Despite the pre-season optimism, a flurry of injuries to a number of key first team players on the eve of the season meant that the expected play-off push from Preston took much longer to get off the ground than many expected.

Victory over QPR on match-day one was followed by a run of ten games without victory that left North End rooted to the foot of the table until a 4-0 rout of local rivals Wigan, and Alex Neil's side have barely looked back since.

Since that Wigan win, North End have lost just four of their subsequent 24 games, and are unbeaten in their last ten, moving them within four points of the play-offs.

It's enough to make you wonder what could have been where it not for that dismal start to the campaign.

As it is, if Preston can maintain their current form through to the end of the season, then a play-off spot is still well on the cards, and even if they don't make the top six, these last ten games will be a big indicator of just what this side could potentially do next season.

North End's run in sees them face two of the top three in Leeds and Sheffield United as well as play-off competition in West Brom and Middlesbrough, while also making trips to relegation threatened Reading and Wigan. Put simply, Alex Neil's side, as one of the division's form teams, are about to face the types of tests that a promotion hopeful would expect to face.

A good run through this end to the season would confirm many people's belief that the Deepdale side are genuine contenders for a place in the Premier League sooner rather than later, when given a fully fit side over the course of a whole season at the very least, if not taking them to the play-offs this time around.

Even if they don't make it into the play-offs, or do so but are unsuccessful in gaining promotion, the experience of being in that position of one the teams to be targeted will do North End no harm when it comes to opening a sustained season long campaign for promotion in August.

One thing is for certain, with the run of opponents Preston still have to face, Alex Neil's side will still have a huge say in the promotion race, for others if not for themselves.