Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Paul Lambert has insisted that he is "not giving up" on the club reaching the playoff places this season.
The Midlands side have won six of their last 10 games in all competitions but are 18th in the Championship table, 14 points off the top six with 17 games of their season left to play.
Ten of those games are against teams that are currently in the top half of the table, but Lambert thinks that his side are still capable of pulling off a surprise with a late surge.
"Aston Villa are one point ahead of us and I bet you they've still got aspirations to get in there and they've spent an incredible amount of money," Lambert told the Express & Star.
"I'm not giving it up. We're playing well, we look a side that's come a long way. We'll keep vying for it and going for it. You look at the gap [to mid-table] and there's not much in it. I'll always look up and we'll see what we can do. If you look at that group from 10th there's one or two points in it.
"I think our performances deserve more than what we've got, but I've only been here since November. You've got to have a good start to the season and there's been a lot of upheaval here since then. So you've got to stabilise it and in general we'll just go as far as we can."
Wolves are about to embark upon a run of five consecutive home games, starting with the visit of table-topping Newcastle United to Molineux this Saturday.
Neil Wilkes
