield Wednesday, Baggies fans will surely be hoping their club won't be following the Owls down.

On paper, when you factor in the profile of the opposition, West Brom arguably have it a lot easier than Pompey - but what about Oxford?

3 ? ? Oxford United

Regardless of having won one match in ten by the time they sacked Gary Rowett in December, Oxford United's decision to appoint Matt Bloomfield instead hasn't exactly gone to plan.

In his 14 games in charge of Oxford so far, which includes the 1-0 FA Cup loss to Sunderland, Bloomfield has won just four of them. The remaining ten games have been split equally in terms of draws and losses, with five each.

Before the aforementioned game against Portsmouth on the 6th April, Oxford have two very tough games - Southampton away and Hull at home.

After playing Pompey, the U's then host Watford before taking a trip to Pride Park and facing Derby County, which is on the 18th April.

Oxford's final three games of the 25/26 Championship season start off with a home double-header against Wrexham and Sheffield Wednesday respectively, and end with Millwall away.

4 ? ? Leicester City

Now obviously managing Leicester City, ex-Oxford boss Rowett finds himself one point below the U's, in 23rd on 38 points.

Having not "looked at the long-term perspective" of managing the Foxes next season, as per Leicestershire Live, it's clear his focus is fully on Leicester's next eight games.

Starting with Watford away this coming Saturday, on the 21st March, Leicester then play Preston at the King Power to kick April off.

After Preston, the Foxes have five more games to play in April, with the first three being - Sheffield Wednesday away, Swansea City at home and Portsmouth away. The last two April games for Leicester are both at home, against Hull and Millwall.

It remains to be seen whether Rowett will stay on as Leicester manager or not next season, but if he doesn't, then his final game in charge of the club will be away to Blackburn Rovers.