While three sides are set to slug it out for two automatic promotion places at the top of the Championship, at the other end eight teams separated by just eight points are embroiled in a five-match mini league to avoid relegation.
Four of those sides meet in two fixtures on what could prove to be a pivotal afternoon in the fight for survival.
Cardiff City sit below the dotted line in 22nd, behind Derby on goal difference, ahead of Stoke’s trip across the Severn on Saturday (15:00 BST).
The Potters are 20th, just two points ahead of the Bluebirds, having being pegged back in stoppage-time by Luton on Tuesday night.
Boss Mark Robins told BBC Radio Stoke that goal ‘just flattens everything,’ adding: “I’m really disappointed but, take the emotions out of it, we’ve got to take the point and make it into a better one at Cardiff on Saturday.
“There’s still a long way to go and we now have to be ready to go again.”
Cardiff needed a last-gasp equaliser of their own to salvage a point they barely deserved at Preston at almost exactly the same moment and City boss Omer Riza told BBC Radio Wales: “We are working our hardest to make sure we survive.
“It’s very important to this club, to the fans and to us as staff. We don’t want to be remembered here for getting relegated.
“We have to be positive. We have to keep believing and we have to keep fighting.
“We are unbeaten in four which I suppose we’ll take forwards confidence-wise for Saturday.”
While fans in the stands might have begun to set score notifications for rival teams and pack earpieces, the players won’t be asking for updates from other games just yet.
Derby head to Fratton Park in the other ‘six-pointer’ with opponents Portsmouth four places higher despite their last-second defeat at Coventry on Wednesday but would fall below the Rams if John Eustace’s side can claim victory.
“We can’t really look at other teams,” skipper Ebou Adams told BBC Radio Derby.
“It’s not enough to say that we are out of the relegation spots on goal difference, we still have to go out and win games. The only positive that we can take on being out [of the bottom three] on goal difference is that it’s in our hands.
“It’s up to us to keep winning games.”
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