One game at a time

Three points off second after the excellent 2-1 win at Deepdale tonight.

Ten games left. Five home, five away.

Six of those ten are against teams which are (in order of fixtures) currently 16th, 23rd, 12th, 19th, 11th and 21st.

The other four games are Nottingham Forest (6th) at home on April 2, Reading (8th) at home on April 22, Burnley (7th) at home on April 30 and QPR (top) at Loftus Road on the last day of the regular season will probably define Leeds United's 2010-11 season.

Twelve points from those four games should be more than enough for automatic promotion. That will not happen, in all likelihood. Therefore, another ten weeks of anxiously checking Swansea, Cardiff and Norwich results will probably ensue.

Now that that's out of my system, writing this down is a way of reminding myself to consciously try to follow this one game at a time and not constantly think too far ahead. But the run-in confirms that automatic promotion is not impossible.

Also, I'm going back to India on Saturday. The last time I did that, it was followed by three wins on the bounce. After two wins in four days, another three in a row would be extremely welcome. I am aware I'm digressing, but when it's close enough to touch, it's very, very difficult not to.