With Reading over the hills and far away the race to join them as the season reaches its conclusion is hotting up.
In this part of our guide we take a the sides that are realistically only battling to reach the play-offs, Preston North End, Cardiff City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and IpswichTown.
Preston
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They mustered a poor return of just three victories from their first ten matches, but since then they have not looked back.
With the help of their knowledgeable, young manager, Billy Davies the Lilywhites have climbed up to six place in the table, mainly thanks to an amazing unbeaten of 25 games, only recently punctured by all conquering Reading at the Madeski Stadium.
The
However, their squad has been together a long time, and has been used to success at this level. Midfielder, Paul Mckenna pulls the strings in the centre of the park while, captain, Chris Lucketti is a rock at the heart of the defence.
Preston North End remain extremely hard to beat and although their slow start put an end to any hope of automatic promotion, the play-offs remain on the horizon as the Deepdale team hope to go one better than last year.
Predicted Final Position: 6th
The Welsh side, like
Their start to the season was average, and really more akin to a side usually destined for a bottom half finish. Four wins in their opening ten matches put doubt into people’s minds, but since then their has, much like Crystal Palace and Preston North End, been a gradual move up the table.
The
Stand out victories include the 6-1 home drubbing of bottom of the table Crewe Alexandra and a narrow odd goal in three triumph over Leeds United right at the start of the season.
The emergence of young star, Cameron Jerome from the 
The side appears to play well together as a unit and seem good at grinding out important results, although it has to be said their two performances against the Golden Boys this season would seem to indicate that the play-offs may be a bit too much to ask this time around.
Predicted position: 9th
Draw specialists Wolverhampton Wanderers have had an average campaign to date following another close season of high expectation.
The Black Countrymen’s fans expect to be up in the top six, but at the moment their side only resides in eighth and this is solely down to their inability to turn draws into wins, which is in turn adding the pressure on former
The Molineux club did not start the season particularly well, gaining just four three point hauls in their opening ten matches and although remaining in contention and difficult to beat, a total of 15 matches have now been drawn.
Of these eight have ended one each, and a perceived lack of strike power, only 40 goals have been scored by Hoddle’s troops so far, has seen them remain on the periphery of the race to join the end of season jamboree.
Star player, Kenny Miller became unsettled midway through the season, culminating in him securing an end of term transfer to Glasgow and Scottish Champions elect, Celtic whilst top scorer, Carl Cort has only managed ten goals thus far. 
Wolves have an expensively assembled squad, but this year they have failed to show what they can really produce, and a position outside the play-offs would appear the most likely of outcomes. Hoddle to move on in the summer!
Predicted Final Position: 8th
After losing some of the star men to the Premiership, most notably Darren Bent, the Tractor boys have as expected not been able to repeat the heights reached last season when they were narrowly pipped by West Ham United in the play-off semi-final. 
The
Losing the likes of Bent, Shefki Kuqi and Tommy Miller left them with too huge a gap to fill up front and to compound manager, Joe Royle’s problems, two of the replacements resourced, Nicky Forster and Sam Parkin have both been struck by injuries and subsequently not fired in the necessary goals.
However, things are looking good for the
This season the play-offs would seem to be a long shot and I would be surprised if they do sneak in, but do not discount the Blues next season and they would appear to have the makings of what it takes to achieve promotion.
Predicted Final Position: 7th