The Championship play-offs are underway, with the semi-finals taking place this weekend, before the final takes place on Bank Holiday Monday (May 29).

Reading ended the season with a 4-2 win over Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium and will face a Fulham side that beat a Sheffield Wednesday team that were on a run of six back to back victories.

In the other fixture, Wednesday will take on Huddersfield Town, who come into this competition off the back of two losses against Birmingham City and Cardiff City.

In last year’s competition, The Owls overcame a tough Brighton and Hove Albion side to set up a final against Steve Bruce’s Hull City, who only just eased past Derby County.

It was The Tigers who came out on top at Wembley Stadium after a Mohamed Diame goal in the 72nd minute secured a 1-0 win and guaranteed their promotion to the Premier League.

All four sides now have the top-flight in their sights and it really could be won by any one of these four teams.

With this in mind, here are five things that you should look out for in this season’s Championship play-offs…

Goal-line technology

Goal-line technology has been used in the Premier League since the beginning of the 2013-14 season and now, almost four year later, the technology is being rolled out to the Championship.

It will make its first appearance in this division when Reading take on Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday and will continue to be used throughout the play-off semi-finals and the final at Wembley.

The system will then be installed at every Championship ground around the country before the start of next season (2017-18).

The technology has proved effective and popular in the Premier League and has also been used in various cup fixtures and finals as well. In fact, it was called into action on the very first day of the Premier League campaign back in 2013-14, when Aston Villa faced Arsenal and Fabian Delph’s shot came off the post and rolled along the line, prompting Anthony Taylor to check his watch and allow play to continue.

The proven success of this equipment means its wider roll out can only be positive and it will be interesting to see whether it is called in to action at the weekend.

Can Huddersfield grab their first goal against The Owls? 

David Wagner’s side have struggled against Sheffield Wednesday this season and lost both of their regular meetings in the league… without even managing to score a goal!

They lost 2-0 at Hillsborough in January and suffered a 1-0 home defeat during October and will really need to up their game should they want to reach the final at Wembley.

In fact, The Terriers have had a difficult time finding the back of the net all season and became only the second club to finish in a play-off position with a negative goal difference – the only other being Brighton in the 1990-91 season with minus six (-6).

They come into this fixture with the worst form record of all the four play-off teams having suffered six defeats in their last 10 games, with three of these coming in their last four matches, including losses to Cardiff and Birmingham, who struggled in the division this season.

Whilst the Huddersfield boss himself and several others will argue that the form book goes out of the window in the lottery of this end of season competition, there is something to be said for consistency and uniformity – especially in this league.

Fulham’s attacking prowess against the top clubs

Fulham secured themselves the last remaining play-off spot on the final day of the season following a late run of good form coinciding with the downfall of Leeds United.

They are unbeaten in their last six games, winning five of these and have been in extremely impressive form against the top Championship sides this season.

Not only did they beat play-off rivals Sheffield Wednesday on the last day of the campaign, but they also did the double over title winners Newcastle United, put five goals past semi-final opponents Reading and beat Huddersfield 9-1 on aggregate in their two league matches this season.

Slavisa Jokanovic’s side go into the competition as favourites, despite there being only one team in the last 11 seasons that has finished sixth in the Championship table who have gone on to win promotion via the play-offs (Blackpool in 2009/10).

This certainly says a lot about this London outfit and if they can get past Jaap Stam’s Reading over two legs, they will certainly have a great shot at a Premier League return.

The end of Jaap Stam’s first managerial season in English football

When Reading unveiled their new manager back in June of last year as none other than former Manchester United legend Jaap Stam, many were left surprised and what seemed like the majority of people were already questioning his appointment.

The 44-year-old came from Ajax, where he spent two years working as a coach and then assistant manager, before switching to his first job in senior management and first in English football with The Royals.

Now, at the closing stages of the season, Stam has proved any critics that he did have wrong.

Under his leadership, he has guided the Berkshire outfit to a third place finish – amassing 26 wins along the way, losing only twice at the Madejski Stadium – and their best finish in the league since winning promotion to the Premier League back in 2011-12.

He will be aware that this is Reading’s sixth venture into the EFL play-offs, where they have failed to win promotion on every previous occasion, but under his management, this could all be about to change for the better.

Could Sheffield Wednesday go one better than last year?

Sheffield Wednesday could reach the Championship play-off final for the second time in consecutive years if they manage to beat David Wagner’s Huddersfield side over the two legs in the coming days.

Last year, the side from Hillsborough finished in sixth place and reached Wembley after beating a Brighton side 3-1 – a side who only just missed out on automatic promotion on goal difference.

Whilst they went on to lose the final 1-0 to Hull City, they went further than anyone expected and have also been impressive during this year’s campaign.

Interestingly, The Owls do have a pretty good record at this stage of the competition and have reached the final of both play-off campaigns that they have played in – last year’s, and back in the 2004-05 season where they beat Hartlepool United 4-2 (AET) to reach the second division of English football.

Before their final day of the season loss to Fulham, they had won six games back to back and will go into this weekend knowing that they have already done the double over Huddersfield this season, with all of their players, fans and staff wanting to go one better than they managed last year.