Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Glenn Hoddle insists this season's apparently twosided-Championship promotion-race could still be forced wide open if the top two fail to cope with the ' mental' pressure.

Reading and Sheffield United have opened up ten and 11-point gaps respectively on third-placed Watford, while Hoddle's Wolves are even further back in seventh place, 18 points adrift of Steve Coppell's Royals and 17 behind Neil Warnock's Blades.

But, in response to Warnock's midweek gibe that Wolves should be in the automatic promotion positions themselves, Hoddle adopts a distinct 'Don't count your chickens' approach.

Although nothing is ever likely to emulate Wolves' own spectacular fall from grace, when they tossed away an 11-point advantage with seven games left to blow their prospects of promotion in the spring of 2002, Hoddle knows that it really does not take much to turn things round.

He is quick to point out that, while both Reading and Sheffield United have been in the promotion hunt over the past three years, they have fallen by the wayside. When they did challenge most strongly in 2003, it was Wolves who ended both sides' hopes in the play-offs.

"For both of the clubs at the top, it is all mental," said Hoddle. "They've both gone through it before and, if they do have a wobble, it will be interesting to see how they react.

"They're there because they have earned the right to be. No-one could forecast two teams would go ahead like that. I thought it would be nip and tuck right the way through the season but they can now both afford to lose three matches on the spin.

"I haven't seen that much between them and everyone else in the league. They are up there because of the points they've got in certain times from gritty performances and that is what you need.

"But, as a football team, they are no better than us or Crystal Palace or Southampton and a few other clubs as well who play good football.

"They have it in their own hands to mess it up. They can only throw it away and, if they do have a blip, I think that will be a bigger psychological problem for them than they would like to admit.

"If they don't, it will be a bun-fight for the play-offs but nobody in the chasing pack will give up, that's for sure."

Wolves failed their own test on Tuesday night when an under-strength side failed to break down a negative Blades outfit that was at the weakest they have been this season. But Hoddle is also confident that Wolves will have more of a chance to play a more expansive game at Molineux tomorrow against his former club, Southampton.

"I'm disappointed we did not take the three points off Sheffield United that might have put them under the microscope," he said. "But I've drawn a line under that now. We have another big game against Southampton and I'm expecting a more open game.

"It surprised us that Sheffield came and played as rigid as they did. They were the least effective team we've played at home although, in the same vein, we did not cause them enough problems.

"But Sheffield United came to stifle us, whereas Southampton will be coming here to try to win. They have had so many draws they will want the three points and it will be a different game."