Glenn Hoddle has promised to hunt down Preston North End after Wolverhampton Wanderers' promotion rivals opened a five-point advantage.
Sixth-placed Preston's 1-0 defeat of basement club Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday night opened a potentially decisive gap over Wolves and placed further distance between themselves and the rest of the play-off pursuers. With only six games remaining, their cushion is supple-mented by a better goal difference of plus 21 to Wolves' plus 10.
But Preston boss Billy Davies has warned his play-ers "the job is far from done" while Wolves manager Hoddle refuses to budge from his view that the top-six battle will go to the wire.
After all, prior to last weekend's shock 3-1 reverse to Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves had been unbeaten in eight league games and had only lost one of the last 12.
"Preston won on Tuesday but nothing changes, " said Hoddle.
Referring to the sides' crunch match at Deepdale on Easter Monday, he added: "We have still got to play them and anything can still happen. We have got to chase them hard and put them under pressure. I have looked at their fixtures and they have some tough ones coming up."
Wolves' own fixtures, which include Watford, Coventry City, Norwich City, as well as Preston, will hardly be pushovers. However, it could be argued that with four play-off contenders and outsiders left to play, they at least have their destiny in their own hands.
