The chase for promotion

I've played the 'Sean Dyche Mantra' card of one game at a time but it doesn't stop me even thinking of what might or might not be and at least I couldn't give any sort of answer to one person today when the dentist asked me what I thought just as he was filling a tooth.

The one thing I will say with some certainty is that Leicester are surely going to be playing in the Premier League next season. I can't see us, in second place, catching them let alone anyone else.

They came from behind to beat Blackpool on Saturday. Probably the most amazing thing there was Blackpool actually taking the lead given their recent run of results.

Leicester's run though is remarkable. They'd lost successive games when we pitched up at the King Power in December but they've not lost since. It's 13 wins and 2 draws since our draw with them and it has taken them a massive 17 points clear of third place. I think the only way they could be prevented from going up now is if the league were to be suspended for a reason I can't think of.

We're somewhere between first and third. We're seven points behind Leicester, who have a game in hand, but ten points ahead of Derby and QPR with the latter having a game in hand which they will play tomorrow night at Hillsborough.

Wigan appear to be the ones to watch. They've moved nicely into the play-off positions now after winning their last six games. If they were to win their further game in hand and beat QPR in a week's time at Loftus Road then we could find them in the position below us.

So, what our chances of going up? Good I'd say. How many points do we need? One more than the team finishing in third place would be a good start. I really have no idea but it is likely to be more than Hull mustered last year in winning automatic promotion.

There's a battle going on at the bottom too with all of the bottom three now on 29 points. Yeovil and Barnsley both lost so Charlton, who drew at Millwall, moved above them both on goal difference and within three points of Millwall who, right now, look to be the only other likely candidates for the drop with Doncaster a further seven points ahead.

Just as more points are going to be required to go up, and also to get into the play offs, then it looks almost certain that no one is going to go down this season with 54 points as Peterborough did last season.

We ended in 11th place but seven points from the last three games were needed to get us that high.

In the game before we'd lost at Leeds, the team we beat last Saturday. We were awful that night. I headlined my report 'Dismal, desperate and depressing'. Had someone told me as I left Elland Road that night that we would win 80 points from the next 39 league games I'd probably have suggested some kind of therapy for them.

I think most of us were thinking that by this time in the season we might not have too much to play for; that we were safe from any relegation fears and we could enjoy the last few games.

I didn't think I'd be concentrating too much on us in the weekly Championship review but we are there; we're centre stage and I think we are going to be now for the remainder of the season.

There'll be hiccups along the way but get strapped in for the ride, it might be a rollercoaster but we've got one hell of a chance of it coming to a stop exactly where we want it to.

The weekend results and stats are below along with the leading goalscorers, each club's red and yellow card count, the highest and lowest attendances and this week's fixtures which includes three tomorrow and a full fixture list on Saturday.