Many pundits are now framing the tussle for second place as a two-horse race, with both Sheffield United and Middlesbrough hoping to avoid competing in the play-offs at the end of the season.

Perhaps this is because of the two sides' clash last month, with Cameron Archer's brace proving to be decisive in a 3-1 win for Boro at Bramall Lane, closing the gap between the two sides with the race heating up once again last weekend as the Blades lost and Michael Carrick's side won.

With four points separating the two teams going into Paul Heckingbottom's side clash against Reading this evening, the race for second spot could go down to the wire, even though the Blades currently have a lead and a game in hand over Carrick's men.

Boro's consistency under the former England international has been superb and with the depth they have, you can certainly see them pushing for that second place-finish behind Burnley, even if they sustain a couple of injuries between now and the end of this term.

Blackburn Rovers should also be in the conversation for the top two - because they sit just six points adrift of second place at this stage and have been in good form recently - going unbeaten in their last eight league games and winning their last four.

They are also through to the last eight of the FA Cup after securing an excellent away win at Premier League side Leicester City, something that will only boost their confidence further.

And with Rovers remaining professional last weekend and standing up to the Blades' attack well, they will have one eye on automatic promotion.

This is despite the fact they really weren't expected to be in the promotion mix this season considering the strength of the sides coming down,  some key figures including Tony Mowbray and Darragh Lenihan left last summer and some new people behind the scenes came in including Gregg Broughton.

They also endured a slow start to the summer that could have affected their season, with Rovers not addressing their centre-back situation until the latter stages of the window.

Their January window was even worse, managing to secure a loan switch for Sorba Thomas but failing to address their forward department and seeing deals for Lewis O'Brien and Ethan Brierley fall through.

They have faced further adversity since then with Daniel Ayala being ruled out of action for around two months - a big blow considering he's an experienced figure at the back.

Despite the fact they have overcome this adversity to drag themselves into an excellent position, they have gone under the radar slightly because of Carrick's impact at the Riverside.

There also isn't a huge amount of pressure on them to do well considering expectations of them weren't too high at the start of the season, something the Blades and Boro should be worried about.

The latter may have endured a poor start to the campaign but with the quality they have, there were big expectations of them regardless and there's also a lot of pressure on Heckingbottom's side to stay in their current position considering they have spent much of the campaign at the top end of the table.

That pressure factor could allow Tomasson's men to march on and consign both United and Boro to a place in the play-offs, even though that's unlikely at this point.

It's definitely possible though and Blackburn's boss has even admitted that they are going to chase an automatic promotion spot, even if they aren't thinking about it too much at this point.