Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett has admitted that he has a "gut feeling" over his side's chances of promotion out of the Championship this season.
The 42-year-old has garnered plaudits for his efforts in turning around the Blues since taking the reins at St Andrew's in October 2014, taking them from the relegation places to a 10th-placed finish in his first season.
Last term the side were in and around the playoff places for the majority of the season but results tailed off in the final couple of months and they eventually finished 10th.
Once again the club have started the new season strongly, having lost just one game so far - a 3-1 home defeat to local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers - and Rowett thinks that his squad have the capability to go one better this time.
"For me we look stronger and we look a more solid experienced unit and we've got better options," he told the Birmingham Mail.
"My gut feeling is that we can stay in the race a little bit longer, but it's a really difficult Championship.
"We've got four big players out at the moment which you can never legislate for but we've coped really well with that - Tomasz Kuszczak, Maikel Kieftenbeld, Clayton Donaldson and Robert Tesche, who would all probably be automatic picks. So we are showing much more strength in depth."
Birmingham, who are currently sixth in the Championship, next travel to Nottingham Forest when league action resumes on October 14.
Neil Wilkes
