Birmingham still odds favourites for League One title as relegation picture clears

Matchday 18 has given us more clarity about several odds situations in League One, as we can see the promotion picture taking shape, while the relegation candidates are becoming clearer.

Birmingham continue their League One domination

Since their relegation from the Championship was confirmed, Birmingham City have been favourites to go straight back up, and so far, they are making light work of it. The Blues are clear favourites to win the title and return to the Championship, and a win against promotion hopefuls Stockport only further cemented this.

At present, the only 'real' contenders for the title are Wycombe, who have been fantastic this season. However, with a best price of 5/1 to win the league, we think it would be better to speak more of them in the next section.

Wycombe lead promotion favourites with Huddersfield following

As mentioned, it is more fitting to speak about Wycombe in regards to promotion rather than a title win, just because whilst they have been superb, Birmingham are dominating currently, and they also are a game ahead of the Blues.

Enough said about the leaders, though. The Chairboys have not lost a game in League One since the middle of August - coincidentally against the heavily mentioned favourites - and before this round of fixtures, their last draw came at the start of October. In other words, they are on fire, and fully deserving of following in the odds for promotion.

Huddersfield are the bookies' next favourite to go up, and the Terriers are hoping for an instant return to the Championship. Under Michael Duff, they have found a new lease of life and they have come into their own in the past two months. Their last loss - which is becoming a pattern here - was against Birmingham at the start of October, and with the John Smith's Stadium becoming something of a fortress, they are hoping for an instant return to the second flight.

Wrexham follow as fourth favourites for promotion, and whilst they sit second in the table, they have played more games than almost everyone around them - being the only team listed here so far to play 18 games. Nevertheless, their promotion credentials are there for all to see, and you cannot write off the Welsh side.

Bolton and Stockport also remain in the picture, and with odds of 9/4 and 9/2 respectively, there could be some value had with the two.

Gap emerges at the bottom of the table

Whilst the League One promotion race is quite open, the relegation one is quite closed at the moment, with three teams already breaking away.

Shrewsbury and Burton are the current favourites to go down across the board, and with a seven-point gap to 20th, the hopes of getting out of their shared scenarios are quite bleak. Both teams are conceding goals for fun, and they are in real danger of the drop as things stand.

Cambridge United and Crawley follow next in the odds, despite the latter currently sitting outside of the relegation zone, and both are priced below evens for the drop which shows the faith of the bookies. As is common at this end of the table, the duo concede often without putting up decent goalscoring numbers, and for this reason, they are in a dogfight.

Northampton, another team within the relegation spots, sit next in the bookmaker's odds. Things could be about to get better, though, as their manager Jon Brady resigned this morning (December 5), so a rise away from the relegation spots could be possible.