Dave Thornley writing for Clarets Mad sums up the current state of play as the Championship reaches its end of season climax.

Sir Alex famously called it ?squeaky bum time?, the last seven matches, the last 21 points to play for and three teams locked together as they round the bend into the home strait. For two of them it will be automatic promotion to the Premier League, whilst the other will be obliged to navigate the turbulent waters of the play-offs.

This weekend?s results saw wins for both Burnley and Sheffield United, so it would seem that it is Leeds whose limbs are feeling the heaviest as the pace intensifies, after they conceded a late equaliser at home to a modest Swansea team.

As for the Clarets, their 1-0 win over Bristol City at Turf Moor was a solid and workmanlike three points. They could, indeed should, have added to Zian Flemming?s brilliant free kick, bent Beckham-like into the top corner, but a couple of missed sitters from Jaidon Anthony and some diligent last-ditch defending from the visitors kept the score down.

In Burnley?s position at this stage of the season, gaining the three points is the paramount concern and in achieving this, the Clarets extended their unbeaten league run to an imposing 26 matches and another clean sheet to add to a collection which now stands at 21, I believe this to be a record for the second tier (happy to be corrected if I am mistaken).

Of Burnley?s remaining seven games, four are away from home; trips to Coventry next week and Watford are potentially tricky, and the home game against Norwich will demand close attention, but the destiny of Burnley?s season is most likely to be defined by the visit of Sheffield United to Turf Moor on Easter Monday.

This is the third consecutive season that the Clarets and the Blades have been locked together either at the top of the Championship or the bottom of the Premier League. Remember too that it was Sheffield United who Burnley defeated in the 2010 play-off final, to reach the top tier for the first time in decades.

Fate has thrown these two proud, traditional clubs together so many times down the years that hardly a season goes by when they don?t cross swords. All of which leads me to ponder whether it is in fact the Blades, not Blackburn, who are now Burnley?s fiercest rivals?

Finally, I come from an era when people like me would build collections. In my home I have books, DVDs and several boxes containing a great many Burnley programmes. I rarely look at them but take comfort from the fact that they are there. They go some way to defining who I am, my tastes, my interests, my enthusiasms.
It was therefore somewhat disturbing to me to find that an increasing number of clubs, Blackburn among them, no longer produce a match-day programme.

Of course, I understand that any information contained within them is now readily accessible online, and that there is a saving to be had in terms of printing and production costs, but this is at the loss of something tangible for fans like me to own, to look back and reflect and reminisce upon. I sincerely hope and trust that Burnley will not follow this regrettable trend.

Editor's note: I'm hoping I won't need to buy the "Special Wembley Play-Off Edition" and we are sitting once again comfortably back in the EPL when the play-offs arrive. (TEC).