Tuesday's win at Blackpool will have made most of us feel a lot better. The defeat at Boro left me feeling as though an April which had looked so full of winnable matches, was turning into looking over the shoulder time.

Defeat at Blackpool would have made things somewhat uncomfortable but thanks to three expertly taken goals, and defeats for QPR, Reading and Wigan, things are looking distinctly rosy with the Rams now in the driver's seat for a third place finish.

A win against Huddersfield on Saturday and a playoff place pretty much becomes a formality. QPR, Wigan and Reading could all knock us down the pecking order, but to miss out all together, it would take one of Brighton, Ipswich and Bournemouth to win all of their last five, and us losing all five matches to pass us.

Further, a win this weekend and a third or fourth place finish is looking highly likely; Wigan or Reading would be hard pressed to overhaul us.

For me, a third or fourth place finish is important since QPR still look likely third or fourth place finishers, and they are the team to avoid in the playoff semis. They have so much experience and ability in the side; and yet I think that with the difficulty they have scoring goals, they are less of a threat in the final than over a two-match semi.

Huddersfield look eminently beatable when you look at their statistics. Going back to the turn of the year, they have four wins and three draws in eighteen League matches. They don't seem to let in an awful lot, but James Vaughan is their only player who has notched up a significant goal tally, and even he hasn't scored since November.

A long season is drawing to a close but by 5pm Saturday, things could be looking highly satisfactory. In fact, I would venture to say that the only way the Rams don't make the playoffs, is if we suddenly appointed Billy Davies as manager.

So let's allow ourselves to look ahead a bit, and say that the Rams reach the playoffs; what then?

I've heard of Rams fans asking whether we want to get promoted this year; whether another season in the Championship might leave us better equipped to face the Premier League?

There's an understandable nervousness about playing in the Premier League after the last time. There's also a feeling that most of the sides in the Prem are there to make up the numbers; a role we may not want to fill.

My take is that we have no choice; when your time comes to be promoted, you take it and be glad for it. We can't assume that this season's performance is a foundation, and next season we are certain to build and be better than we are this year. Things may not go quite so right next season.

Can we be certain that Craig Bryson will score 16 League goals from midfield next season, or that Chris Martin will score 20 plus?

What about injuries?

Buxton, Forsyth and Wisdom have hardly missed a game through injury and Keogh missed only a handful around the turn of the year; quite remarkable for a back four, and likely not repeatable.

Further forward, Hendrick and Russell have missed quite a lot of matches with injury, and Coutts has missed almost the entire season; but Bryson, Hughes, Ward, Eustace, Martin and Sammon have missed very few matches with injury. Again, it’s quite likely we would suffer more injuries than this in another year.

And what of loan players? Will we ever see two more effective loan signings than Wisdom and Bamford? An awful lot has gone right for the Rams this season, and we should not assume that all of this will repeat itself.

Whatever the future holds, Saturday's match against Huddersfield may not have the look of a historic fixture about it, but I have a strong feeling that the Rams' playoff picture might be quite a lot clearer come the end of it.

Photo: Action Images

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