Sheffield Wednesday to Rotherham Titans, Leeds Knights to Leeds Rhinos - a sporting weekend like no other

And from a Yorkshire perspective, as we come to crunch time in four of our team sports, there are so many clubs entering this weekend on a knife-edge.

Indeed, throughout the course of the next 48 hours there are no less than EIGHT Yorkshire teams with something to play for.

Leeds United may have kicked us off on Friday night needing a win against QPR at Loftus Road to keep their hopes of automatic promotion alive, but they will be looking east on Saturday evening in the hope that their Yorkshire brothers Hull City can do them a huge favour when automatic promotion rivals Ipswich Town come to the MKM Stadium. Hull need a win to maintain their late push for a play-off place.

Earlier in the day there are two seismic games at the bottom end of the Championship. Second-from-bottom Huddersfield Town welcome third-from-bottom Birmingham City knowing defeat would mean relegation to League One. Expect nerves to be fraught among desperate Town fans.

It will be a similar scene at Hillsborough where a sellout crowd will be willing Sheffield Wednesday to victory against West Brom. The Owls can’t secure survival this weekend, but they can take a giant leap towards it. Equally, they can take a big step backwards if they lose.

At lunchtime, a free-falling Barnsley need to open the parachute when Northampton Town come to Oakwell. Two months after being in the hunt for automatic promotion and seconds away from defeating Bolton to climb into the top two, Barnsley have won just two of 11 games and dropped to fifth in League One. The worrying run resulted in the shock sacking of Neill Collins as manager earlier this week and leaves caretaker manager Martin Devaney to try and lift the team to get the win they need to secure a play-off berth.

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In League Two it’s the story of two upwardly-mobile teams looking to seal and gatecrash a spot in the play-offs. Doncaster Rovers are the form team in the country after winning 10 games in a row. They were third-bottom in February. And Bradford City who also looked out of it after a terrible March can now snatch a spot in the top seven if they beat Newport County and Crawley and Barrow above them slip up.

Missing anyone? Oh yeah, Sheffield United. Sadly, theirs is a negative this weekend, where defeat at Newcastle United will confirm their long-anticipated relegation from the Premier League.

Staying in the north east, a title can be won in Stockton-on-Tees on Saturday afternoon when Rotherham Titans take to the rugby union field to take on Billingham in National Two North. The Titans’ season-long battle with Leeds Tykes has been a fascinating one, two former standard-bearers of Yorkshire rugby going toe-to-toe, win-for-win in pursuit of promotion.

Rotherham blinked first but, crucially, Leeds blinked twice and when the Tykes take the field at Headingley after Leeds Rhinos women have taken on Warrington Wolves in rugby league’s Women’s Super League, they do so in the hope of winning to put a bit of scoreboard pressure on Rotherham.

Whatever the outcome, after so many years of decline for Rotherham and Leeds, it has been refreshing this season to cast a more positive light on two clubs going in the right direction again.

Staying at Headingley, and of all the sporting cathedrals to be at this Saturday, that is probably where you get most bang for your buck, because on the other side of the famous old stadium where Rhinos women play and Leeds Tykes host Sheffield RUFC is the cricket, as Yorkshire tackle day two of their County Championship match with Derbyshire. Oh to be a punter in the South Stand for that one, sporting action everywhere you turn.

Down in Coventry, Leeds Knights look to emulate Sheffield Steelers by winning another ice hockey play-off final. A week after the Steelers won the play-off title to clinch an Elite League trophy treble, the Knights can add second-tier play-off glory to their NIHL crown with two games in two days.

Sticking with the play-offs and the basketball post-season begins for Sheffield Sharks on Sunday afternoon when they entertain Leicester Riders in Game One of the British Basketball League play-off quarter-final, a new best-of-three format being trialled by the league. Expect a raucous atmosphere inside the Canon Medical Arena where the Sharks have already created some happy memories in a little over six months of playing there.

A venue of that size would be perfect for what Barry Hearn wants Sheffield City Council to build next to the Crucible to keep the World Snooker Championships in the Steel City. The future beyond the current expiration of Sheffield’s contract with World Snooker expires after 2027 has dominated the agenda this week, even amid a cast list of falling seeds. The second round continues this weekend in the sport’s spiritual home.

Which brings us to a team without a home, who this weekend finally get to play in their own city when netball’s Leeds Rhinos host defending Super League champions Loughborough Lightning at the First Direct Arena in Leeds. A crowd of around 4,000 is expected for the Rhinos’ marquee game of the season, a chance to showcase the team, the brand and the sport of netball to their growing fanbase.

Staying with the Rhinos, and the rugby league team need to bounce back from the disappointment of losing to Huddersfield Giants last time out by being the latest team to take on a brow-beaten Hull FC at the MKM Stadium on Sunday.

So many venues, so many great sporting stories to be told.