What needs to happen for Wrexham to make the Premier League

When Wrexham AFC achieved a historic third straight promotion up the EFL pyramid, pundits all across the soccer community expected Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac's club to face a rude awakening in the Championship — just one level shy of the Premier League.

Fast forward to now, and Wrexham not only proved those doubters wrong, but it also has an opportunity to achieve an unprecedented fourth straight promotion. It just won't be easy, though.

Saturday will be the final regular season match of the EFL Championship season. And as it stands now, Wrexham sits at sixth place in the standings by the thinnest of margins. While Coventry City has already achieved an automatic promotion to the Premier League, the final two promotion spots remain up for grabs in the final match day.

How Wrexham can make the Premier League

Though Wrexham is out of contention for that second automatic promotion spot, it is very much alive for the promotion play-offs. Instead of simply handing a third promotion spot to the third-place finisher, teams 3 through 6 will compete in a four-team tournament to earn promotion.

Again, the margins for Wrexham could not be thinner.

Wrexham will go into Saturday's home match against fourth-place Middlesbrough in that final play-off spot at 70 points. Hull City — also at 70 points — is just one goal behind Wrexham by differential and faces ninth-place Norwich at home. On top of that, Derby County could sneak into that sixth-place spot with a win over Sheffield United if both Wrexham and Hull were to lose or draw.

A Wrexham win should get the Red Dragons into the play-off, but goal differential could still come into play if Hull blows out Norwich. If all three teams draw, Wrexham will retain sixth place.

When are the promotion play-offs

The four-team play-off has a semifinal round that is played in two legs. Team No. 6 will host the third-place team for the first leg on Friday, May 8. The second leg will be on Monday, May 11 at the third-place finisher's stadium. The winner on aggregate score will move on to the play-off final at Wembley Stadium on May 23 against the 4 vs. 5 winner.

That final match is a single, winner-take-all game. And if Wrexham were to make it through that play-off gauntlet and win at Wembley, it will achieve a historic rise to the Premier League.