Southampton make the trip to Swansea City on Saturday afternoon knowing that the door is open to push for automatic promotion to the Premier League.
At a time when the Saints sit in fourth position in the Championship table, the Swans are in 14th and still with the opportunity to finish inside the top 10 at the end of the season.
Match preview
In the space of just over a week, Southampton have gone from being focused on securing a playoff spot to having the opportunity to fight for automatic promotion.
Tuesday's 3-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers came at the same time as Ipswich Town, who currently occupy second, lost 2-0 at Portsmouth.
The end result is Southampton trailing the Tractor Boys by three points having played a game more than Kieran McKenna's side, yet the two teams are still to square off at St Mary's in their penultimate fixture.
On a six-game winning streak in the Championship and 18-match unbeaten run in all competitions, many will back Tonda Eckart's team to pull off what would be a sensational promotion when they spent much of the first half of the season in the bottom half of the standings.
Their clean sheet against Blackburn was a welcome boost. It was just their third shutout across an eight-match period in all competitions.
Nevertheless, since January 21, Southampton have accumulated 39 points from 15 matches, 11 more points than any other team across that period.
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As for Swansea, they will relish another opportunity to face a promotion contender on home territory having recently earned a 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough.
Vitor Matos' side are now on a three-match unbeaten streak, helped by last weekend's 1-0 victory at Leicester City.
Swansea now have seven points from their last four away fixtures, yet just one win has come from their most recent four encounters at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Trailing ninth position by just one point, Matos and his squad will have ambitions of a top-10 finish. Swansea's highest finishing position across the last four seasons is 10th place.
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Southampton Championship form:
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Team News
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Matos will contemplate whether to keep Leo Walta in midfield for just his third Championship start or bring Goncalo Franco back into his Swansea XI.
Joel Ward is also in contention for a start at right-back, but Eom Ji-Sung will be assessed after picking up a fitness issue against Leicester.
Josh Key and Ethan Galbraith are both expected to remain sidelined for this contest.
Meanwhile, Eckart is likely to rotate his Southampton starting lineup yet again, with Flynn Downes and Leo Scienza both expected to return.
With Kuryu Matsuki and Finn Azaz both fitness doubts, Cameron Archer could feature as a number 10, while Ross Stewart is pushing to replace Cyle Larin.
Swansea City possible starting lineup:
Vigouroux; Parker, Cabango, Burgess, Tymon; Nunes, Walta, Stamenic, Eom; Widell; Vipotnik
Southampton possible starting lineup:
Peretz; Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens, Manning; Downes, Charles; Fellows, Archer, Scienza; Stewart
We say: Swansea City 1-2 Southampton
Having put together a three-game unbeaten streak, Swansea will fancy their chances of upsetting the odds on Saturday. However, it is impossible to back against Southampton in Championship action, leading us to predict a hard-fought victory for the Saints.
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