Wanderers are convinced they have what it takes to book an automatic return ticket to the Premiership.

And they are convincing more and more people of their status as promotion favourites alongside league leaders Sunderland.

A scoreless draw at Birmingham yesterday was enough to put the Reebok heroes back into second spot after briefly slipping to third over the weekend and, with15 games to go, they firmly believe they can stay there.

"It's good to see that we are second again," Michael Johansen said, putting a positive spin on the St Andrew's stalemate. "If we can stay there for the rest of the season I'll be happy.

"We've played most of the teams now and I don't see why we shouldn't."

The Danish midfielder studied the Division One table and the remaining fixtures to underline his confidence.

"We only have to play Sunderland and Watford away of the top six teams and I think Bradford have a much more difficult programme than ours, so do Ipswich. They still have to come here and that's going to be a big game.

"But we just have to continue doing the business, winning our home games and, if we can't win the away games, making sure we don't lose. The team is looking very good at the moment and we are keeping clean sheets, which we weren't doing earlier in the season."

Colin Todd agreed that edging back into second position had given his players a psychological edge but he maintained his cautious stance, insisting there was still a long way to go and issuing a serious warning against complacency ahead of Saturday's home game against bottom-of-the-table Crewe.

Wanderers go into the game without Mark Fish, who has flown to Johannesburg to play in South Africa's Cup of Nations qualifier against The Gabon, and Per Frandsen, who is suspended.

"Don't be complacent because of it being Crewe," the manager said warily. "They will come to the Reebok and play. Make no mistake about that. They will come and enjoy themselves and it will be another difficult game for us. Being without Fish and Frandsen will stretch us to the limit."

Despite Sunderland opening up a 10 point lead, Todd refuses to accept that the race for the Championship is over, simply because his own players believe they can still get top spot.

"Most teams might be looking at second spot but we are looking at first," he said with an eye on the March 20 showdown at the Stadium of Light. "People are saying Sunderland can't be caught but we are still looking at that."

Birmingham manager Trevor Francis, who saw Wanderers maintain their five-point lead and game in hand over the Blues, repeated his season-long prediction: "I still think Bolton will be one of the two that go up directly!"

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