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Darren Moore: Championship promotion race will go down to the wire

Darren Moore has never known a Championship campaign this competitive and expects the promotion race to be nip-and-tuck all the way until May.

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Darren Moore. (AMA)

Moore was promoted out of the division four times as a player, but he believes the majority of teams are evenly-matched this term.

The Baggies welcome table-topping Leeds United to The Hawthorns this weekend after slipping to seventh place themselves, but Moore says there’s a long way to go.

“We have called it from the start of the season and I’ll call it now, it will be nip and tuck right to the end,” he said.

“You see it season after season. It gets tighter every year.

“It’s just about going out and competing and trying to win matches week-in, week-out.

“We can all see with the way the division has mapped out, it is boding well for a really exciting division for the whole campaign – not just at the end of the it.

“It will go right the way through and keep everyone on their toes that’s for sure.”

The leadership has already changed hands several times between a number of clubs this season.

The Baggies were top themselves at the start of the October, but they have now slipped out of the top six.

Albion’s head coach is more concerned about performances at this stage of the season though than his team’s position in the table.

“For me, it’s not about looking at the league table this early,” he said. “It’s just about the games, one by one.

“We had opportunities recently to try and top the division. But it wasn’t to be because of how tight the league is and how competitive it is.

“The teams that you see sitting at the top, the successful ones, and the teams sitting at the bottom, you can split them with a hair.

“It’s all about on the day, that is how competitive the division is. And that is what makes the Championship so exciting.”